GRUNGE ME!

I have put together a new brush set. (photoshop brushes) + pngs I have been wanting to do this one for quite a while and finally I managed to make some time to do it!

I have decided to make this one ok for commercial use, as I know how much I love using grunge brushes on my kits. I figure there will other designers out there who like to do the same! Anyway, click on the preview to go direct to the set in store. There are more details about the kit there.

Most Embarrasing Moment..

Ok, I am going to bear all since I have done another layout.. one of these days I must get some done of my KIDS! They are the whole reason I took up scrapbooking, but we keep having challenges that are about ourselves so that is what I end up scrapbooking. My latest kit, Eclectic Inspiration is perfect for layouts about Jaz, so I must do some of her, and a few more of Kyan.. I need to do another boy kit!

Anyway, I used Eclectic Inspiration for my latest layout. We had a team challenge to scrap our most embarrasing moment, I have had others that may even be more embarrasing but they escape me at the moment…probably a good thing!

Anyway, here it is..

Click on the layout to view the journalling at the CD Gallery.

Crafty Girl!

Jasmine is getting so creative and just loves to draw and paint, and another thing she love to do is sew. They learnt how to do sewing at pre-prep, by sewing wool onto some hession, in a random manner. Jasmine absolutely loved doing it so we brought home some hession for her and got her some wool so she could do it at home.

Well she soon got bored with just sewing randomly on the hession, so I drew circles on the hession for her to follow, which she did beautifully. Then of course the natural progression was HEARTS! Of course! So I did some hearts on some hession and she sewed the outline of them as well. She did them so well and she wanted to do something new and decided she wanted to do a flower, so I drew a flower on some hession this time and not only did she sew the outline of the flower but she did some decorative ‘colouring in’ as well.

She amazes me every day with her new talents and skills. I took a photo of her artwork to share!

Her next project is a butterfly… of course! She has drawn her own butterfly this time but hasn’t finished it yet. She is off taking photos with her camera at the moment. LOL Mummy finally got her act together and charged the battery for her!

Reflections

We are now holding in house challenges for the Creative team members at CD since they are not eligible for prizes in the forum challenges. I thought it would be a good way to have a bit of fun amongst ourselves. We are taking it in turns hosting them..the winner of a challenge hosts the next one..I hosted the first one and the theme was ‘Reflections’. You could incorporate it any way you want, and I decided to do a photo of a reflection of myself and do a layout from that. I did this a few weeks ago but it has taken me this long to post it.
It really was quite comical, me in front of the mirror trying to get this shot with my SLR (yes it is a single photo). I should have got out the tripod or something but I chose to make it difficult for myself.. or is that lazy? Anyway, I should have narrowed the aperture but I was lazy and had it in portrait mode, so the profile is out of focus, but I still quite like how it turned out.

If you want to read the journalling, check it out here.

Finally some more kits!

I have been working on a kit for WEEKS now, over a month for sure.. just don’t have the time to devote to it anymore as much as I would love to! Anyway, I finally got this kit finished which as inspired by some artwork that Jasmine did. I scanned it and played with it and was able to make some gorgeous patterns which I turned into background papers. There is lots of Jasmine in this kit, the colours and the elements of her favourite things. It was a fun kit to make.

I had made some brushes to include with the kit, but the kit ended up so huge I made them into a seperate add-on. As an introductory offer for one week, you can get the brushes for only $1 with the purchase of the kit. (coupon code: Inspiration)

And the Bonnie Babes charity kit is no longer available as a collaborative mega kit so I have added my portion of the kit to the store.

In perparation for my returning to the workforce I have been doing some store upgrades.. took many hours more than I had hoped but it will mean our designers can upload their own kits, which will make things quicker for them as they will no longer have to wait for me to upload them, and it will be one less thing for me to do when I will have even less free time! I am hoping to upgrade the forums soon too.. I need to do that before I start working as I want to get it out of the way while I can. The upgrades have provided some cool little features for the store, why not check them out. I am soooo loving the hover feature. Hold you mouse over the images in the store and you will see what I mean. It now also looks much prettier and co-ordinates with the rest of the site better. YAY! I am soo happy with the improvements to the store!

5000 Members!
Ooh Ooh, and I nearly forgot! We reached 5000 members this month which is soo exciting! Our site is growing so fast!  I was hoping to reach 5000 before our first birthday and we did it with more than a month to spare! YEAH!

1st Birthday!
And speaking of our first birthday… it is Clikchic Designs first birthday next month! We have lots of fun stuff and freebies planned for our celebrations so make sure you keep an eye on the forums!

Wow, another month between posts!

I have really slacked off haven’t I! I am just trying to do too much lately. I just can’t fit everything I want to do in and it i so hard trying to find a balance. Lots has happened since my last post so I will try and see if I can remember it all…

I still have emails I need to respond to sitting in my inbox, I really must go back and find them and respond to them!

Kyan is such a sweet little boy, becoming quite helpful when he wants to be, although not at this very moment. At this very moment he is throwing a tantrum because he is ready to go out and it is not yet time to go. He has been bringing Dean some shoes so they can go. Oh yes, he has gotten quite good at the ole tanty throwing. He is also very good at yelling at the top of his lungs with his fists clenched when he doesn’t get his own way. His vocabulary is growing so quickly and he is learning new words every day. Words of the moment are loo loos (Blues Clues) and wi-als (Wiggles). It is a very good day when he only asks for Blues Clues 10 times. He LOVES that show and his constant asking to ‘watch loo loos’ is sending me batty! LOL Don ‘t get me wrong it is a great show, but of course I don’t want him watching it every day all day!

He has had a few illnesses this month, he was just over an ear infection and I got him checked out while I had Jasmine at the doctor and he now has tonsilitus. Jasmine has also had an ear infection, and she was just over it when a few nights ago she woke up with croup. It was the worst case she has ever had. She was weezing pretty badly. We gave her some Redipred and rang the hospital and they said we should probably take her in to get her checked out. Well Dean took her and they were there for 2hrs before he gave up and took her home. She had the steroids anyway so we just took her to the doc the next day who confirmed my diagnosis. LOL She has had her course of the Redipred and her breathing is good but her cough is getting worse so we are taking her to the doctors again this afternoon.

I wrote the above yesterday and have only just now had a chance to get back to it! Jasmine’s chest is clear so that is good. Apparently a lagging cough is common with croup so we have been advised to give her ventolin to help ease the coughing.

Jaz is a bit excited that we are going on the train on Friday. It is carnival of flowers week and every year they have a train trip to ’spring bluff’ and Jaz’s kindy is going on a trip. I am a bit excited because she has been dying to go on a train, so this should be a lot of fun since it is an old fashioned steam train. Will have to bring the camera me thinks! Luckily it is on Friday which is Kyan’s kindy day as you can’t bring siblings. Which reminds me, Kyan is currently attending Kindy once a week. We are trying to get him used to it in preparation for when I start working…

Yup, that’s right.. I am now looking at returning to work full time. I am going to miss the kids like crazy but the time has come. We just can’t afford for me to stay home any longer, as much as I desperately want to. So I have updated my resume (made it pretty!) and have started applying for jobs. This time round I am not going to take the first job that comes along as I have done in the past. I need to find a well paying job as it just isn’t worth it to have two kids in daycare otherwise. If I have to leave them in daycare, it has to be worth it…. Jaz will have to go to daycare with Kyan the days she isn’t at kindy. At least I have nearly 12 years experience in my field so in theory I should be able to get a decent paying job. I am kind of excited to be returning to the ‘real’ world but I have to admit, the prospect of being a full time working Mum is a little overwhelming. Not sure how I am going to fit it all in, but I will have to find a way to make it work. I keep seeing visions of myself leaving for work in a cereal stained suit…will be interesting!