No Lo for this evening as DDs had the pooter all morning, and I can't stand the slow lappy atm, lol, and then it was out to the stables for a couple of hours, then back home, all into PJs by 4.30pm, and a gals night in for us! I'd sent Andy and his brother Nick off to the rugby at twickenham - England v Barbarians (made good use of my Tesco Deals vouchers to get the tickets!) - unfortunately their presence didn't help England to win!!!

yesterday we went to Chessington with Margie, Megan-Elise and Tony. The weather was lovely - hot but not too hot and some nice cloud to cool us in the afternoon! I'm hoping I've got some good shots, but haven't had the time to look at them on the pooter yet (back to the above post!!!).

I've been accepted on another CT - Scrap IT Sassy! Exciting stuff! I must go and join their Yahoo group, although, have to say, I can't stand Yahoo!! Just don't find it user-friendly!

Anyway, this is going to be all from me for today as my eyes are so tired, and I've got a sore throat...hoping I haven't got what Antoinette's coming out of, and Evie's suffering with still - poor little thing, she has a horrid croupy cough and greeny mucus making an appearance at any opportunity! Yuck!! I def do NOT want that!!

Nite!

Bernie x

Here is another LO using the gorgeous Beautiful Life kit by Opanasko Art Designs, available at Digital Pixel Pixies (link below!)! It was made for the Ad Challenge at DPP - I was inspired by the small ad in blue on the RHS (can't quite see what it's for!!). Unfortunately I can't seem to upload to the gallery there at the moment, but hopefully that will be sorted soon!

Family news: Evie's feeling a bit better but still very tired. She had a ride on Antoinette's loan horse, Molly today -with Antoinette leading her of course, as Molly is way too big for Evie!! Molly's owner is so kind, she noticed that Evie's spending a lot of time at the stables watching Antoinette ride Molly, so she suggested that Antoinette could Evie a ride! Evie was so excited!

Antoinette went up to Megan's stables this evening for an informal, friendly jumping competition. They let her ride one of their horses, Charlie, who is really quite old, and who hates the wall jump. So Antoinette didn't even bother trying to jump the wall, having experienced one of Charlie's refusals before, lol, and got two 'Special' rosettes - she was very pleased! They ended the evening there with fish and chips for everybody, so Antoinette came home happy as larry!

Megan is 10 tomorrow, and we've got a special day planned for her - will blog about it when we get in, or Saturday if I'm too exhausted!! Hoping for loadsa good photo ops!!

Right! Off for a healthy snackeroony before bed!

Bernie x

Here's my first ever LO for the CT of Digital Pixel Pixies! The kit is Beautiful Life by Opanasko Art Designs - http://digitalpixelpixies.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_72&products_id=170 - it's an amazingly large kit, and it's the first time I've ever done a LO quite like this! I played around with elements, adjusting the opacity so they all blended together to create this background - took me over two hours, but I had such fun! Evie asked for her hair to be put into lots of little plaits one weekend, and was so happy when it was done!!

Off to the stables soon for Antoinette's loan ride. The rain has started now, and Evie is laying asleep on the sofa with a raised temperature, sore throat and headache. Hoping she will feel a bit better when she wakes up!

Bernie x

Evening!

Well, I HAVE been busy!! I made these 4 Los with the newest kit from Bits N Bobs at Exquisite Scraps - http://exquisitescraps.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1684

I guess the kit wasn't intended first and foremost for photos like these landscapes Antoinette, my eldest, took while she was in France with the school last week, lol, but I thought they looked great with the pics! (thought Antoinette did pretty well with her photography too!!)

The other LO is an older photo of Evie from a couple of years ago. It was when I was taking the Open University Photography Course, and I'd asked her to pose for too many shots in one sitting! This was her reaction, and I actually loved the shot that resulted! The pps and embellishments were perfect for this bit of 'attitude' being shown!!!

I've learned a few techniques like adding a bevel to a flat circle to make a brad, lol, so have tried to use one or two of those this time!!

Family news...today the gals had their private riding lessons - Antoinette went out on a hour's hack and had a great time riding Dublin, who was VERY well behaved on the roads! Evie rode Louis, who was feeling very lazy. It was a struggle to get him to walk, let alone trot, so when Evie asked for trot, and gave him a little flick of the whip at the teacher's instruction, he protested in a big way! First a buck with the back legs, then a little jump with the font legs, then another buck! Evie managed to hang on right until the last buck, but then slipped off the side of him - her first fall!! Thankfully she landed on her bottom - the only bit of her with any padding - and wasn't badly hurt at all. Of course she now hates Louis with a passion, lol, but I'm sure she'll get over it!!! The intention for this lesson was for Evie to practise cantering, as they don't get much of that in a normal group lesson, but of course, after the fall, it wasn't going to happen! The teacher was really good with her and put on a lead rope for 10 mins to get her confidence back, then let her go alone in trot, but that was it. Ah well!

OK, Antoinette has just finished making a chicken korma for us all, so am off to scoff! (And it's a Weightwatchers recipe, so I'm being good!!!) YUM!!

Bernie x

My 3rd Lo with the so versatile Heaven Sent kit from Bits n Bobs at Exquisite Scraps! This one took me a bit longer to get it how I liked it, but I'm pretty pleased with the end result! Link to the store below!

Family news: Antoinette is back from France! Just one bottle of sparkling wine arrived back with her - a few less than the 6 she was planning to buy, lol:D It seems she's had a great time, but now has to settle back into the humdrum and routine at home again! Still, she's off to the stables in a minute for her loan ride, and then has her lesson at 3pm thisafternoon. The owner of her loan horse has just 'phoned and given her permission to use the horse anytime this week (it's a school holiday here btw) so she can practise her dressage! She's such a kind and generous lady!

Evie needs a new whip, as hers has been broken by playing too much with it in the garden, lol:D Hopefully they'll still have some of the cheapy ones in Tesco, as it's just a short whip!

I'm planning to have a go at making a chicken korma this evening, as I promised Antoinette I'd try!!

Think that's all the news for now! Off to post a scrapbook kit swap and a CJ, buy Evie's whip and if I'm really lucky, pop into WHS to see if they have copies of a new Scrapbooking mag that's out now!

Bernie x

My second LO with the Heaven Sent kit from Bits N Bobs - see below for the link to the wonderful shop, Exquisite Scraps!!

I've had such fun making this, although I almost gave up on it when it came to the titling, but I like where it's ended up!!

The elements are so beautiful - the detail on the lace if you get up close and personal is fantastic! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm now a fan of gentle, delicate colours like the ones in this kit (although I won't go so far as to say I'd love to work with pastels, lol! This is more delicate than pastels!!)

Right! Off for a quiet half hour with DH now before bed - I've ignored him all evening as I've been obsessed by making these LOs!!!!!

Bernie x

This is my first LO in my CT role for Bits N Bobs! (The kit is called Heaven Sent and is available at Exquisite Scraps - http://exquisitescraps.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_150&products_id=1625&zenid=c1db26a1bfd33155aaf08400627f2f12

The kit is stuffed full of goodies, and very versatile! As well as being good for kiddie photos, it's got crosses in, so will be really useful when Antoinette is confirmed next year in May, Evie makes her First Holy Communion in June two weeks later, and there's plenty of bling and beautiful swirls that will be useful when Marguerite (for those who don't know, my sister!) gets married!

When I first saw the delicate colouring of the papers and elements, I was wondering which photos I'd be able to use, and how it would work, as I usually use more colour!! BUT! It was so easy! Honestly! I'm so chuffed with how these LOs have worked out, and are different to anything I've created before! So thank you Julie for making such a great kit and giving me the opportunity to play with it for you!!!

News from today? Well, I played the organ at Church today for a funeral - I still get so nervous about doing a funeral. It's silly really...I feel like it will matter so much if I mess up, but probably, with all the sadness and grief around, nobody would particularly notice or remember! And I don't usually mess up at all anyway! Mad!

Then I had a nice couple of hours with my niece, Megan - the one in the LO!! - as she was off school with a cold (btw I've got a lovely sore throat now Meg - thanks!!!). Next it was taking mum to the Dentist and straight on to pick up Evie from school! She was over the moon, as she got TWO merits today (for excellent Maths homework and a fantastic story) which means in Assembly on Friday she will now be presented with another Bronze merit certificate, (you get a Bronze for receiving 3 merits) and also her first ever Silver (you get a silver for earning threee Bronzes!!). No doubt I shall be in floods when she's called up on Friday!

No news from Antoinette - wonder how she's getting on! Bet she's having a great time! Today was going to a local town and buying cake and postcards to write all in French and send home! Hopefully she enjoyed that!!

Will end now as I'm getting tired and have another LO to upload yet!!

Bernie x

Wow those gals are fast!! I've had some great constructive criticism already, and here is the reworked LO thus far!! An improvement I think!

Bernie x

Evening!

This is my last LO for the NKOTB contest at DSP. I really struggled with the kit they provided - I think because it was mostly hard edges - stars, and frames - something I rarely use on a LO as it was meant to be used!! I even managed to need to chop up the word art so i could enlarge the first word of it for my title, lol. This round we were allowed to use brushes, cookie cutter etc etc that came with the program used to digi scrap, so I was able to create the green layer and the leafy pattern you can just see on the beige strip!!

Anyway, it's another photo of Antoinette with Molly. I'm trying to get through to her just how talented she is at riding, but you know how it is with kids - never believe the parents!!!!! At 12 though she's got plenty of time to learn to jump higher! This is just a little encouragement for her!!

Antoinette's actually away in the Loire Valley now. We were over in Ramsgate at 5.30am this morning (boy it's been a long day!!) to see her off! Tears all round of course, and Evie is missing her so much she's created a massive welcome home banner this evening!

Right! Evie needs to go to bed! We let her stay up to finish her banner!

Nite all!

Bernie x

No LO tonight!

We did a lot of shopping this morning for Antoinette's trip to France on Monday with her school- she'll be gone till Friday! Then we went to her riding lesson. Well! What a surprise and a massive compliment to Antoinette - they allowed her to be the very first person to ride their newest horse, Seamus, in a lesson! He's so new to it that he was only allowed to do half the lesson, but Antoinette loved him immediately! He's a kinda grey, dappley colour (no doubt Antoinette knows the correct term for that colour!!) and a biggie - over 16hh I believe. Not sure he's fully grown yet, but we've heard tell he's going to be the biggest horse at the stables when he is!! SO annoyed with myself for not taking the camera, but we never dreamed she'd be able to ride him already! Ho hum! Hopefully she will get to ride him another time!

That's all for today - off to watch the scoring of the Eurovision Song Contest now:D

Bernie x

Just a quick post - here's the LO I've just done this evening for the Scrap Like You Mean It Challenge on UKScrappers - it was a scraplift of 'angie's' lovely LO ( http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=193201 ). By complete coincidence I only noticed at the end that her LO and mine carry the same date - 19th April 2009!! Anyway, good excuse to show off a pic of Antoinette taken during her first ever show jumping competition! All the pps are from Weeds and Wildflowers and the circle mat is from Designs By Mel.

Nite!
Bernie x

Evening all!

OK, this is the final version of my LO! In the end all that was changed was the colour of the butterflies and erasing the ready-made shadows on the frame and adding my own! So I'm really pleased with this LO!

Update re. the riding competition! Antoinette flew through the Mini Clear Round, and got her rosette for that, and then after about an hour and a half waiting around in VERY hot sunshine, she rode in the Novice group (having been missed off the list of competitiors, she ended up riding AFTER one of the girls in the jump-off:o), thanks to Andy going and pushing his way through to the judges and asking what was going on!! She did a clear first round so went into the jump-off as well, and ended up coming 3rd, as she's just not confident enough yet to charge round the school like a mad thing (time counts in the jump-off!). So to achieve 3rd was great for Antoinette, and we're all really proud of her!

Evie's lesson went well, and she finally had a lesson on how to get your diagonals right! She seemed to pick it up well (previous coaching on what to look for from Antoinette no doubt helped!), and was very happy at the end of her lesson!

So! My Round 2 at DSP is at an end now, so I'm going to try and create a LO before crashing for one of the UKS challenges!!

Nite all!

Bernie x

OK, here is my 3rd version of this LO! The experienced ladies at DSP who left me constructive criticism didn't find too much needing adjustment, which I was quite surprised at, as I don't usually do LOs filled with so much embellishment! I'm pleased though as I'd like to do more like this, and to know I'm on the right track is great!

So, I've added a photo mat which has a stroke round the outside, as does the photo now. And as the shadows on the rotated frame were out of whack with those of the rest of the elements, I changed the lighting angle so that the lighting matches that of the photo - ie instead of being lit from the top left with shadows bottom right, it's all now lit from the bottom right and shadows are to top, like in the photo!

I quite liked the blue butterflies, but had thought myself they did jump out a tad. Someone suggested getting rid of them but I couldn't, so I changed their colour to tone in with the rest of the LO so they're less eye-catching!

Think this could be close to my final version of this LO, which is VERY pleasing - Round 1 had 6 versions!!!

Other news is that Antoinette rode exceedingly well in her lesson today. The horse she was riding is one that used to pull carriages. Quite a lot smaller than the 16/17hh ones she's usually on!! It's a lovely friendly animal, and because it hasn't been allowed to before, loves to canter AMAZINGLY fast, and also loves jumping! The teacher said today that in the whole of this week, only Antoinette today, and one other senior member of staff have been able to get this horse into a proper canter! How chuffed were we?!! (When he canters, something weird happens with his legs and the front and back legs aren't in sync - disunited - so it's not easy to get a good canter going!). Antoinette controlled him perfectly over the jumps today too, which was lovely to see!

Tomorrow Antoinette has a showjumping competition. Her first ever was a few weeks ago, when she did one round, bottom hole. This time she's said she will do at least 2 - clear round and bottom hole, and may even go for a third if it's not raised too high! Her confidence with jumping Molly, her loan horse, has grown a lot since doing that first comp. so we're hoping all goes well tomorrow for her!

Evie has her lesson tomorrow, which, as she's only been learning for about 6 months, is always a bit of an event each week! She's growing in confidence every week though, and is cantering alone with no problems now!!

Am now off to do a LO for the UKScrappers Monthly House challenge before the tiredness sets in!!

Bernie x

Well, the week passed so quickly, that I've only just sat down to do more digi scrapping! I've got about 5 minutes to write this before having to get to the stables to watch Antoinette's riding lesson, so will try to be succinct!

It's Round 2 of the NKOTB contest, so we got a new kit to use and a new challenge! It was to use a sketch or scralift a LO from their gallery and employ the rule of thirds. I found a sketch that worked for me as a jumping off point, and have just about got a rule of thirds element to the LO!!

This photo is of Evie, on 1st may '09, when she bravely pulled out her VERY wobbly front tooth (the other one went some weeks ago!) - she was so pleased it was out, and proud of herself for being brave enough to give it a little tug!!! Good time to ask for a gappy smile pose!! Of all the photos I took, this is my favourite!

Anyway, the horses are calling, so here's the LO!!

Credits: Sweet Pollyanna Page Kit by Erica Belton at Digital Scrapbook Place
Fonts: Jenkins v.2.0 * Mary Jane Meade
Sketch: April '08 at DSP

Bernie x

Another nature LO from me today! Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It Challenge at UKScrappers this week was to scrap the outdoors. I got this lovely shot (again, with Antoinette's Canon!) on Bank Holiday Monday, when we went to Kearsney Abbey for the afternoon. We had a lovely brisk walk with Evie, Antoinette and Antoinette's best mate Laura. This photo has had a bit of contrast added but that's it! Was really pleased with the tones in the photo!

So that's all for this evening! PSE5 decided to close itself when I was halfway through the LO, so I had to start again from scratch - another lesson learned: Save As You Go!!!

Bernie x

Credits: b/g pp = Irish Eyes from Pixel Music Scraps

dark border pp and pale pp = Miss Vivi On The Road Kit from Digiscrapping.ch

Brush = Border brushes for photoshop by Pyocola-Sama

Font= DukePlus

Well, here is my latest LO. It was created for the New Kid on the Block contest over at Digital Scrapbook Place. It's open to all who are new to digi scrapping. The idea is you are given some freebies to create a LO with, which you then upload to their gallery. Then more experienced digi scrappers (and your fellow New Kids!) offer words of encouragement and constructive criticism. You then rework the LO as you see fit, using as many or few of the suggestions made as you're comfortable with. Then that LO is commented on. If you're lucky your initial LO won't need many tweaks to reach perfection (!). Mine needed about 6!!

Now I have a LO I love and have even learned some new techniques in PSE5 to boot!

I chose to use this photo as I was so pleased with it. I took it with the little compact Canon A470 camera we've bought for our eldest daughter, Antoinette, who's going away to France with the school in a couple of weeks. It has a great macro on it, as you can see, and even has face recognition for up to 9 faces! My far more expensive Fuji hasn't got that!! The new camera was even in a sale so we got it for just £50 - what a bargain! It's going to be my new handbag camera once Antoinette returns from her travels!!!

The LO is called Unseen Beauty because life has been so hectic here recently that I failed to pay any attention to the gorgeous lilies I was given by the nice Sainsbury's delivery man (for not having one item of my internet shopping!!) until one morning their smell just hit me. Usually I'd have been taking photos from all angles as soon as they came out! So it gave me a bit of a jolt to try and slow things down a bit here and pay more attention to the beautiful things all around me!

The kit used (and recoloured a LOT!) is the Welcome Kit from DSP by the DSP Designers. The font is Rough n Ready by Emma Powell at DSP and the Alpha is IcyAlpha by Laura Bavin at DSP.

That's it for tonight as I've had a hard afternoon paper scrapping with a friend, lol!

Bernie x

Here we go!!

Well, here it is! I decided that with my new-found obsession with digi scrapping, I really should set up a blog! I still love my paper scrapping of course, but digi is so fast in comparison, it's helpful for those times when I've only got an hour to play!!

So, this is my first post...I'll upload some Los later!
Bernie x