Circle work

It's January- must be time for another post. One per month. That's enough, isn't it? It's not like anyone comes here to read anything, or even comes here at all! This is more for my own records. And YUK! I look back at old posts and cringe. Even some of my 'creative' work repels me. Yet, it will stay.

I used to write a lot of music. I started when I was about 10 years old. Before that, I'd make up songs and tunes all the time but never wrote anything down. I wrote songs for people's birthdays, songs to whilst away the time, songs to express my distress or sadness, songs of joy and calmness. Unfortunately, I think I still only have one or two written... somewhere. You see, after a short while, I became repelled by my own work. Now I regret that. Therefore, I pledge to keep my rubbish on this blog!! Even if I hate, hate, hate it. Because, 30+ years on, it still would be nice to see my old compositions, even if it was just to laugh at myself.

Something that doesn't repel me right now:
The lovely blog of the lovely Amy Moss: http://www.eatdrinkchic.com
I think I've come across this site before but that was many blogs ago. I've just rediscovered her work today and am loving all the free goodies she's created to share. I found her (this time) via http://indiefixx.com after looking at their free art giveaways. I did a search on the artists to find out if any of them were Australian. To my amazement, there were several.

Creatively, I've not been doing much for myself at the moment. I got my Christmas cards done, though used one of last year's designs (since I made so many and only used one then). Unfortunately, I'm a big slack-arse and the end of year rush got the better of me.. and I didn't post them out! I managed to hand-out the ones to those I saw but that was it. (I actually did go to the post office but they had sold out of the Christmas stamps- which are cheaper in Australia for sending cards.)

I did a bit of work on my blog header (after, yet another, name change- but we'll ignore that habit for now). Very easy-peasy. I did it just using MS Publisher but you just as easily use MS Word or similar word processing programs.

Just in case anyone wants to know how, if anyone ever comes by here, I'll provide a brief tutorial.

Step 1: collect some lovely background images (eg from digital scrapbooking sites; from free blog tools sites such as the Graphics Fairy's how to blogspot site; or create some yourself).
Step 2: open word or publisher
Step 3: Go to 'insert' on the menu bar across the top. Choose 'shape.' I chose the circle shape. Click on the page somewhere and drag the mouse to create the size of your chose shape.
Step 4: Save your work so far. (Yes, I'm obsessive about hitting that save button.)
Step 5: Click on the shape once. Once you have clicked on the shape, a tab will appear on the menu bar that is called 'drawing tools.' Click on that tab.
Step 6: In 'shape styles' there are a number of pre-set styles you can apply to your shape. Choose one that please you. I chose a white border with a slight shadow to one side.
Step 7: Go to 'shape fill.' Scroll down to 'picture.' Choose one of the pictures you've previously saved or created (or you can just use a solid colour, or experiment with the textures already provided, if you prefer).
Step 8: Save your work.

That it's! From there I just copied and pasted my circles so they would all have the same style applied and then I changed the picture insert to get the different colours/patterns. All I had to do then was to arrange all my circles and add some word art over the top. Easy-peasy!

If anyone ever asks, I'll come back to this post and put up diagrams of each of the steps. For now, I'm sure I'd just be repeating other useful information readily available on the web, but if anyone ever wants to know, give me a holler.

cheerio, Lou

Annual blog entry

Once again, an entire year has passed and I'd completely forgotten that I ever had a blog! Surely an annual entry doesn't really class as a blog, does it? Nevermind... at least I now know it's here and I can use it.

I've written on so many other blogs and in forums in the past year. I've also started a blog within a forum for a particular subject. Only thing is, that blog is so slow to upload text and images. Thus, I think I'll move on over here and see how it goes.

Let me take this opportunity to post some of the digital art I've done in the past year. I'm more than happy for anyone who stops by to use my work, save it, print it out, share it. Just one thing: don't claim it as your own or try to sell it.

So here's my first set: my Christmas cards from the end of 2011.

Traditionally I've made my cards by hand, a-la-scrapbooking style, but this was my first foray into digital designing. I've been printing off the inners for my cards for years so it was about time I did something for the outer.

I started by trying to make just ONE design but my anal retentive side of the brain took over and I ended up making ten. Er, correction, I made about 15. But I'm only happy with ten of them.  Once I had designed these, I printed them out on glossy medium-weight card and then 'scrapped' them onto some of my laborious collection of pre-folded cardstock.

The design above was the one I ended up using for 2011. Since Christmas is during the summer months in Australia, this seemed to fit the best. Plus I loved those colours. I have no idea if I'll use one of the other designs this year, or if I'll be inspired (and have the time) to create something new.

I hope you like these. If you want to use them, click on the image for the original size to pop up, then right click and save the picture.

I'm extremely thankful to Karen at The Graphics Fairy for all her wonderful images I've been collecting and experimenting with in the past few years.

I've also collected quite a few freebies (and some paid content) from Design House Digital. All of the content from DHD that I've used is NOT premium content, therefore I have no right to sell these items. That means that you, also, do not have a right to sell these items.

There are quite a few other places around the web where I've collected vintage images or used online tools to create my own 'paper' designs.

I do not intentionally steal anyone else's work. If you see something that belongs to you (ie is still in copyright) please let me know. If not, feel free to use these digital creations for your personal pleasure.