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Freebie Friday – Jack & Jill [October PixelScrapper Blog Train]

4 October 2019 7 Comments

I can’t believe it’s October and I have no idea what’s happened to most of 2019. Seriously, one second I’m up the duff, the next I’ve got a tiny baby, and now my tiny baby is really not so tiny anymore! Not to mention Thing 1 and Thing 2 going about their daily little lives, and my awesome husband being awesome (even if he does suck at stacking the dishwasher).

I’m hoping things will settle soon, but it’s October, I have my eldest son’s 7th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks and then BOOM – we start preparing for Christmas.

On the up side, in around 3 weeks I can whip out my Christmas playlists and drive everyone bonkers until December 26th, when it’s no longer acceptable to listen to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas (Is You) for 12 hours straight.

Enough about me, onto the downloads!

This month’s blog train is titled Jack & Jill, a delightfully whimsical nursery rhyme theme. I love those big vintage nursery rhyme books, and I have quite a few floating around my bookshelves. Admittedly my kids are more into stories about butts and zombies than they are about Jack & Jill and Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary, but I’m ever hopeful that one day they’ll be intrigued by the gorgeous illustrations and simple rhymes. In the meantime, it’s more childish toilet humour for me!

I’m keeping it short and simple this month – and hopefully in the future because I just get way too enthusiastic and end up with way too much of everything – with a mini kit and a set of journal cards created using illustrations from an old Mother Goose book.

Check it out the super cute submissions here. You can get mine by clicking on the previews below to start your download. As usual, freebies are for personal use only.

Happy scrapping!

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Freebie Friday – Renaissance Faire [PixelScrapper September Blog Train]

13 September 2019 2 Comments

I was really excited when I saw the theme and colour scheme for the September blog train at Pixel Scrapper. I’m a supreme history geek. Especially the romantic, idealised version of history you find at faires.

We don’t have many of them in Australia. I only just attended my first last year – and it was amazing. We went this year too. Google tells me there’s a big one up in Queensland, so I’ll have to check that one out when I find the time to ditch my kids and go on a holiday. Blisfully alone.

Anyway, the subject matter called to me and I ended up with a lot of stuff. Between school drop-offs, piles of laundry, meal planning, homework, 15 minute naps (wtf, kid?) and keeping my darling children alive, I photoshopped until I could photoshop no more!

Actually, I ended up with a pretty impressive kit and it was already mid September, so I figured I’d stop.

I weeded out some cute brads and papers for this week’s freebie for the blog train. (Click on the image to download the zip file.)

This is the full result of my labours, which you can get at my Etsy shop:

Happy scrapping!

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Freebie Friday – Bohemian Rhapsody [Pixel Scrapper August Blog Train]

16 August 2019 No Comments

It’s halfway through August and I’m already behind on life.

At least I got to create this mini kit before the custard hit the fan.

Happy scrapping!

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Freebie Friday – Winter in the Tropics [Pixel Scrapper July Blog Train]

28 June 2019 6 Comments

I find that lately I have less and less time to do things. Little things that I’d like to do, like shower and eat and drink that cup of tea that’s been sitting, forgotten, on the kitchen counter since breakfast. (And I’d absolutely love to go to the loo by myself and when I want to, but I understand that’s at least two years off.)

So scrapbooking and designing has been flung straight off my to-do list. Hopefully it’ll slowly creep back on as baby Thomas grows older and (hopefully) starts sleeping on surfaces that aren’t me.

I do have a few things in reserve, and when my husband isn’t at work, on occasion I’ll fling the baby his way, pop on my very dated playlist (Backstreet Boys, anyone?) and bring up Photoshop. Then I have to remind myself how to use it – I’m rusty, you see. And my creativity seems to have buggered off with my brain. But I push myself and occasionally pretty things result.

Here is one such small, random collection of pretty things. It’s not quite a kit, but it has elements of one. I’m sure some of them will go nicely with the rest of the July blog train. It’s a beautiful one!

Happy winter!

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Freebie Friday – Storytelling [Pixel Scrapper June Blog Train]

31 May 2019 10 Comments

Once upon a time – a very long time ago – I used to write. I wrote a mystery novel when I was fifteen (it sucked), I dabbled in poetry during the HSC (which also sucked). I journalled. I spent my uni years writing gloriously clichéd fanfiction (mostly to avoid the endless essay writing).

I drifted away from writing stories – due to a lack of time, motivation, inspiration – to documenting my stories visually, mostly through photographs and scrapbooks.

Maybe one day I’ll write some more …

Everybody has a story to tell – might as well make it pretty!

Happy storytelling!

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Freebie Friday – Spring Clean [Pixel Scrapper May Blog Train]

4 May 2019 15 Comments

The best thing about living down under is having everything upside down and backwards. Those crazy people in the northern hemisphere are bursting joyfully into spring as we Aussies are in the middle of weather that’s somewhere between summer and autumn and yet is neither – or both at once if we’re really lucky. Just when I think it’s time to whip out my cute cardigans, the temperature creeps back up and the weather says “I don’t think so, mate!”

So the ‘spring’ portion of this month’s blog train will come later on in the year (unless we skip spring again and go straight to summer, like we did last year – weather is whacked around here, yo), but I’m definitely feeling the ‘clean’ portion. Even if my place currently looks like the before picture in a KonMari article.

Anyway, onto the pretty things! Below you’ll find a mini kit, perfect for documenting your clean home (or not-so-clean, I’m not here to judge!), and a bonus alpha.

Happy scrapping (and cleaning)!

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Freebie Friday – Umbrella Weather [PixelScrapper April Blog Train]

5 April 2019 14 Comments

I was wrong.

I didn’t have 3 weeks – or even 4. Rather, my waters ruptured a day after my last blog post and I ended up in hospital waiting to hit 37 weeks so we could safely evict my impatient little pork chop. Four very long and dull days in hospital later, baby Thomas rocked up a whole 20 days early, perfectly healthy and cute as a button.

As you can imagine, the last month has been absolutely crazy and, with the early unexpected arrival, I didn’t get much of an opportunity to get things done. Now, with a baby who prefers to sleep on mummy rather than in his cot, I’m attempting to be productive while holding a baby!

(For the record, Photoshop is very difficult to work with one-handed. I have to work through the menu and mouse rather than use all those nifty short cuts. So frustrating! #firstworldproblems)

Here’s a mini kit I managed to make while juggling a baby:

Happy scrapping!

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Freebie Friday – Mardi Gras [PixelScrapper March Blog Train]

1 March 2019 10 Comments

It would seem that I somehow missed Christmas and the new year and skipped straight to March. So, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day!

In my defence, it’s been crazy and, while technically the last two months just flew by, they’ve also been the longest of my life (at least since the last time I was pregnant, of course).

I’m now only 4 weeks away from meeting my tiny new baby (although my bets are closer to 3 weeks), and I have all the time in the world and so much to do and absolutely can’t be bothered doing any of it because I’m freaking huge, it’s ridiculously hot and humid, and I’m pretty sure this kid will grow up to be a gymnast.

So in between attempting to Marie Kondo my house and napping every half hour, I’m trying to build up a stash of scrap stuff to share and sell. No guarantees, of course, and I can’t say that I won’t disappear for a couple of months again, but I will try!

In the meantime, I’m getting into the groove with a paper pack for the March PixelScrapper blog train, Mardi Gras (go on and check out the other submissions; they’re gorgeous). I just love the colour scheme and couldn’t resist all those jewelled tones. The pack comes with 7 solids, 7 shimmery foils and 15 abstract geometric patterns.

Happy scrapping!

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Freebie Friday – Retro Holly Jolly [PixelScrapper December Blog Train]

7 December 2018 8 Comments

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. It’s a crazy, stressful, chaotic time – but boy, is it fun!

The tree is decorated, the presents are haphazardly piled up and waiting to be wrapped (I’ll get to it eventually), and my kids are pretty sick of hearing “All I Want For Christmas (Is You)” fifty times a day.

It’s also hot, humid and gross – perfect Aussie Christmas weather!

And it wouldn’t be a celebration without the Pixel Scrapper December blog train! It’s an amazing collection this year, and my contribution is a cute little mini kit, with a few extras to follow in the weeks up til Christmas.