Happy 80th Birthday Mum

My lovely Mum Therese is 80 today

I’ve been busy scrapping a book for her which she’ll see late Thursday but heres a sneaky preview for you courtesy of www.animoto.com  – just don’t give the game away if you speak to her!

Happy 80th Birthday Mum

I made an album for my Dad when he was 80 and thats essentially how I got started with scrapbooking.

Sort of lost my mojo with hubby’s illness so didn’t really know where to start with Mum’s pages – all I can say is thank goodness for templates – a used many gorgeous ones from www.Scrapgirls.com  and www.HappytoCreate.com  and produced this book in less than 2 weeks

Thats the beauty of templates – you simply can’t beat them for speed.

You can have a look at some of my templates designs here at My Memories – oh, and there is currently 25% off all of my templates

Feedback on Mums album and my templates always welcome!  Oh, and don’t forget to scroll down for yesterdays freebie!

Yay, I lost 3.4lb this week!!!

Ok, so I didn’t really do anything much different this week.  I’d been jogging along losing 2lb a week or therabouts since starting my weight loss journey.  Then, out of the blue the scales showed this comparatively massive loss on Saturday.

Still burning the midnight oil getting my store populated at My Memories, still working full time, still supporting hubby with his doctors appointments.   Still carefully watching everything that I eat and keeping within my calorie allowance. 

The only thing I did any different is I started taking a CoQ10 supplement in a high dose 2 weeks ago.  Its supposed to increase the efficiency of the cells engines or mitochondria and thus help burn fat.  I don’t know whether thats what has made the difference but what the heck, who cares?  3.4 lb is 3.4 lb and I’m no longer toting it around.

My total to date is 17.4lb in 9 weeks so I’m feeling smug.  While its hardly the biggest loser it is going in the right direction.

Hubby is coming up with different low cal meals for me each evening – last nights offering had flags of spinach speared in a cherry tomato as garnish for seasoned lemon sole, pineapple, peppers stuffed with couscous and cucumber with spicy relish – it was really delicious and made me smile too – thanks for being so considerate Vince xxx

Here are some of the Kits and templates I made over the weekend – they’ll be in store over at My Memories in the next few days.

This is my new Dove Kit

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and a couple of ‘Firsts’

Nathans First Day at School

and Nathan’s First Bike 

Don’t forget there is still time to win a copy of the My Memories Suite V2 software.  Just leave a comment on my blog post here and I’ll be chosing the winner at random on October 1st.

You can increase your chances of winning the My Memories Suite Software by liking my Facebook page and by leaving a comment on one of my pictures  in my Facebook Photo Gallery.  Good luck!

let me know what you think of the new kit……

Happy scrapping

Granny’s Quilt

Now my Grandma didn’t have a creative bone in her body.  We would spend hours talking and playing cards but I don’t have a single memory of doing anything vaguely creative with her. 

My Nana on the other hand was  a very crafty lady,  She knitted and crocheted – her hands were always busy even when they were crippled with arthritis. 

 I still treasure the blankets she made so lovingly for me.

In my minds eye Grandma did quilt though.  She stitched and sewed the pieces of her life into a real treasure stretched out before me.

But, bless them both, I think my creative genes have come the Riley route rather than the Whitehead one.

So, my dear departed grandmothers, Grandma Ellen Whitehead and Nana Emily Riley, this ones for you
  – my Granny’s quilt series of templates which you can find over at My Memories. 

And the colour?  Why, Pink, to make the boys wink as Grandma always used to say!

 Thats for starters anyway, there are plenty more colourways to suit everyone coming soon to a store near you.

And the lovely lady in the picture, is not my gran but my Dad’s sister Margaret.

The Whitehead Girls

You can see Grandma Ellen here in the Whitehead Girls

left to right my Mum Therese, Auntie Joan (D), Grandma Ellen (D) & Auntie Winnie

And here’s Nana, Emily at her 90th birthday party with her children

left to right Aunty Fran, Nana (D), Auntie Margaret, Auntie Mollie, Dad Peter, Uncle Jim (D)

Seeing this picture again has put me in mind of pictures of the siblings as children in the 1930’s, but thats for another day!

Have fun whatever you are doing this weekend and don’t forget to check out yesterdays post for the My Memories scrapbooking Software givaway

Talking Templates

I love love love templates  – been designing them for Artscow for the last 12 months so I know you love them too.

Thats what really appealed to me about My Memories.  As well as kits they sell templates.

So what you ask? They’re just quickpages under another guise.

Quickpages have been around for years I hear you say.  Yes, they have.  I started out scrapping with them myself so I’m familiar with the pleasure and pain of quickpages – fast, simple, instant gratification.  But always always theres an element smack bang in the wrong place or the colours are just a little off with your picture or there are too many/not enough picture appertures.

Step in the template – all the advantages of a quick page but none of the pain – thats why they are so so popular. 

Because a template is adaptable.  Its a layered file that you can change and adapt to your own best fit – move elements, resize, duplicate, remove them completely or even add your own – howzat!

I’ll show you what I mean using my Weathered Floral Template Set.

Heres the original template with 3 appertures.  Kind of pretty with a seasidy theme with the shells.

Heres my first use of the page leaving everything as it is and just dropping some holiday vacation photos in.  Easy peasy and done in seconds.

But what if I don’t have 3 pictures?  What then?  Well, you can simply just remove one of the frames and resize the others and you get something like this.

But don’t just think seaside.  You can use this template for all sorts of other occasions by removing the sea shells (which you can find in my simply seashells kit) and adding in your own favourite elements.

This time I used a family wedding picture and added a word art from my Winter White  Simply Words collection.  To finish off I recoloured the mat to tie in with the photo and voila, a completely different look. How versatile is that?  Now I happen to like my layouts fairly uncluttered but with My Memories software you can import as many additional elements as you like and add journalling or extra frames.  They really are limited only by your imagination.

So there you are, 3 completely different looks from 1 single template. And that’s why I love templates – speed scrapping and versatility at its best

happy scrapping

Cat x

ps, if you don’t have software that supports layers you can still use the page as a quickpage!

Did I really start blogging 2 years ago?

Everything changes but then again everything stays the same.

So whats changed and whats stayed the same?

Well, I’m still here, still battling with my weight and still designing.  Not blogging – but you don’t have to be brain of Britain to work that one out!

And whats changed?   

Drum roll please………..

I’m signed up with My Memories now so its possible to buy my designs outside artscow or my website for the first time ever – yippee! 

I’m beyond excited and keeping really busy with uploading my existing kits and a smattering of new content – of course it’s all new to My Memories customers.

I skirted round the edges of selling my design kits direct for simply ages.   Then I had a conversation with a friend who really set me thinking and I sent my resume off to My Memories  that evening – thanks for the  inspiration David, I needed a push in the right direction.  

So, to celebrate my new design venture I am giving away a $10 coupon off the My Memories Suite V-2 software, plus a further $10 coupon for downloads once you buy the software – that’s $20 value in all.

Just hop over to My Memories, pop the software into your cart and apply the discount coupon 

STMMMS26788

at the checkout.  Then you can browse all the lovely goodies and spend your $10 on freebie content to get you started!

You can download the software to your pc straight away so no hanging around waiting for the postman

The software is really user friendly and easy to use and there are lots of tutorials available on line if you get a little stuck

I’ve got lots of goodies ready to launch and a few on the site already including my Babylove Kit

You can also watch out for Purple Heart – its going live in a couple of days.

If you’re pushed for time and want some ready made pages there are lots of templates coming soon too – just drop in your own photos and no one will know you didn’t do all the work yourself!

Happy scrapping

Cat x