You color my world (+ freebies)

Something cute I have created this weekend:

I just love when I make something for myself, designed for myself, designed to make me awww and oooh. Something that I don’t have to give away, it is MINE and I can look at it and cherish all I want :) This little book was something like that. I had a whole 20 page album planned with this theme. It was in my head since Mateus as 1 year old, but that is just too much work for the moment, so a little keepsake was the easy solution for my need to have something like this in my hands.

Now, this is a hybrid project, so there was a whole (fun) process to it, which I am getting used to and enjoying a lot. First I had to come out with a way of creating the album with layers/tabs, so I did a mock up in scrap paper, measured it, and brought it to photoshop. I wanted it to be practical and easy to print, so I planned it to be printed on two A4 pages.

It was a lot of work putting the template together, so I saved it for future albums, and I would love to share it with you. HERE is the link to the template.

Then I created my digital pages using the TuttiFrutti papers and elements by Lili:

I printed them, cut them and glued the same sized pages back to back. Then I did my favourite thing in hybrid, added buttons, ribbons and other embellishments (almost everything by doodlebug designs) and you can see the end result at the beggining of this post :)

Here was my process: template, quick pages, digital pages, printed pages with embellishments

Now, why did I create quickpages? Well, onto the big surprise :) I sent this to Lili and she suggested we give the quickpages away as a freebie.... YES! If you like this little project specifically, you can just download the quickpages HERE and add your photos and text, than it is ready to print and play. Isn’t she great? I am so excited! I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I did. I am still oooohing and awwwing at it ;)

I am off to Sydney this weekend to meet my best Aussie friend Melissa, who I haven’t seen in over a year. For those in Australia, have a great ANZAC day, and everyone else enjoy your weekend :)

ETA. You can click on all the photos on this post for larger versions available on flickr (lots more photos there too)

Quick pages or quick templates?

So, me and Lili came up with a new product idea. Designing for this lady is just too much fun! We decided to offer templates already embellished. A file with everything you need to just slot in your photos and call it done, but remember, it is a psd file, and you can change the papers, add or remove embellishments, use the paper pieces as masks, the possibilities are endless. I am so curious to see what people think of this new idea! Here are the first two in store right now:

You can buy them here.

So, didn't I mention working with Lili is fun? I am going to be away for NSD, but before I go, I will try to post an awesome freebie that Lili suggested I share with you. I hope you like it, I am too excited :)


... on a more personal note

Can you believe I have sent my two boys to childcare today??? Our time together day :( I feel bad... but I HAD to! It is their fault for not letting me do anything, right? LOL

I just REALLY needed to tidy up around the house. I have loads of laundry to go through, literally. I have put away TWO baskets of clean clothes that were around since last week, plus done two loads of washing and there are two more at least. Matty has wet his bed every day for the past 5 days, that is a lot of laundry :( There is stuff to be sorted and toys in hidden places and my scrapbooking stuff is all over the dining table.

I have someone to come and clean tomorrow but if things are not tidy she will not touch and she won’t move things to clean them, meaning that if there are toys on a little corner, they will stay there and that corner won’t get cleaned... ewww, hate that!

This week is Little Dreamer Designs 1st year birthday, they are having a sale and I am helping out with the challenges. Plus, today we have Mateus’ swimming class, and a friend came over from Brisbane so we will have dinner together. And to top it off, we are going away this weekend for ANZAC day.

So, as you can see, I HAD to send my babies away so I could organize the daily mess that THEY have created and I have not done anything about for the last week or so, and there was just no way I would let it accumulate till next week. So... that’s it, I think I am trying to convince myself it is ok... LOL

Hope you are having a great week!

DST & DAM toot

I was featured at the Digishoptalk Newsletter this month, what an honour!!! It is such a huuuuuge community and they pick one scrapper every week to be featured (thread here) and then highlighted on their newsletter (donwload here, you have to be logged in). So, of 52 scrappers picked in a year, I can say I am one of them ;)

This reminds me, I did this Quickpage pack for Sue Cummings and never posted it here. The earlier version of the page was also featured in the DST newsletter(as you can see above) so I think it is about time I post it in my own blog, right? ;)

You can find it here.


DAM
I had a layout featured at the March edition of the Digital Artist Magazine, under the trends section. Here it is:

I think maybe this rough cutout thing will be a trend in the future... maybe? I know I love to do it :) what do you think?

Fontastic!

Darcy Baldwin just rocked my world! I have wondered if I should get a font of my handwriting for a while now. I was full of excuses but suddenly just decided, oh, what the heck, it is only 10 dollars.
I HATE my handwriting, but now that Darcy created a font from it I don’t mind it so much. It is still not pretty or girly, but it is MINE, and I love that I will have a piece of me in my digital LOs. It was a great investment and such good service! Darcy made sure the special characters work for me, it is perfection! Thanks Darcy!

Quickpages vol II ~ my heart

Another set of quickpages I have created with Designs by Sue Cummings :) and since I am all “hybrid scrapbooking girl” lately, have a look at this little gift I did for a friend:













I don’t have instruction for it this time, it was a bit "involved" LOL but I have uploaded larger photos to flickr, so if you click on the images and then into "all sizes" at the top, you will be able to see more detail!

I like the result, girly enough, I don’t get to do girly often :)

2007 scrapbooking pages

How was your weekend? Mine was ok, got a couple of things out of the way, but only half of what I wanted to do get done. One, because the kids weren’t keen on giving mommy some “me time”. Two, I am sooooooo easy to get sidetracked... and that is what happened the last two days. But I digress, let’s get back to the subject at hand (told ya, sidetracked, LOL).

I am sure it happens to most scrappers. After some time you look back at some pages and don’t love them anymore. I felt the more time went buy the less are liked my first pages. However, I have not created them to stay in my computer, lost, they were hours and hours of learning and thinking and organizing and writing down my memories (and having fun while at it). So I decided these pages were important, and before I change my mind and they are lost forever (and I don’t have ANY back up of my digi pages), I made this album at Shutterfly. I didn’t think, I didn’t rewrite, I didn’t change, I didn’t correct misspellings, nothing, or else I would have changed my mind. Here it is:
Click here to view this photo book.

(EDIT: if it says the slideshow has been deleted just follow the link to the Shutterfly gallery, sometimes it works when you just refresh the page. The book is over 100 pages so it was bound to break LOL)

I spent three hours organizing my pages in chronological order, I had over 150 from 2007, so I had to shortlist it to 101 (that is the maximum at Shutterfly). It wasn’t too hard, I was impressed at how many were about me and other random things, so that went to my All About Me folder for a future album of the like (maybe when I turn 30 in December I will print that out). I uploaded the photos to Shutterfly overnight, it really took the WHOLE night, so I am happy I went to bed and I wasn’t on a hurry. Tonight I had a look and decided to spend another hour or so creating a cover with some of the pages inside the album, it ended up taking 4 hours... so hard to resize and align those little buggers, and that was using Katie Pertiet’s template, imagine if I did it all from scratch? Hope it looks all right...

Anyway, I had LOADS of pages I needed to do for my CTs, I am soooooo far behind I don't know where to start :( I have to stop being so impulsive and try to organize myself a little, I didn't even reply to all the comments on the previous post yet (thank you!). Have a great week!

My Boy - Published at DSM + Freebie Template

I finally got the April/May issue of the Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. I love the new look, more modern, and the new articles are really cool! I have a tutorial at the 3T section this month. Here is a peek:

if you can't see the credits, here they are:

Credits
Basic Boy kit by Dúnia @ DSB.
Birgit's gralpha @ Catscrap.

Cool hey? I am always thrilled to be in the spotlight, especially in such a great magazine :)

And to celebrate, here is a FREE template of the above LO, with all the shadow styles for you to use.

Hope you like it! Have a great weekend!

the view

Remember this post? and how I said I wish I had a picture to illustrate my post? well, I took one this weekend:

this is a Sunday afternoon shot, now, imagine this with the sun coming up and to the tune of "it is a beautiful day" by U2... Perfect :) and I managed to see it again today, so glad I could wake up earlier and go to work. No traffic, free parking, productive day at work, and even though I was pretty tired in the afternoon, I managed to get the shopping done and I can say the kids behaved "all right" today. So, after a fortnight, I can say today I had "a beautiful day" :) It would have been a perfect day if I could have fitted some scrapping, but hey, you can't have everything ;)how was your Thursday?

don't be fooled

Wednesdays are supposed to be a day of catching up and housework. A day to cross off stuff from the to do list and spend some time with the kids. A day I love to fit in some crafting and getting everything done early so I can go to bed early... well, not today, something happened today.... Lucas happened today!



I mean, don’t be fooled by his angel face and sweeeet smile, this boy is a handful and today he was at his worst. Just holding on to my leg and not wanting me to do anything else besides hold him (that’s sweet but I had stuff to do). He gets in between me and the computer, me and the sink, me and whatever else I am doing, physically he gets in front of me and keep trying to pull himself up. To top it off, he is getting into mischief non stop, he keeps trying to get things and get into places he is not supposed to. Ok, what else did he do today:

Unrolled the toilet paper, two seconds that I went to get Mateus’ underwear and left the door open he got in and unrolled the toilet paper all over the place.

Emptied his juice bottle/ his milk bottle/ his water bottle on whatever surface he was on (including cot and carpet) Spilled juice everywhere, I go chasing around him wanting to grab the bottle from him, and he wails when I do. I try to make him understand he can’t turn it upside down and shake it LOL but yeah, half the time I have to take it away from him :(

Spread muffin crumbs through the WHOLE house, including his bedroom and the bathroom, and he did an especially good job in the sofa, sticking the crumbs in between the cushions.

He didn’t nap today, he cried most of the time he was tired. I tried to put him down and even lay down with him, but he only rested for 20 minutes, tops.

He had 1/5 of his lunch and proceeded to want mine and then spit it out after the third spoon full. Have I mentioned he is especially skilled at spitting things out? He makes sure there is no way you can reach the food before it reaches your clothes!

I love the little guy, but he is getting on my nerves, and the little brat has his way with me, he gets a lot of what he wants with complimentary kisses from me, grrrr.

Mateus, to balance it off, was a little angel today. He gave me a little trouble to finish off lunch, but other than that I can’t complain, especially while Lucas is on the house, I can’t complain LOL
When Alex arrived I begged him to take them away, I just needed an hour to tidy up. Gosh! Please tell me I am not crazy, do your kids sometimes get on your nerves so bad you just want time out?

Family photos

I was going to post these yesterday but it got too late, and today I decided to make a page with them :) so I guess it worked out for the best, right? Here it is:

Credits
Jenna Desai’s family word bits, whimsical swirls and frame(family).
Jackie Eckles walkabout papers and Jack Font.

Because of these photos I dashed to the store to get a remote control for my camera. I don't want to be running around like I did this day. It was crazy enough my camera was on a branch, LOL.

Ok, I am going to bed, tomorrow I'll post this one in the galleries ;) Hope everyone is having a great week, mine is starting to look up! (that happens when I scrap hehehe)

Photos and pro flickr

I had to go pro at flickr, because I had way too many photos LOL, I am having such a hard time selecting photos, I can’t just go, ok, THIS ONE is my favourite of the bunch... my kiddos are too cute ;)

However, I managed to pick a favourite for this afternoon (last weekend of March), one of Lucas:

But then there were many others I loved:

The tree:

Mateus:

More Lucas:


My boys just have so much fun, ALL the time:


Love them to bits:

Oops, it is so late, past midnight, I am heading to bed and will post the rest of the photos tomorrow. I have been losing the battle against the bad routine and the kids kept me awake last night, It was so bad I barely worked today, fingers crossed I get some sleep and get to work early tomorrow :)

Hope you are all having a great week.

four

Tagged by Jackie Eckles

It is not every day you are tagged by someone you admire so much ;) So I thought I better do it LOL

Four Jobs I’ve held:
Tourist Information officer
Sales Manager at MTV
Tourism Researcher
Publishing officer

Four movies I could watch over and over:
*soooo many, maybe the top of the list include:
Lord of the Rings
Neverending Story (the first one)
Indiana Jones
Star Wars

Four places I have lived:
Born in Cuiabá - Brazil
São Paulo - Brazil
Bournemouth - England
Live in Canberra - Australia

Four TV shows I like:
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
House
BattleStar Galactica

Four people who email me regularly:
Sônia Filó *mom in law*
Aninha Reis (she’s a doll!)
Suzana *my sister* (not half as much as I would like)
Lanne (poor thing *answers* me regularly LOL)

Four favorite foods:
*that changes all the time, right now it is:
Ham+ salad roll from Subway
Sushi&Sashimi
Caesar Salad
Filet Mignon with mustard sauce by hubby

Four places I’d rather be:
Right here at home, there is no place like home
Right here in front of this computer, to be more specific.
Maybe in bed (no, that’s where I should be!)
Japan, I would love to visit Japan :)

Four people to tag:
Katrina
Kellie
Jenn
Lanne

I tried to get 4 people that LIKE to blog :) but I have no clue if you girls like these things, LOL

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, mine is all fnished *cries* I wanted more LOL

Blog muito bom sim senhora

*tagged in portuguese, sowy!*

A Aninha Reis disse que o meu blog é “blog muito bom sim senhora” rsrs. Obrigada Ana, que honra, fiquei toda toda quando vi a indicação no seu blog.

Bom, agora é a minha vez né? Deixa eu passar as regras:
1- Esse prêmio devemos atribuir aos blogs que gostamos e os quais visitamos regularmente e postamos comentários!
2- Ao receber o selo “é um blog bom sim senhora!!” devemos escrever um post incluindo: o nome de quem nos deu o prêmio com o respectivo link de acesso + a tag do prêmio + a indicação de outros 7 blogs.
3- A tag do prêmio deve ser exibida no blog!

Então, escolher só sete é que foi difícil, 80% das vezes que visito um blog eu não deixo comentário por falta de tempo rsrs. Também parece que todo mundo já recebeu o selo, então tem gente que vai ganhar de novo:

Cantinho da Bagunça

Colorida Vida(Feliz Aniversário Ana)

Gabi Butcher

Designs by Lili

Cravo e Canela (Feliz Aniversário Daniel!)

Blog do Yuri e a galera (melhoras aí Dúnia)

E agora vou trapacear rsrsrs em sétimo vou colocar três blogs que eu acabei de adicionar na minhas lista de blogs, não visito faz muito tempo, mas são ótimos:

Scraps by Léa

Casa da Daniela

Carina Schirrmann

Ainda tinham mais alguns blogs como da Aninha Amorim, Carla Reis, mas elas estão dando um tempo. Também leio o blog da Dani Alencar, mas ela tá escrevendo em inglês (..... e daí né? rsrsrs)

(Caraca, esse post tava pra sair faz teeeempo!!!Aqui em casa tá uma confusão com os meninos tendo piripaque, mas nada sério, tá tudo bem!)

Espero que o final de semana esteja sendo ótimo :)

Last LOs of March

so good to be doing my "double" pages again :)