I'm Having a Chat/Crop!!

That's right! I'm hosting my first chat/crop for Digi Scrap Central next weekend. You should come check it out. It will start at 10:00 am MST (that 12:00 noon EST, & 9:00 am PST). I'm offering a 50% off coupon for my Think Blue kit for the chat, and the theme will be scrapping your pets because its a "Cat Scrap". I'm really excited about it and a little nervous. I will also be offering a posting bonus for anyone who completes a layout from the crop.

So don't forget, mark it in your calendars:

CAT SCRAP CROP at www.digiscrapcentral.com

July 15, 2006

10:00 am MST

(9:00 am PST, 12:00 noon EST)

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Happy Canada Day to all us Canadians. Its a georgeous day here in Calgary (so far - like they say in Calgary - if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes). Hope you're having nice weather where ever you are so you can get out and enjoy the day.

I've been on the computer all morning. I have a ton of things I need to get done and I'm way behind.

I made a freebee for you all in honour of Canada day. It should be available later at www.digiscrapcentral.com in the freebie download area. Here is a preview of the kit.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my husband does most of the cooking - well pretty much all of the cooking and he made this really delicious cold pasta salad last night for dinner. I finally got what the secret was out of him and I thought I would share it with you... Its the Kraft Asian Sesame dressing. That stuff is delicious! Here's the recipe:

4 cups cooked rotini
1/2 finely chopped jalepeno pepper (wear rubber gloves when you do this)
1/4 cup chopped green onion (or plain white onion)
1/4 cup finely chopped red/orange/yellow pepper (which ever you have)
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1/2 cup dried currants (or raisins)
Asian Sesame dressing to taste.

Just mix all the ingredients in a big bowl and pour in some dressing. That's it and it tastes great! Try it and let me know what you think.

Well gotta go...

Talk to you later....

Been Busy!

I've been a bad blogger! I've been sick, over worked, but most of all, too lazy to make any entries on my blog. There's been alot going on. Work is crazy. I have yet to train another person for customer service. This is the 3rd one this year. I thought my schedule would lighten up for the summer, but I guess not.

Just a quick note to kel=ksf1968: Thanks for all the links you provided me. I really appreciate it. I sell my kits at Digi Scrap Central. Here's a link to my store: Cat Scrap Fever Designs.

I've created a Father's day Kit. I think its quite a masculine kit and it could be used for any occasion really. Sorry I didn't get a preview of it up before the big day, but here it is:

Here is a layout I made with the kit of my handsome husband:

I've made a mini kit for the June/July Mega kit at Digi Scrap Central. This was fun to do and it's the first time I've contributed to a mega kit. Here's a preview of my part of the kit:


Well, that's it for now. I'll post more this weekend.

Happy Canada Day! to all my fellow Canadians. And happy 4th of July! to our neighbours to the south. :)

Designer's Resources Blues

I'm trying to design a kit with baby stuff - like that hasn't been done a million times - but I can't seem to find any "public domain" stuff to use that I like. I can't afford to buy the stuff right now, so I guess I'm stuck hand drawing the stuff again. It takes such a long time when I have to hand draw all the little things I need. I finished one kit last night I called Flippy Hippy. I couldn't find a hand peace sign, so I had to draw one and it took me about 2 hours to get it right. I'm not that good at hand drawing - I'm way out of practice. Not to brag (too much), but I won an art scholarship when I was 12 for art lessons at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. I was quite good when I was young. I even had a couple pictures on display at the gallery for 6 months.

Here is a peek at the Flippy Hippy kit. I'm not sure when I'll be putting it up for sale yet. I'm working on getting listed at a couple more stores right now, so I'm not sure where it will be listed, but here's what it looks like.

I thought it was kind of fun, with the papers that look like tie dye. I had to mute some of the colours, because the original colour scheme really hurt the eyes. They kind of turned out pastel, but with the tie dye I think it turned out well. I'm surprised how fast I've built up kits. I think I have a total of 13 kits I've made in the last 2 1/2 months.

So I guess no one liked my Think Pink kit well enough to buy it at 50% off and do a layout to get the add-on kit for free. Its kind of disheartening thinking you're putting all this time and effort into this and no one likes it. Oh well, I'll put the add-on kits up in the store and keep pluggin' away.

Well, back to work. I'm hoping to have a little freebie up by the end of tomorrow (stat holiday here in Canada).

By the way, if anyone knows of some good free for commercial use font sites and/or clipart, drop me a note, PRETTY PLEEEEAAAAASE?????

Talk to you later...

Cat

What a Glorious Day!!!!

It's a long weekend here in Canada & I took a vacation day just so I would have an extra long weekend. I'm having a great day. The weather has been fantastic here the last few days. I think we pretty much skipped right over spring and went right into summer. It was 30 degrees the other day (a little too hot for me) and its been around 25 degrees the last two days which is really nice. I slept late this morning, so it was already nice and sunny when I got up. I went out into the back yard to have my coffee and took these pictures of our lilac bush and our ornamental cherry tree. The fragrance from the blossoms is heavenly. Too bad the blooms only last about 1 week (for the cherry tree) and about 10 - 14 days for the lilacs.






I haven't had much time to do any layouts this week or designing anything. I'm trying to keep my computer time each night down to under 1/2 an hour and spend more time with my husband and keeping up with some housework. I think he was getting lonely. But he is napping right now, so its fair game. I am going to start another kit this weekend. I plan on having at least two new kits completed this weekend - and I'm going to force myself to use PS7. So hopefully I will have two new previews ready for you next weekend. So many times I've tried to sit down to blog during the week, but I'm so tired from work, my mind is mush and I just can't think of anything to say. So I'll leave to a weekend thing.

Well that's it for today. Have a great weekend!! And to all the fellow Canadians - have a extra great LONG weekend!!!

Cat

Nothng New

I can see that there isn't any interest in my contest. Oh well, I'll put the add-ons up in the store when the deadlines close. I just wanted to post a couple of layouts I made with two of my kits. They aren't up in the store yet, but hopefully, I'll have the kits finished soon and they will be available for purchase.

Not much else is new. I'm just going to go to Walmart with my husband to pick up a couple of things and do some house/yard work and that's it. Maybe we'll bbq later. It is sure nice now that the weather is getting warm. I want to go to the park and get some pictures of the Canada geese (yes Canada geese - not Canadian geese - they're not Canadians, although some have taken up permanent residence here. :) Sorry, just had to put that in there. I read someone else's blog and they were going on about Canadian geese.)

Well, anyway, here are the layouts I made. Let me know what you think...

This first layout is done with my Sunwashed Summer kit.



This one is made with the Mind Maze kit. The only thing is the two black papers aren't available. I had a mishap and lost those papers and had to rework the kit, but it still shows how the kit would look because it is all in black & white. All the other elements and papers are available in the kit. This is a huge kit. The main kit has 12 papers & a bunch of elements. I also have 3 add-on paper packs of 6 papers each to go with the kit. So, here's the layout...



That's all I have to say for today. Check out the sale at digiscrapcentral.com. I believe today's the last day for 50% off.

Cat

Boo Hoo!!!

I didn't even make through the first round for the contest at digiscrappin.biz. Oh well, I have other fish to fry. I have two kits up for sale at digiscrapcentral.com this week. They are having a 50% off sale this weekend!!! So if you like my Think Pink kit and/or my Think Blue kit and thought you might like to pick up one or the other, now's a good time. Here are a couple of layouts I did with the two kits:





I think since I didn't get anywhere in the ultimate scrapper contest, I'll have my own little contest. The first three people to email me a link to a layout they have done with either of my Think Pink or Think Blue kit will receive the corresponding add on kit. That means six people - SIX - will win an add-on kit! Here are the previews:





You can purchase either of the kits here. If you're not a member, its free to register.

Now for the rules (there are always rules...).
1.) You must post in an on-line gallery of your choice (eg. digiscrapcentral.com, digitalscrapbookplace.com, thedigichick.com, etc. - you all have your favourites).
2.) You must give proper credit for the kit in the posting.
3.) You must have posted the layout on or before May 20th, 2006, 12:00 midnight MST.
4.) You must email me with a link to the layout to catscrapfever@shaw.ca on or before May 20th, 2006, 12:00 midnight MST.

That gives you one week. Usually, I put a notice up on a couple of boards to let people know I have a new freebie, but this time, this is the only place you will find the information about this contest.

I will email all the winners with a link to the add-on kit. I don't expect an overwhelming response to this, but just in case I get a lot of emails, I will only be contacting the winners. I will get the emails out by the following Wednesday at the latest (May 24th, 2006).

So, have fun, show me what you made, and have a good week!!!

Cat

Let The Games Begin!!

So the digiscrappin.biz contest has started and I uploaded my entry thursday night (or rather very early friday morning). I'm not sure. I had this vision of how I wanted the layout to look, but I don't think its quite there. I wanted it to be more graphical than just an ordinary scrapbook page. I'm not sure some of the people in the contest understood the first assignment instructions or if they just didn't read them. It did say to use "your best photo". I asked during the chat if that meant we had to have taken the photo ourself and they said yes, but I see quite a few layouts with pictures that weren't taken by the contestant themself. It is also posted in this weeks instructions for our layout that it has to be a picture we took ourself. I asked my husband what he thought about me mentioning it in one of the forum threads, but he said not to bother - that it might make me look like a trouble maker. I don't think it will be fair to the other contestants (& me) if they get passed through to the next round without following the contest instructions. (Can you tell I'm competitive????)

Here is a link to my round 1 layout. Let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any comments you have about it.

Round 1: Fairy Princess

So other than that I HAVE BIG NEWS!! I will be selling my kits at DigiScrapCentral.com. I uploaded my kits this week and they should be in the store today or tomorrow. I have the Mind Maze kit, the Think Pink Kit, and the Think Blue Kit up for sale. I'm really excited to see how well they are received. I am trying to find other stores that will take me on as a designer, but for now I think I'll sit tight and learn a little more about creating the elements and stuff. Its a lot of fun.

I have a new freebie to offer you. I made an overlay. I call it Linen. Here are a couple pictures I used it on using PS7:



This first one I just used without altering it - just the lowered the opacity so that the background colour would show through. This is one of my babies Mimi. I caught her on our bed in the folds of the big down duvet we have. She got scolded (just a little bit) after I took the picture because its the one place in the house were the cats aren't allowed - my husband is allergic to cats.

The second one done in PS7 as well and I changed the the colour by using the overlay colour in the layer styles. This is a picture of my sweet little niece when she was about 18 months old. I just love this little girl.



The next two pictures I made with PSPX. They are pictures of my sister's little dog - he's called Corky. He's a mischevious little thing, but so cute. The first one I used the overlay as is and just lowered the opacity of the layer it is on. The second one, I changed the layer blending options to colour, used the layer fill for the colour I wanted to change the overlay to and changed some of the opacity settings.




Just to give you an idea of how to use it if you're new to this. Sorry, I don't use other graphics softwares so I don't know how you would use them there.

I'm going to use a different file sharing site than yousendit. I found this one called sendspace.com. You are able to store your files there indefinitely as long as there is activity on it. So this way I won't have to keep uploading the freebies to yousendit everytime the link expires.

So you can download the overlay here.

If you make any layouts with any of my designs I would love to see them. Just send me an email with a link to catscrapfever@shaw.ca

So if you have anything to say, you can always leave me a comment. If you want me to respond, just say so and I will.

Have a good day....

Cat

Something to take my mind off of...

this contest at Digiscrappin.biz. I don't know.... There are a lot of really talented people on that list. I tried the DET challenge last year at DigitalScrapbookplace.com and got punted on the second round. Oh well, can't hurt to try. Never know till you give it a go - as they say.

So to take my mind off of my self-doubt & and self-deprecating thoughts all day, I decided to try my hand at another kit. I call it Sunwashed Summer. The colours were inspired by a hat box I saw at the dollar store the other day. I had thought of buying the box and scanning the colours, but I don't like to waste money on little things like that, especially since my husband has just gotten back to work. So here is a preview of the kit. Any comments/suggestions would be welcome.



This is the first kit that I did almost entirely in PSP7. I had to do the ribbons in PSPX because I haven't gotten the hang of the liquify brush in PSP7. I think it turned out alright. I've got a couple summer/beach pictures I can use with this kit.

I was going through some of my stuff and I realized I didn't upload a preview of my "Think Blue" kit. I made it the same time I made the "Think Pink" kit. Here's a preview of it. Again any comments/suggestions are welcome.



So that's what I did for the majority of the day while my husband was at work. I better get crackin' now and get my work done like I said I would....

Cat

A Little Nervous & A Lot Anxious

So I didn't mention it before, but I entered the Ulitmate Digi-Scrapper contest at Digiscrappin.biz. There are a lot of famous names on the list of contestants. I'm getting very nervous about this. One of my biggest concerns is that I don't have a lot of subject matter to scrap. My husband and I don't know that many people here and we don't have any children, so all I really have are pictures of the cats. I have some wedding pictures that I still need to scrap from both my wedding and my sister's wedding, but those won't always fit with the different themes (I'm guessing they'll use themes for each week's round). I have a lot of pictures of my niece as well, so I suppose those will be what I use the most of. I'll have to beg my girlfriend to send me some pictures of her family so I'll have pictures to scrap.
You should go over to digiscrappin and check out the roster for the contest. There's a lot of talent on that list. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

On a brighter note, I finally got the slide show of some of my layouts going in my side bar. I tried learning html a couple years ago when I wanted to learn to make my own website graphics, but just didn't have the time. I alread know a couple programming languages, so I can figure out some things, but its the switches that I don't know. So until I figure out how to change the template background and that stuff, this is what my blog will look like. I designed the background stuff I want to use, but don't know how to change the template to use it. I guess next weekend I'll be looking for tutorials on how to do it and checking out blogger's help.

Well, thats it for today...

Cat

Inexplicable Absence

I just haven't had much to say this last week. My life really isn't that exciting. I did find out this week that I will be going to a trade show in Toronto this August. So that's going to be fun. I've been to Toronto quite a few times. This time I want to go see Casa Loma again. The one time I was there I was so sick I just walked around in a daze not wanting to be there at all. And I didn't have a camera, so this time I'll be able to take alot of great pictures of the castle.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Casa Loma, it is a full-sized real castle built in the early 1900's by a wealthy Canadian stock broker. It even has full suits of armour as decoration in some of the hallways. Here's a link to the official website if you want to see pictures of it & learn more about it.

I finished my mother's gift for mothers day last weekend and mailed it off on Monday. She called me when she got the package to ask if she could open it right away. I thought that was cute. So she opened it and she really liked it. She loves having pictures of my niece. So I was happy about that.

Not much scrapping going on in my household lately - the digital kind I mean. None of the verbal kind either - my husband and I never fight. That's really unusual, but we get along so well together there's just nothing to argue about. He is the easiest person to get along with - don't get me wrong - he has a bad temper, but he never directs it at people. He gets mad over things like, for example the bbq wouldn't light last night. So then he's off on a tirade, swearing & cursing. But he never turns on me or anyone else. I think its funny the way inanimate objects can set him off like that. Things like that tick me off, but I don't let it bother me.

Well anyway, I have these gel brads for anyone who wants to grab them while the link still works on yousendit. I made them to go with the summre layout for my mother's calendar. They're bright, summery, translucent brads.



If you download them, please leave a comment, let me know what you think of them.

Download here (updated 05/07/06 - this link should stay active as long as there is a download from it every 7 days)


That's it for now.

Cat

Yeah!! The Weekend!!!

I live for the weekends. I'm so busy at work all the time I just need some quiet time. My job is very noisy. I'm constantly talking to people on the phone, then there's the printer printing orders or printing invoices. It just never stops. I use to take a break and get outside once in a while when I still smoked - I quit just over a year ago. But it seems now I don't bother taking my coffee breaks now that I don't smoke. And with my husband being off work for the last 6 months I usually bring my lunch & rarely go out of the office at lunch time as well. Soooo, when I get home I just want to sit in the dark with all the quiet and just relax. Then I get on the computer and just let my mind & my mouse take me where ever. That's the one thing from work that doesn't ruin my hobby because I'm on the computer all day at work.

To change the subject.... I've been working on a mother's day gift for, of course, my Mom. We only have the one baby in the family, my niece. So, naturally, my Mom adores her, but she doesn't get to see her very often because my sister lives in the maritimes and my Mom live in Manitoba. I have only seen my niece once in the last 3 1/2 years and that was last August for my sister's wedding. Anyway, back to the subject again... I decided to make my mother a CD Calendar. All I'm doing is scrapping pictures of my niece 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" (the size of a cd case) and making one layout for each month. Here is a couple I've done:





The May layout was done using the Pretty in Pink kit by Chari Class, and the June layout was done using the Fairy Wings & Butterfly Things kit by Blushbutter.

edit: I goofed on the credits :( The may layout was done using the Springtime kit. I downloaded the kit from scrapbook-bytes and the name on the kit is "kbyrom". There wasn't a TOU in the kit so I'm sorry, this is all I have for credits for this kit. The flower on the layout are from the Pretty in Pink kit by Chari Class. Sorry 'bout that.

I have another 4 months left to do. I had to use a nail file to file off some of the plastic stopper on the cd case so that it would swing around and stand up at the proper angle, but other than that its a pretty simple project.

I also found these luggage tag blanks that laminate a business card size piece of paper. I am going to print out small sizes of pictures of my niece and laminate them - probably about the size of a loonie - and then put them on a keychain for my mom. Then she can carry pictures of her everywhere.

For anyone who wants to make a CD calendar for their mother, here is the template I use for the months. Its a png file & it should be in the size of a cd cover. I use PSPX so I know the size is right in that program, but I haven't tested it using photoshop yet. Sorry, I don't know if will work in programs other than PSP or PS.

Download calendar template here

I hear the sounds of my husband stirring, so I'm gonna go have coffee with him now - I've only drank 3 cups, not quite maxed out yet.

Have a good day :)

Cat

I hate long weekends...

because it means that work will be really crazy. And I mean CRAZY. All the restaurants & stores have run out of everything over the long weekend and want everything restocked instantly. I dont understand how some of our customers who have dealing with our company for like 20 years still don't get it that we can't deliver everything to everyone before 8 am. I don't know what ever made me decide to take a job in customer service. I'm an engineer - I like to sit in a dark room huddled in front of my computer. I hate dealing with people. Well, I hate dealing with unreasonable people.

So anyway, there was an article in the paper today about a guy who kept trading up with something till he finally got a house. The article said he wanted to see if he could trade up to a house. He started with this giant paper clip and just kept trading for something better until he finally got a duplex somewhere I think in Phoenix - somewhere in the states anyway. I wonder if I could trade some of the junk I have for something useful. Maybe I could start off with this lamp I don't like and get a new laptop? Never know....

So anyway, I was playing around with a brush and some different settings & came up with this paper.



Here's a link to download it if anybody wants to use it. click here

Hope you like it. Please leave a comment if you download it. :)


That's it for today folks...

Cat

Burst of Energy!!

After feeling like crap the other day - I slept about 4 hours in the afternoon - I had a big burst of energy yesterday and today. I finished off 3 kits I was working on. I'm hoping once I get a few kits built up, I can find somewhere that will take me on as a designer. We'll see what happens.

Nothing else really new to report. Just going to go and get some housework done now. I HATE housework - I procrastinate as much as possible with it.

Here are previews of the kits I finished this weekend. Let me know what you think...



The previews really don't show the detail on the papers for the Mind Maze kit.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Cat

Feeling Kind of Yucky...

I tried to work on finishing up a kit I started a couple weeks ago, but I started feeling really yucky. I still don't feel the greatest, but I have/want to do a couple layouts. I promised my sister I would do all her wedding pictures (and make a DVD) for her as a wedding gift. I only have about another 120 pictures to go! Hopefully, I'll have it done before their first wedding anniversary this August. I think I may need to go to the store and get some gravol. I really hate feeling like this.

Well, maybe I'll have something to offer in a day or two once I feel better....

Cat

Easter Long Weekend & Freebie

This week at work has been horrendous. Aside from it being a short week and having everything crammed into 4 days, I'm training another new person. A couple of months ago we hired someone for customer service. Lets just say they didn't work out and they moved this person to reception. So now I have to train another person. This is stressful enough, but the first person that didn't work out is giving this new person wrong information and its making me crazy! I spent the 2 1/2 months I tried training the first person running around behind them fixing their mistakes or trying to back track to figure out what they did. Now, knowing that they were moved to the receptionist position because they weren't working out and couldn't get the jist of the job, they think they can give this new person the inside track on how things are done. Like I said, I'm going crazy.

Well, after all that, I still don't mind my job. Its really busy and I've been working 10-11 hour days for the last three months and it doesn't look like its going to let up for about another month. I think I'll handle it though. I'm pretty strong.

So enough venting. I have another free scrapkit to offer you. This is the second kit I made for myself and thought I would share it with you because it is an Easter Kit and it's Easter this weekend. I call it Easter Folly. I know the name is kinda lame, but I couldn't think of anything. I'm new at this. I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. So here's a preview of the kit:




** edit: Thanks to all those that downloaded the kit - please leave a comment to let me know what you think :)**

You can download it here

If you download it, I would appreciate you leaving a comment to let me know what you think of it. You can also leave a comment about anything else you'd like to comment on. It just may spur some interesting conversations... :)

Cat

Freebie At Scrapsy Daisy

I have a free kit up for grabs at Scrapsy Daisy. Head on over an take a look. The site address is www.scrapsydaisy.com. It's in the Gallery section under "Member Freebie Exchange".

I would love to hear from you to hear what you think of the kit since this is the very first kit I ever made. I would also love to see any layouts you make with the kit. Just post a comment here with a link to the gallery where its posted.

Oh, by the way, the kit is called Kiddy Carnival. It has very bright elementary colours and is perfect for scrapping pictures of children (young & old). There's also an alpha to go with the kit.

Here's the preview of the kit and the alpha:





This is a layout I made with this kit:



So let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it.



Cat

My FIRST blog ever!!!

Hello out there! This is my first post to my first ever blog! Hopefully, I won't bore you to death with my ramblings & rantings. I'll be sharing some of my life happenings here, but mostly, I will be sharing my love of DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING. I've been digiscrapping since about November 2005. I never thought I would find a hobby that would take me over more than knitting, but once I found digital scrapbooking I jumped in head first. (What am I going to do with all that yarn I have stashed away??)

Before I get too carried away, I'll tell you a couple of things about myself. I live in Alberta, Canada with my husband of 1 1/2 years and our two cats. We don't have any children, so our cats are our surrogate babies. We both enjoy music, and movies. Mostly my husband sits in the computer room with me and watches me do my scrapbooking. He's a good man.

You'll find as I go along that I'm opinionated and usually don't have a problem letting everyone know what I think. Once I get going and get more stuff on here, feel free to comment away. And for you fellow digiscrappers, I will be posting the occasional freebie once in a while. I'm still learning, so they may not be very frequent at first.

Well anyway, I will sign off on this entry for now.

Cat