katharyn brine

Moving Space

Hello all,

I will be moving to Blogspot soon. Am in the process of setting it up. So copy this address www.katharynbrine.blogspot.com into your internet favourites straight away!

Lucky Me!

I forgot to share this excitement with you all - I've got four layouts in the current Scrapbook Creations magazine and one in the Scrapbooking Memories magazine (I am lead to believe - haven't actually picked up a copy myself, but they want to pay me for it already. Hope I didn't miss it!)

Woo Hoo!

I've definitely met my 2008 goal to become a published scrapbooker. Now what? I haven't even had time to write out a Year in Review newsletter, set 2009 goals or even (snail) posted the painstakingly handmade Christmas Cards I made. Stayed up til 2am with a friend and two bottles of wine doing that one! Her toaster was sporting a new "bling" look after we experimented with sparkly embossing powder.

Big week this week.

   

Wrap-Up

Happy Birthday Claudia! Tried to get on here yesterday but there are some terrific storms blowing here - no power for about 18 hours (which means no water, no phone, toilet rationing, no warm baby food, no washers, do I need to go on?)

Anyway, have decided we are much too reliant on power - need to be much more subsistent. Which in terms of this crafty blog, means I need to get back to more traditional scrapping too - stuff that you don't need the computer for. Back to glue and real stuff, not just pictures of it.

That being said, I have slowly gotten back into scrapping after a month-long break from it. Feel like I missed a fair few milestones etc. but am slowly doing them as I think of them now.

Also want to print out my photos for the plain old 300-pic albums again - just in case a digital catastrophe happens and all my images are wiped beyond repair. But that's a big feat considering I've not printed anything out since October 2006. I have found out trying to upload 976 photos for the period between January and July 2008, is probably a bit excessive.

 Note to Self: CULL. Will try that another day.

Good to catch up with you again Claud. Hope you had a great birthday. You're so together. You've got it goin' on babe.

Some other bits 'n pieces...

Dana visits Nan & Pop's house for the first time.

 

Dana now has 4 teeth (two top, two bottom) and knows how to bite me where it hurts!

 

What an inspiring love tale. Met at 16 & 17yrs, first kissed under a large tree at Sawtell. Have lived and worked together each and every day since. And they still know how to be cheeky with one another .... Congratulations to my parents.

 Great fun at Nan & Pop's farm.

 

Goodbye Grandma.

   

End of one era, start of another .....

For those who have been waiting ever so patiently for my Mum's 60th chat book, she now has the finished product (she loved it) and I've posted the pages in a separate album on this site. Thanks for looking today.

Cheers. 

 

 

 

Couldn't Sleep

This is why, this little person here .....

 

 

Photo Books

Tis the season to be making everybody photobooks!

Each year I always over commit myself with all these grand plans for photobooks for family and friends etc. but it ends up quite a struggle to get just one done, let alone several.

But I have been filling my paid orders first, and it feels good to be creating with different subjects for a change. I've been given full creative licence to make an end-of-year-10 graduation book for a local lady who brought me a pile of ephemera snuck out of her daughter's bedroom, and it's invigorating to get inside the head of a teenage girl again - reliving my youth as it were ... Hope she likes it!

One problem here in Australia is that there is no where to print out a photo book unless you want to use the spacky pre-designed templates available at photo stores. They are fairly unispiring layouts and it's impossible to "create" (or compile is a better word) one standing in the middle of a store with three youngsters demanding attention from every customer who ventures into the store. So I'm still ordering them online from scrapbookpictures.com but with the Aussie dollar heading downward fast, the exchange rate is making it exhorbitant again. I think scrapbookpictures and shutterfly are the only places where you can print out your layouts into a blank photobook. No where in Australia offers that service. If you do know of a place, PLEASE tell me!

Anyway, here are a few things I've worked on intermittantly, in between trying the wean Dana, immunise everybody, taking off to the coast, holding Christening and birthday parties ...

 

Wanted to do this for a while. Uses papers from Hootfest May? over at www.littledreamerdesigns.com .

Love this tree. Trees are so in right now. Love them. Liking the colour combinations of teal, cream and brown too. I think the "design rule" is meant to be 60% light colour, 30% medium colour and 10% dark colour. 

 

This next one was to try out the extraction method, so it looks like the photo subject is coming out of the photo. I took the tutorial over at www.designerdigitals.com.

 

These next three are for wall decor - I'll get them printed onto 12 x 12 canvases (when they go on special!)

   

And here are some pages from two photobooks I made for the preschool - obviously can't show kiddy faces...

  

   

 

 

 

And look what can happen when you surrender your point-n-shoot camera to your 4 and 5yo's! Love the different perspectives and subjects that are a part of life down there at hip height!

               

Thanks for the photos Harvey! (5yo) and Riley (4). (Last two were touched up a bit by mummy!)

What a week I'm having ...

Lovin this rain - GOR-GE-OUS! Been doing a bit of gardening maintenance lately (nothing that really shows!) and this rain is fantastically timed!

Been taking Dana into the doctor every second day because she's been quite sick with bronciolitis, eye infections, viral infection (hacking cough) and a bacterial one too. And you know what? Throughout it all, she's been smiling non-stop like a trooper! She's such a happy little thing. She's getting better now too, so you don't have to wade through the snot to kiss her cheek!

So, scrapping's been in a bit of a lull lately. Just no time. Just no T_I_M_E. Gearing up for a couple of Christenings in the family too. You know, the ones I created the invitations for way back in June or July! Well, it's only just coming to fruition.

With all the activity starting up about Christmas plans and holidays and having just sent our parents away on an all expenses paid holiday to Tasmania as part of a 60th birthday celebration (woo hoo!), I am getting quite keen to visit the beach again myself. But with all these bloddy (typo error there, but I quite like the way it sounds!)  bills lying around here on the table, it's not going to be anytime soon! So, I have just been dreaming, using the photos from last year.

Here they are:

 

These all use the delicious "vibe" paper pack No.1 from here and I love the little "vibe" epoxy mini's they have there too. So Summery. I can see that dot paper fast becoming a "must-use" item!

While I think of it, I must tell you to look this up if you want to organise your digital supplies. It's SOOOOO special. I haven't finished organising and tagging everything, but when I do, I'll instantly get previews of all my stuff and the computer will just go find the folder it's in. Voila! Talk about time-saver. I spend 30 minutes trauling through my templates alone, trying to find the file that matches the preview. They've got really good customer service happening too - you can usually find the answers to all your technical fumblings on the forum, but in case you can't, they email you personally to help out. Well worth the money.

I'm also a big fan of Jessica Sprague in general, and she's doing another digi scrapping class FOR FREE! Find it here. 

Some other older layouts to finish up on:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking - let me know you're there by leaving a comment (my blog stats are so impersonal but at least I can tell I'm not just  talking to myself here ...!)

Go on. Do it.

Whoa!

Craft Fair & Christmas Countdown

For those of you wishing to make your own Christmas cards, NOW is the time to start. It's not too late to start your Year-in-Review newsletters - just don't leave it until the last minute! Check out this website for an excellent household "to do list" in the lead up to Christmas.

Participated in my first ever Craft Fair at the weekend, complete with bucketing rain, lots of sloshing around in puddles and madly throwing plastic sheets over tables to protect the merchandise. And you know what? I REALLY ENJOYED IT!

I had a go at selling pre-designed brag books, calendars and memory books, as well as offering to make up personalised 12 x 12 memory book layouts.  It didn't really help that my pre-made books assumedly got held up in Customs and DIDN'T ARRIVE in time for the fair, so now I have lots of books and no one to sell them to! 

Here's a sample - I made 8x8 baby boy & girl photo books, general 8x8 photo memory books, 5 kinds of 4x6 brag books, desk calendars that stand alone, gift tags, etc. The calendar and all the books are wire bound and come with heavy clear acetate fronts & backs. Have a squiz;

   

 

   

  
 

The idea behind these is that you can simjply add in your own photos (cut to size) and stick them on, and write on some journalling with a Sharpie permanent pen or special photo fineliner pen.

The same goes for these nifty little brag books, which I'm told are an excellent size for fitting in any handbag. Here's some previews;

 

Pre-printed brag books are $10, 8x8 books are $40 (barely covers cost of printing!) They all have 8 pages + cover. Postage is extra. I'll post the full range in a separate photo album at a later date (the images all need resizing individually!)

Please, please email me here if you are interested in purchasing any of these:

For those of you out there waiting to view the finished Secret Scrapping Business project involving JH, it's still being processed, sorry. I'll post it here as soon as she see's it. Promise! Thanks for participating.

Do it as it Happens

Two posts in one day, hey!!??   You = Lucky. Me = Procrastinating.

Just wanted to add in a page that I did within the week that it happened, simple and fast and recording a funny moment by cutting and pasting part of a blog post. Too Simple! Feels great to get it down before it was forgotten! Also uses an old "stock photo" because I have not got out my camera in yonks ... Just another example of how to use a text-based theme.

Part of it is blurred out to spare you the gory details and to spare little Riley mortifying embarassment!

Cheers.

Sometimes Projects

Every now and  then it's time to return to your "unfinished projects" pile and tackle those jobs that just didn't quite make it to completion. But I hate it.

I always scrap whatever I feel like on the day, and unless I get the whole project done then and there, (usually late into the night!) I find it very hard to go back and find that same mojo I was feeling when I first started it. And somehow the enthusiasm for it wanes as time goes on.

But it has to be done. Because you realise it was a great idea to begin with, and deserves to be finished. 

One day a few months ago, I started this text-based project because I had no fresh photos of my own. I kind of stumbled along, not really realising what I was getting myself into. In the back of my mind, I had been meaning to compile a heap of emails from my old school friends, which described what they were all up to at this point in their lives. Some sent pics of themselves or their children, which were a great source of enjoyment for me. So I wanted to use them somehow too, even if they were only low-resolution thumbnails (not great print quality).Then I got the idea to scan in some old photos of us all during our school years. Then I wanted to print out enough to make booklets for everybody included in the project. Then the whole project became a bit BIG, but still enjoyable. But just so BIG - especially going thru old photo albums finding scannable photos. And chasing up some friends who had not yet written their "bios" but who I knew would want to be included.

Anyway, I got stuck into it (and soon became a bit obsessive about it, tee! he!) but then life happened and it's been on the backburner. I hope to get back to it, but can't see it happening as pleasantly as it started, because now I've turned it into a "MUST DO" project instead of a "WANT TO DO" one.

So, it is now a "sometimes project" that has no deadline (unlike my secret scrapping business, of late!) and that makes it much more doable. No one is expecting it anyway (I haven't told anybody because I wanted it to be a surprise). So, in the interests of breaking up great big blocks of text like this, here are some unfinished pages;

  

So, now it's your turn to do some Spring Cleaning and finish off an unfinished project.

Secret Scrapping Business

Had to laugh today while visiting the doctor for a poo problem 3yo Riley's been having. Riley sat on my lap as I went through all the details about it, with Harvey chiming in occasionally to tell the doctor just how terrible it was that Riley kept having little accidents. During a lull in conversation, Riley turned to me in full confessional mode and shook his head as he guiltily admitted - "And I guess we should tell him that I pick my nose too, Mum ..."! Poor little guy!

I've been busy doing secret scrapping business so I've not got much to show tonight. Although I can say I'm enjoying a lot of freebie supplies I'm finding here after a friend recommended this site that collates all the digital supply freebies available from other blogs. Only thing is that it uses up a lot of time on my slow computer.

Here are some quick LOs about some milestones that Dana is reaching lately. They are more for the sake of getting them documented, rather than demonstrating any kind of design principles.

 

 

And a quick one to use up some cowboy pix:

 

And some old photos I scanned in:

 

And I've started doing some more grandparent LOs:

   

 

Some more on the boys using a point-form journalling technique and I've re-jigged an old tutorial a bit. Doesn't matter that they are very similar - they will be living in different albums:

 

 

But after getting another order back from my favourite American 12x12inch photo processor here, I'm loving this LO the most.

A lot of the texture in the papers does not show up on screen, but IRL (in real life) it's just exquisite!

A big thank you to anyone who is lurking here that participated in my secret scrapping project. I'll post the completed pages at a later date. Cheers.