Watercolor Dreams Freebie

I did a boo boo, the two links to Memory Lane were the same, I fixed them so that the second link is REALLY the link to parts 3 and 4, sorry about that.

Today I am introducing a kit that I have been working on for a few months, Watercolor Dreams. I originally made some patterned papers to go with the watercolor papers but I was not real happy with them, I reworked them a few times but never got them where I thought that they fit with the watercolor papers. Last night I finally decided to get rid of the patterned papers and put the kit together with just watercolor papers. I have been trying to develop a convincing watercolor technique for a long time. Before I shattered my elbow I use to hand dye fabric to quilt with and roving to spin into yarn to knit with so I have always loved the hand dyed/watercolor look. It did not seem like a big deal to be able to do it in Photoshop but it turned into a real challenge for me. I think that with these papers I am on the right track so you can expect to see a lot more of them from me. Because I was working on this kit for so long I ended up coming up with a lot of elements to go with it, my favorite on is the heart/flower/yarn cluster, it was a lot of fun to make. I have a freebie from Watercolor Dreams for you, the pieces are taken from the kit and the add-on paper pack. The kit and paper pack are on sale the week. Here is the newsletter, be sure to check it our for all of the great sales and freebies.

If you are new to my blog be sure to check out my previous posts, there are a lot of freebie links still active.

Watercolor Dreams



Close-up



Watercolor Dreams Papers



Watercolor Dreams Freebie



Download Watercolor Dreams Freebie Here

Memory Lane Free Kit

Well, It is a little late but here is part of my free June kit. It took a long time because I am meticulous when I extract things. The dried seed pod flowers, leaves and eucalyptus are from some pictures that I took a few weeks ago, Even with the great selection tools that Photoshop has the eucalyptus took FOREVER to extract, the seed pod flowers took a long time too but that was mainly because I extracted 12 of them so I could use them at different angles. The pictures were taken with a borrowed camera, it spoiled me a little bit. My digital camera is 7 years old, at the time 3 mega pixels were HUGH but now it is a dinosaur. I have been camera shopping and I think I have found the one that I want, a Canon G9, one thing I want in a camera is the ability to shoot in RAW, it is an extremely adaptable format. I am notorious for forgetting to change the white balance when I shoot, I end up with really bad color casts, like when I have the camera set on inside light but it is a bright sunny day. My daughters wedding pictures have a blue cast because I did that for her beach wedding. Bad colorcasts are difficult to fix perfectly but with the RAW format it is no big deal. I would love to get a SLR but to get everything I want in one of those it would be over a thousand dollars so I think for now I will go with the G9 so you can expect to see a lot more flowers and extracted elements in my kits. I should have more of the kit up later in the week and then next week there will be two more parts of the kit. There are 16 papers in today’s download and I have at least that many more to go.


Memory Lane Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4




Papers



Download Parts 1 and 2 Here
Download Parts 3 and 4 Here

SAS June Mega Kit Freebie

It has been a busy week and I am running a little behind today but I wanted to at least get the sampler from our new mega kit posted here. As usual it is a huge kit with almost 200 elements. I wanted a themed wedding kit since June is such a big month for weddings. Choosing the palette for this one was kind of tough because weddings come in so many colors. The pieces I made were on the softer side but some of the girls went with the brighter colors so I think that will help the kit to be useful for a lot of different things. I had a good time working with some of the silk flower pictures I took a few weeks ago, I made a bouquet and a floral spray, it was very challenging to get them to look natural but I think I gave them some pretty good depth.The June Mega Kit is on sale for $5.95

I was hoping to have my free kit of the month posted by now but it looks like it will be later this week since I still have a few things to do to get it ready. If you are not registered at SAS you don’t get our newsletter, if you would like to take a look and snag the newsletter freebies you can download it here. if you are new to my blog you might want to check my previous posts since there are a lof of active freebie links. Until next time, Enjoy!

June Mega Kit



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June Mega Kit Sampler



Download June Mega Kit Sampler Part 1 Here
Download June Mega Kit Sampler Part 2 Here

Vintage Dreams Sampler

I managed to squeak out some design time this week so I was able to finish a kit I have been working on for awhile. The name for it came to me this time, I thought that Vintage Dreams fit it pretty well. The kit has something that I have been trying to get right for a few weeks, digital lace. Good lace is hard to come by so I have been experimenting on making it for a few weeks but it was never quite the way I wanted it but I think that I finally got it this time. There are 17 papers in the kit and an additional 14 are available in the add-on paper pack. The kit will be on sale for the next two weeks. I put together a nice sampler for you, these pieces are all in the kit so if you buy the kit you do not need to download the sampler.

Here is the link to the SAS newsletter, we have lots of great new products and sales along with five freebies that are exclusive to the newsletter.

I read through the wonderful comments that were left on my last post and it is nice to see that some people actually read my remarks about backing up their files. With all of the crazy things going on with the weather a flood, tornado or fire can happen at any time and having a back-up copy of your files can save you a lot of heartache. As I said in the last post, I keep my external hard drives in the basement in case of a tornado but during tornado season I keep all of my paper scrapbook albums and my old photos in the basement also. That way if there ever were a tornado all I would have to grab on my way to the basement would my cat and my little dog Zoe. Well, until next time I hope that you enjoy the sampler.

Vintage Dreams



Close-up




Vintage Dream Papers



Vintage Dreams Sampler



Download Vintage Dreams Here

Dear Mom Part 4

Here is the last part of Dear Mom, these new papers are a brighter then the other papers so I made some frames and brads that are a little bolder to go with them. I have a good start on the kit I will be giving away this month but it will be next week before I have the first part ready. In the mean time if you are looking for more freebies, Terrell has a beautiful freebie from her My Little Garden kit, Jeanette has the cutest desktop calendar made from Under the Boardwalk and Brenda has a quick page made from her East Meets West kit, I just love the Asian look of this kit.

Something I wanted to mention to all of you today is the importance of backing up your files. What brought this to mind is that there have been a lot of tornadoes lately and one of our members recently had a hard drive crash, she lost a many of the digital supplies that she had purchased. I am somewhat obsessive about backing up my files. My Mac has an automatic backup system, I use an external hard drive to back up to. With the constant threat of storms we have had lately I have gotten into the habit of taking that hard drive down to the basement every night. After my loved ones and my pets (I actually consider them loved ones…LOL) my digital files are some of the most important things I have, insurance would replace most things if they were lost but there is no way to replace lost baby photos or pictures of all of the little things that have happened in my life. Between the site and all of my files I have about a terabyte and a half of stuff, many of these files are irreplaceable. The way I figure it is that if we were to have a tornado I would rather not have to worry about grabbing my back ups on my way to the basement. Even if you are not worried about tornados anything can happen at any time, hard drives fail eventually or fires happen, it is better to be safe than to be sorry. My advice is that before you even consider spending another penny on digital supplies that you spend the money on some kind of back up system for your files. DVDs are under a dollar and you can buy a 300 gig external hard drive for around $100 on sale. This way you can be sure that those precious photos and the layouts that you worked so hard on will be safe.



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