I haven't been able to scrap lately for several reasons. Instead I have been hunting kits and buying them or making reviews of them. I already showed my enthusiasm for actions on the post before this, and as I started playing around with one of our wedding picture and cross processed it, it suddenly got a tint that made me think of Meredith's Urban Colour Rave that I just bought not so long ago. And the ball started to roll. I noticed that my 3 latest LO's has Meredith's stuff as the dominant item. So she saved me from the slump!

I managed to scrap 4 for the last days. I set a ban on myself today to stay away from the pc because weekend is day off of my baby, supposedly, but since she had overtime today, it''s scrapping time! First two pictures from our february wedding in the Philippines:

Credits: Papers, cornerstamp and alpha's from Meredith Fenwick's Urban Colour Rave, Frame and label from Lie Fhung's Soul Searching Sample kit, phototurns from Holly McCaig's NSD, Round tacks from IOD Essentials, flower crochet from Gina's Cabrera's Snippet essential at DDE, Miss Mint decorative edges used on red paper as clipping mask and monogram ornament used on our wedding invites turned to a brush and used as clipping mask for one of the paper's in Meredith's kit. Fonts: Jane Austen and Cotillon. Actions used: Ittybitty Actions cross processing.

Credits:Sea grass Kacki paper from Michelle Colema's Good Karma pp (freebie on her blog), Meredith Fenwick's paper and dot from Swimtrunks kit (his cd by Kim Christensen and Meredith Fenwick), Christine Nash's template on the circled paper, twill jumpring from Holly McCaig's NSD accent pack, tag by Kime Christensen from his cd's Overall kit (collaboration with Meredith F.), shmootzy alpha from Nancie Rowe janitz, string from Jan Crowley's downtown kit and frame from Kim Crother's sloppy borders gallery collection. Font: Dear Joe. Actions: Light b&w conversion with ittybitty actions.



Credits: Papers from Katie Pertiet's Tapestry, Jackie Eckles' altered kit and folksy paper pack, speech bubble from Kristy Ann Nerness' Noteworthy, Window frame in the background from Katie Pertiet, ink spatter and artist "bra" wordart from Gina Cabrera's Book bag essentials, Alpha's from Holly and Kristy Ann's Create collaborative kit, crown from Kristy Ann's collage combo, tapes from IOD essentials and Katie Pertiet, images from stock exchange and adobe bridge (utensils, paintbrush and torso), buckle from Michelle Coleman, "belt" and frame on chest from Holly McCaig's NSD, acrylic brush strokes from Michelle Coleman and twill used to hang fram by Kathryn Balint's my old office. Made a brush and used as clipping mask by an image silhouette bought from Stock expert (swirls in hair too used as brush from stock expert). Fonts are disgusting behavior, broken 15, xerox malfunction and plastique.

Credits: Paper, tag on picture, lace and stitch from Nancie Rowe Janitz' Bleached linens, vellum tag from Miss Mint, masking tape from Katie Pertiet, Wordart from Jen Wilson's You Name it Indviduality, ornate frame from shabyy princess' studio chic and sanded chipboard alpha from Jan Crowley. Fonts used are: mom's typewriter, pristina,teletype and vtsmith upright

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So many stuff to report. That's what happen when I don't blog for the wekend (but i did get a refreshing break, making Lo's and going out with sis and hubby).

*CT Call and designer call*

The digichick girls, Kimberly Giarusso (guest ct only for one month), Jan Crowley and Heather Roselli are out looking for girls on their Creative teams. Jan's call is very tempting. Love her works (she has a new kit below). While the sweet bunch wants 3 more designers to join them.

*SALES/MY SHOPPING*

Beside from these, Lori Barnhurst is removing her store (scrapsydaisy.com) and has put everything on half the price, yes that's 50% off. You have till the tenth to snag her goodies. Here is my tentative shopping cart (minus some because I also have to make room for Eve Recinella's sale. I love her elements and colors). Eve's wishlist is below Lori's, and Paula's below Eve's. i also would love something from Sandra Boddington, but haven't posted it here.

As I make this entry, I come upon a new sale. Summer Simmons is having 40% sale at summergiggles.com as celebration for 2 of her design team to make it to final 7 at UDS. Look at some of her lovely stuff in my previous post. Also Holly has 15% off her newest addition in the inspiration series. Kristy Ann's birthday sale, but check the specials at their store where 2 of her paper pack is 50% off.

and this is my real shopping cart from Scrapartist. Got 25% off the other day (one-day sale).

It was tough narrowing it down. There are so many good stuff there. I loved for example MCO's lace brushes among other stuff. And it was hard choosing between IOD's papers. Wicked Garden has been in my eye for a long time, but it ended with plantation with the wonderful gentle colors and texture.

And later, while I was doing a LO with Bleached Linen, I decided I needed the elements too (at normal price another day).

and I also took advantage of Holly's sale. I already bought stuff during her memorial day sale, and got more now. I love her accents and been using some on the latest LO's . When I am stuck, she has the stuff I need.

Due to the many and frequent sale, and I am going insane, I think I will stick to sale 40% above. Less and I have to pass. I also bought by the way a font because the journalling fonts Michelle Coleman's rocks. So I got the FG Matilda at font garden for 3 dollars. I said to myself not to buy fonts, but again I broke my rule (Michelle had posted wrong font on her LO, and gave me a hard time finding it, but i remember she used this frequently, so I went to her old LO's. Seems she likes Marydale and FG Matilda. Marydale is a free font though. Fontgarden has lots of nice journaling fonts for sale.)

*FREEBIES*

Not all goodies is for sale. Some costs 0 dollars. Yes there are plenty of freebies going around. You have to get Paula Duncan's newest kit for free, before it goes empty. After that it will be selling at sweet shoppe design. Dianne's alpha is already expired. Glad I got in time. Bloglines does help bigtime! Holly's felt darlings are up for grabs at their yahoogroup. I am going to apply for the group shortly.

NEW UPDATE: 2peas July free kit is up (After i published, Katie's blog doorbelled at bloglines where I got the info. Won't post any previews, worked too long on this entry already, and man am I hungry. But head to 2peas now. I am downloading at the moment!

And if you join contests, then you might get more free stuff.

*CONTESTS*

IOD has just ended their name that kit contest. I joined in, but wasn't so lucky. I also wasn't lucky at Ange Dawn's regular what's your number contest (but since she holds it regularly, I might get more chances. VAlerie's new kit is also up for draws at her blog. Time is short. Winner is announced today. Christine Smith will also have a draw on her new kit that is due thursday.

*PRODUCTWATCH*

1 & 2: IOD's new San Salvatore

3: New from Nikki Meador

4: New from Mindy Terawasa at Sweet Shoppe

5: From Maya at Scrapbookgraphics (got it from Gina's blog)

6: Lie Fhung's Resilience for charity to Indonesia

7: Anna Aspnes' Sono Summer at Scrapartist (featured designer of this month).

8: Valerie's new kit for release very soon.

9: New from Dani Mogstad

10: At cottage-arts.net

11 & 12: More stitches from Lie Fhung

13: new from Paula Duncan

14 & 15: new from Christine Smith out soon (check her blog on how to win it)

We have more:

1-3: Fee Jardine and Kristy Ann Nerness' new collaborative kit, ain't the doodles fab!

4-5: Holly's new stuff from her inspiration collection.

6: New yummy stuff from Jan Crowley.

And then some more:

1: New collaborative kit soon out at ACOT

2 & 3: New from Michelle Coleman, what lovely colors

4: Lovely textures. It's available at 3 scrapateers (don't remember the name, something with stitch)¨

And still going...

Barely making it on time is the newest from Summer Simmons. It's 40% off as part of her sale.

*ACTIONS and IMAGE ENHANCEMENT*

Played around with the ittybitty actions I bought and here are some results. First one is original:

Framecorner free action from teyaphoto.com

And here is a cross process:

And because of Michelle's new LO. I searched for midnight sepia action free from atncentral.com. I also found some other actions in the process, like the cool gothic glow and lensblur (mimicing the effect of the camera add on lensbaby, I wrote about the lensbaby on my other blog). Original picture first, then the rest in the collage (applied first ittybitty actions as seen in the first image and then added the other new free actions).

Just check the effect on gothic glow on this picture I borrowed from atn's site:

And since friday passed, Jessica Sprague had a new issue of her photoshop friday. The b&w conversion I was already familiar with, but not the sepia. Look what I made with that technique.

That's a wrap, phew! I am outta here... PS! Pardon the small text, something got screwed when I pasted the credits. Those were the only one's that were supposed to be small. Still owe some new links for scraptools. Later, ok....Man, the sun is so bright outside, I should be getting my butt outdoors. Norwegian summers are too short to miss. (Just to have an oversight for myself. 30.22 dollars used this month so far, 130 with the actions, and then I have now a plan for the next 33 dollars.)