New freebie Card Template

Hi all, hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving, on to Christmas now :)

Lachlan's first birthday party was wonderful... not sure how many more things could go wrong in the preparation though .... the hot water tap in the shower needed a special tool to fix after leaking solidly for two weeks, it rained so hard the patio area of Bec and Chris's house flooded which was where the party was going to be held, the tap in the kitchen split... I have never seen this before, the metal tap just split open and was spraying water out everywhere when you turned it on, the lollypops I made melted in the humidity, the jellies melted as well, the blue butter icing for the cake turned out green and curdled so we had to buy frosting from Spotlight, spent a fortune and only needed half the amount so we have a full tub of orange flavoured blue icing ready to be used! LOL , the wet dogs sat on three of the chairs we wanted to use for the visitors so were filthy... fortunately we had taken 12 chairs with us, so not so much of an issue! Steve didn't cope well with not being the center of attention and so was exceptionally loud! especially afterwards when we were all exhausted !  and.... and... well you get the idea!

After the party was over Bec gave Lachlan the remainder of the cake for a "Cake Smash" . Never heard of this before, but apparently it is becoming quite popular.... you let the child loose and then take heaps of photos!.... Lachlan had a ball .... I suggested they run a bath beforehand so it was ready when he was finished, and, bless him, once he had had enough, he just crawled off into the bathroom, leaving a little blue path behind him. Too, too cute!

isn't he just the cutest ever!

and then... got back home and no internet as we had more than used up our measly allowance so no freebie for you til today!

I have a basic Christmas card for you today, one you can add to if you wish, but will work just as is... a great way to get some mass produced cards cut and ready to go!

I embossed my writing bu using red ink and the UTEE which made it a little more substantial. This is a very fine font so cut slowly! I also added Kindy Glitz to the tree and the trunk to make them sparkle. The ribbon is a gold thread, just doesnt show up very well in the pic.

Link to download HERE . Formats include AI , GSD , KNK , MTC , PSD, SVG and WPC . Please leave a comment if you download, I really appreciate them all!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

Time for a new Card Template freebie!

Hi all, hope you are enjoying your weekend wherever you are! If you live in the US, I guess you are madly preparing for Thanksgiving ? We are getting organised for Lachlan's first birthday party, I cannot believe a year has almost past since this gorgeous boy entered the world!

I have another new Card Template freebie for you today but firstly I need to answer a question posed a couple of times in comments from last weeks post. A Peacherine is a cross between a Nectarine and a Peach... has the smooth skin of a nectarine but the yellow yummy tasting flesh of a peach! I love them so am really disappointed that the only tree not to wake up from Winter is this one. In our grocery stores now you buy yellow nectarines (my peacherine) or white nectarines which are the normal nectarines. Every one in the family loves nectarines except me... I'll eat them but just would not choose one over the other. Oh well... there's always next year.

and so on to our freebie.... This is my Card Template 11. I have used a digital stamp image from Dustin Pike on the front of my card, but it lends itself to embellishing, or other digital or physical stamps.

Unfortunately the arrow is not included as it came from Shelly's Art from Paperthreads but I am sure that if you wanted to add an arrow you could find one in the basic shapes of your cutting software.

Link to download Card Template 11 HERE
Link to download layered SVG's HERE . Please leave a comment if you download, these are what make working on freebies worthwhile!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

a note: Freebie Card Template for next week will be late as I am going to attend my grandson's birthday party and so will be wayyyy toooooo busy :)  I'm sure you understand !

Our vege garden and a New freebie!

Yesterday was my **nd birthday LOL and I had a pretty good day! Gary and Nicholas got together and made lunch and dinner, which was a wonderful present and Stevie gave me a handmade card inside a handmade little bag :)  just perfect!

We also got outside and took heaps of pics of our vege garden and fruit trees that we have planted this year. The fruit trees have all taken off bar one, which of course happens to be my favourite fruit.. Peacherine! oh well, hopefully it will "wake up" at some stage and next year I will munching yummy fruit.

Just makes you wanna go out and pick something yummy to eat :)

and your reward for staying with me through my Gallery of eats....

Another Card Template Freebie! This is my Card Template 5. I have to say that I am over the moon with the reaction to my posting Card Template freebies... more comments than I ever received for my digital scrapbooking kits (for the most part) and reading those comments just makes my day! so THANKS to those of you that take the time to make me feel good! I appreciate it.

In my version of this card I have used a digital stamp by Shelly from Paperthreads. He is called Manny Monkey and can be found HERE .

You will also see, when you download the file, that I have rotated the mat to fit this cute little monkey! .

Link to download Card Template 5 HERE Link removed. Formats included in download - PNGs, AI, DXF, GSD, KNK, MTC, PSD, SVG, SCAL2, and WPC . I am very new to all this converting thing so if  you need a format and it doesnt work for some reason, please let me know so I can learn from the issues that may arise.

Please leave a comment if you download, it only takes a minute and really is the highlight of my day!

Have a wonderful day wherever  you are!

I'm a Winner and Lachlan's Album

oooh! very exciting, I won the Scarecrow Challenge over at Cuttin' Up With Class and got a cute badge to put on my Blog... my very first :)

I have been working on a huge project for Rebekah and Chris to celebrate Lachlan's first year. I cannot believe that he is almost a year old now. This album started out life as a mini 4" x 4.5" and just kept growing.. a bit like Lachlan! The finished item has a cover of 5" X 10" and I have gone from 1" ring to 2" rings to hold it all together. In this day of iPhones and Facebook  and so on, not many photos are taken with an actual camera and certainly not many are printed out to share. I had to source these pics from phones, Facebook and my little supply I had on my camera. It has been a lot of fun creating this album and I really hope that Chris and Bec love it.

The album is made up of little pockets with tags in and other pockets that just hold pictures. The tags have photos attached or spots for journaling and I have added in extra pockets and journal spots in case they have extra pics I missed or want to add their own thoughts. The whole album was cut on my KNK Maxx, even the covers, which are paper covered cereal boxes. I had to purchase a Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes in the spine, but what a perfect reason to make the buy LOL

As well as my own designs for the album, I used a couple of cutter files from Chris Durnan and Jan Bryson from Visual Designs by Chris and The More Team! . From Chris I used CD00413 - Tab Book and CD00665 - Just a Pocket (can't find this one in the Store yet) and from Jan, JB00212 - Itty Bitty File Tabs and JB00486 - Joy Fold Card .

Supplies:

DCWV - Cardstock
Little Yellow Bicycle - Snugglebug range  Journal spots and Rub-on
Creative Memories and Xyron - Memorabilia Pockets
Brandcorp - brads and photo tabs
Cre8tiv - paper, word stickers and chipboard Alpha
Dotty's Craft Shop - Alpha
My Imagination - Ribbons
Kaiser Scrapbook - stamps
Versa Color - stamp pads
Ranger - Archival ink pad
Creative Memories - corner rounder and pens
Xyron - "X" , 2.5", 5" and 9" Sticker Makers
Scotch ATG gun and Magic tape
Glue Glider Pro

and these are just a few pages :)  I am so pleased with the way it turned out... what do you think ?

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

New Freebie - Card Template 1

Another freebie for you this week, my Card template 1. In my example I have not used a couple of the cutter files but they are included in all but the WPC file. Zip includes a strip where I have ribbon, and a circle, a flower and a button where I have my flower and button. Stitching is included in the PSD and PNG formats but not as a cutter file.

Link to download HERE Link removed. Zip includes PNG, AI, DXF, KNK, MTC, PSD, SVG, SCUT2, WPC formats

Please come back and leave a comment if you download, it only takes a moment of  your time.

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

CUWC Scarecrow Challenge

Came across this Blog - Cuttin' Up With Class and discovered they are holding a Scarecrow challenge. I love Scarecrows so had to take part. I asked for the cut files and then decided I wanted to play around in Photoshop with my "Actions" collection and this is what I came up with. The actions are from Atomic Cupcake and include "felt" for his hat, "plastic" for his shoes, "frayed" for his trousers and shirt and "crumpled" for his face. He turned out really cute I think!

Digital kit is mine. Thanks for looking !

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

Trying out a new recipe

This evening we decided to try out a new recipe from the latest issue of Recipes+ (available from Woolies). This one was called Bacon and Egg Pie.

There are four eggs on the top, the recipe called for six!! but I had to cover one with a spinach leaf as it was leaking out of the side of the pie.

Recipe:

Serves 6
Prep: 30mins
Cooking Time: 1 and 1/2hrs plus cooling

2 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry, thawed (I used puff cos I read it wrong!)
1 tsp oil
4 green onions. thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (mine came out of a jar)
175gm bacon, rind removed, chopped
6 eggs lightly whisked, plus 6 extra (I will leave these off next time)
3/4 cup cream
100gm grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise (I only had proper ones so I diced two)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
50gms baby spinach leaves (we used baby silverbeet leaves out of our vege garden)
Steamed mixed veges to serve (we had a baked spud)

1. Preheat  oven to 180 C/160 C fan forced. Grease a 20cm springform pan. Gently press pastry sheets into the pan, overlapping the centre. Trim edge (allow some to fall over the edge and then trim as it shrinks whilst cooking). Prick base with a fork. Bake for 15 mins or until light golden brown (mine took about 25mins but that could be cos I used the wrong pastry sheets LOL) . Reduce oven to 160 C/140C fan forced.

2. Heat oil in a large frying pan over mod high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook and stir for 3 mins or until softened. Add bacon, cook and stir for 3 mins or until golden and cooked. Transfer to a large heatproof bowl and let cool.

3. Add whisked egg, cream, tomato, cheese and spinach to bacon mixture in bowl. Season. Stir well to combine. Pour into cooked pastry case. Crack the extra eggs onto the top of the mixture, taking care not to break the yolks. (I managed 4 but the last one overflowed) Bake for 55-60mins (I had to sit mine on a tray at it had overflowed and it took about 1 1/2 hrs to cook) or until set and light golden. Stand for 5 mins. Slice then serve with steamed veges.

Verdict: YUM YUM!

This evening Steve and I had a play with LUGZ. Ever heard of them... me neither but we have a box full :)  The idea is to create layered creatures, people, buildings, using the LUGZ to hold them together. The LUGZ are magnetic and slotted. So you join the LUGZ together and then slide the pieces you want to play with into the slots and build up your creation.

Here is a picture of Steve very proudly showing off his creations!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

PS  let me know if you try the recipe!