Some Meerkat Kits

Layout and Postcard Template

Just made another template, only because I wanted to scrap some pictures with a postcard theme.

So, the link to download, in separate PNG files and a PSD file, can be found on 4shared if you would like to share. Terms of Use are included, in text and graphic format. Please leave a comment if you take the freebie? (Scroll down, read anycomments on this post and then click to add your own if you want.)

We love going to the lake in winter, as guests of our friends. Great to walk on the frozen lake, enjoy the snow, or sunshine, or whatever the weather brings!

But you don't want to know all that, you came here for the freebie, right? Remember to post a link to where you upload your layout if you use it, so I can leave a comment for you, please!

Download the zipped file, at 200 ppi, from here.

Sailing away

Played a little while with a freebie Quickpage from Stacy Carlson and Kathryn Mhire; through the FridayFreebie newsletter. It was a page with title "Sailing away" and I just had the perfect pictures to use!

The Quickpage is great, with wonderful colours, and I played with some effects in the sails and adding some small pictures of the city skyline.

The bigger layout is here if you want to see more, or read /post comments.

Tree Trekking!

Never heard of this? We've been talking about going tree trekking / tree hiking / walking in the clouds for some time now. Basically it consists of cables or suspension bridges or other combinations, linking trees together, and you walk metres above the ground, admiring different views, testing your limits and challenging yourself.

We went to Horseshoe Valley for a weekend, but with no snow, there was not much to do! The Sunday we booked ourselves on a Tree Trekking expedition, which takes 3 hours, including training. It was great! We walked on tightropes, balanced on round pieces of wood, stepped carefully on rungs that would flip over or down, flung ourselves down zip lines -- talk about exhilirating!



The layout was made with a template by Marlie from the CSE3 group, but I added some pics. A bigger view is in the 3Scrapateers gallery if you want to post feedback or have a closer look and more info.

Thanks for looking!

Shutterfly book

Have you tried having some of your pictures (or layouts if you scrapbook) printed in a hardcover book? I've done one earlier in 2006 through one company, and about five since November 2006 through Shutterfly.

We are thoroughly impressed with Shutterfly's service, and the quality of the books! When one was faulty, it was replaced.

The latest book is hardcover, with some of my pictures (digital scrapbook pages) on the front and back covers, as part of the cover (not pasted on). Inside, full-bleed pages with wonderful colours have all our friends ooh-ing and aah-ing.

The Shutterfly website is quite helpful when you create your first book, but Sunni from SBE also created a step-by-step instruction page with pictures and especially hints about creating the front and back covers. Check it out if you like! The link to a text-only description is here, and a pdf document with pictures is is here.

Hubby looked at my albums, consisting of printed layouts on photo paper, and said -- these printed books will take up a lot less space, and you can read the title on the spine ... LOL So maybe that is the way of the future!

First post of 2007, and a template freebie

Blessings to all for a good and happy (and productive) 2007!

Thank you to all the people who share digital layouts, templates, ideas, sketches, elements and more. I always try to keep up with sharing and such, but --- Real Life gets in the way, doesn't it?

However, I've tried my hand at creating a scrapbook layout template. If you haven't discovered templates yet, please look at some of the blogs linked on the right, or the SBB or SBE store. Templates make scrapbooking easy! (see notes below is this is an unfamiliar term) You fill the shapes with the papers or elements of your choice, add your pictures and journaling, and you are done.


I've tried to make a template of a favourite layout made some years ago. The template is 12x12 inch (square), at 300 ppi, but can be resized as you like. Please remember to leave a comment ("leave some love") if you download the template, and post your layout link when you use it so we can see and comment for you! We all love comments ...

Layout is here if you want to see a bigger view: Laughter





Template can be downloaded from here in psd format (this is my first try to save as psd; hope it works!) or in several png files from here.
Look on the page for the small "download file" link - you might have to wait a few seconds for it to appear.

To post comments, scroll down, and look for the small link that says "post comment" at the end of this blog entry.

Most templates are done in layered format, so that you can open and fill each shape individually. They could be in Photoshop (psd) or layered PNG formats, with transparency. If it still sounds like gibberish, just do a Google for tutorial scrapbooking templates or something. Julie Kelley has a great tutorial for using layered templates on her blog.

Santa Claus parade, pet peeve and such

Hello, everyone!

I'm sure nobody stops by here regularly, because updates are few and far between ... We've been incredibly busy! Last weekend was the Santa Claus parade, and our youth members entered a float for the first time. It was a wonderful night out, with people lining the streets of the route 5 and 6 deep. Not too cold, dry streets - not even one snowflake - the smell of hot chocolate in the air, and excited children buzzing and giggling, all bundled up.

The pictures can be found online here if anyone wants to take a look.

Anyway, while looking for pictures to use on a 2007 calendar for family, I found an old picture I made some years ago. My pet peeve is when people leave the lid of a toilet up while flushing. The menfolk have been well-trained very early on in this household - all toilets are always closed, except when in use! So, the picture was made (4x6 inch) for the benefit of visitors or guests, printed and placed in all the bathrooms in the house.

Here is a small view of it - all items were created by me, and the picture is an old, free stock photo. Would anyone be interested in downloading a printable version, 100 ppi? Just post a comment with your email, and I'll send it off!

Have a great day!

Did a Reiki course!

Hi, everyone - don't think many people read here, but no matter.

What a week last week was! Hardly touched ground, didn't ge to reply to emails as I wanted to, didn't get to visit blogs and post comments --- so please forgive me if I didn't reciprocate something you posted or sent!

What took up a large chunk of time, was that I did a training course in Reiki this last weekend. It ran on the Friday evening until 10.30 pm, the whole of Saturday, and again Sunday afternoon after church, into the evening.

It was wonderful! To feel the energy flowing through your hands, to learn the gentle power, to be able to help others and yourself in the process - a wonderful gift.

I really want to create some digital items or layouts or quickpages or something to share, but this weekend is a craft sale I'm working for, so maybe not before next week! Please keep checking back if you want to see if there might be something you would like to pick up. You can also just enter your email address on the right, under my profile link, to be updated by email if there are changes in the blog.

Any Reiki people out there? Please post a comment and a link of where I can get in touch with you!

Freebie - Yellow 8x5 inch quickpage

Just because I haven't posted in a while, and I've been downloading some items these last two days --- hopefully someone can use this page! It is a rectangular page, created from my "Denim and Yellow" page kit (or Denim and Chicks - whatever you want to call it!)

To the right is a pic of the full kit, if you click on it, you should see a bigger view.

The quickpage is on 200 ppi, and made to hold one photo. I've used it to scrap an old university picture, as well as a separate page or front page for a recipe book, as in the sample below. The sample is what the quickpage looks like. I haven't yet put it into an online gallery so you can see more, but hopefully can do so this afternoon (this is just a thumbnail).


If you can use the page, here is the download link - but please, if you take it, leave me some love here, would you? And if you use the page, please post the link so we can go see what you did!

The link will be live for seven (7) days from today, Oct. 24th, or for 100 downloads.

Download link

Layout using the quickpage: Student Fun - or if this link doesn't work, go to the 3Scrapateers link to the right, in the bar, and you should be taken to my gallery.

Thanks for wanting my stuff - hope you can use it!

Another LO - using a template

HI again, everyone

This weekend was very busy, with lots of stuff happening. We also worked on items for the upcoming Craft Show in November at church. Carolyn had bought some handmade items which we used as samples to create about 100 small gifts, decorated with mulberry paper, quotes, ribbon and stickers to sell at the craft sale. It was a great day on Saturday!

Afterwards, I felt like doing some scrapping - haven't done any since going to Windsor for a scrapbooking weekend in September (and those pictures are not even uploaded in a gallery yet. Sigh. Anyone have spare time to trade?)

--links are below or in the right-hand bar; please keep reading! ---

I downloaded a template from Alma Townsend for her October Template Challenge at SBE, and used the kit by Vickey Morrissey (in the July 2006 free SBE Newsletter) to create the layout. The pictures used, are not very good, but I wanted to scrap them, because of the memories, and everything happening around a sick friend. The pictures were taken on Oct. 2004, and she passed away a year later (just a year ago now).

Templates are great fun! The idea is that all the layers are in different colours of grey, and you use your stash of papers, etc. to fill the different layers to create your own layout. It is different from a sketch, in the sense that the shapes and sizes can be selected and filled. Hard to explain - try it yourself!

Links: SBE (Scrapbook-Elements) Monthly newsletter is free, you just have to sign up for it to download the gifts and learn more about challenges, digital scrapbooking, and so on.

Alma Townsend is the author and owner of The ScrapHabit, and she also had a monthly Newsletter.
Her template is available from the SBE Gallery, for the month of October, 2006, so grab it quick! Just read the info under the template to download.

1. Alma's ScrapHabit link
2. Vickey Morrissey's blog
3. Scrapbook-Elements

Ystervarkies - QP layout

Haven't posted anything in a while - it has been going nuts lately!
Meetings, this and that, pets and whatnot - I don't know why we keep so many balls in the air, but I suppose we'll collapse without that, right?

Anyway, I've just managed to scrap an old picture, taken in 2004, of the boys helping to make Ystervarkies (a sweet, chocolatey South African treat). Thumbnail is to the left, and should take you to the gallery on 3Scrapateers where the bigger layout is.
(More info under the bigger layout.)

The quickpage is from J. Burkhart's blog. Thanks so much for sharing!
(or http://burkhartscrapzone.blogspot.com/ )

Tobermory5 meet at Wonderland!

In July, we went camping with some other friends at Tobermory, the lovely town at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. Five of the kids bonded, and had great fun together during the weekend. Four of them managed to get together - the adults went to great pains to have them spend some time before summer's end. We took them to Canada's Wonderland for the day. Pics are linked below, and our Skyflyer adventure (with a link to the video clip) can be seen in the album too.

2006-Tobermory5-Wonderland

Aug 12, 2006 - 39 Photos

Next meeting for the Tobermory 5 is at the end of September, during Croptober.

I'm a Siamese cat - and you?

Just a bit of fun! Someone sent a website about people's ideas regarding pets, and you can vote on some of the clever, whacky, nutty, funny ideas people have, after free registration. I was just playing around a few minutes, and found a "Cat Quiz" to do while waiting for something to print.

Below is the info and the link if anyone wants to play too.

You Are A Siamese Cat

What Cat Breed Are You? at Idea Fetch

Have a glorious day, whatever you are doing!

Thanks for the thank you cards!

Thank you, to several people who took on the challenge to create a thank you card I could use for our friends who celebrated Citizenship with us (see next post). I think I'm going to use all of them, and there are still templates and cards coming in from others who were playing with the graphics!

I hope you enjoy the graphics you downloaded, and that you will have fun with them. If you create layouts, please send me a link of where you upload so I can post a comment for you!

The combined cards received so far, are in the image in this post. Amazing how different people can use the same graphics to create totally different views!

Again, thank you to all who celebrated with us, and for those who created and sent cards from the Country Styles Gingham kit.

Finally citizens!

On July 27th, 2006, a very great day happened for our family: we finally became Canadian citizens!

We came from South Africa to Ontario, Canada, on June 1997 and have settled in to live here, to make friends, to create a support network and to learn to love our adoptive country. Before we stepped off the plane that day in June, we could sing the Canadian anthem, knew the provinces and capital cities, knew the names of the prime ministers, premiers and other officials. We were determined to work as hard as needed to fit in, to embrace everything, from the snow we had never seen at that point, to the lakes which we were unfamiliar with.

Now, after nine years, we can finally call ourselves Canadian. We are grateful to everyone who helped in whatever manner to make us feel at home, to accept us, to love our recipes and food we brought with us, to share in picking up some words from our language, Afrikaans, to embrace us and to create a family for us.

We could not love Canada more if we were born here. That doesn't mean we have sworn off South Africa, because we are what we are, and we are a part of all we have met and everywhere we have been.

If any digital scrapbookers are reading here, would you like to receive a link to a few elements I've created (from the Country Styles Gingham kit) to help make a thank you card by tomorrow, July 31st? I can't seem to think how to put the items together to just drop in a picture on a 6x4 inch size card!
Email me, if you have questions.

If you want to download the items to create a template for a thank you card, please go to the link below. It will be live for two days only, until July 30th (EST). All I ask, is that you post a comment, preferably with your blog link if you have one, when you snag the freebie! When you have created a template, please email it to me.

Preview of what you download is here if you want to take a look first.
Download link (16 Mb) after you have posted a comment is here.
Thanks!

Preview of the Trillium Quickpage

Sorry all - guess something got eaten somewhere! To the right is the sample of the freebie regarding the Trillium post (see below).
There are two pages in the zipped file - one with title "Trillium" and poem, and one without.
Hope it would be useful to someone! (There are links to download from either Rapidshare or Yousendit)

Link to the "Save Ontario's Trillium" post on the blog:
Meerkat's Heap: Save Ontario's Trillium!


If you use a page, would you let me know where to see it, please?

Thanks!

Save Ontario's Trillium!

There are plans to change Ontario's Trillium logo, at a cost of over $200 thousand!

(Scrapbookers - see the last paragraph and thanks for sharing the news! )

Please don't just trust what I write, but follow the links to the websites below. This is NOT about political parties or politics, it is about leaving well enough alone and to rather change what is needed in the province instead of bothering with a logo.

If you know of friends or have family and friends in Ontario, Canada, please send them to this Blog address, or send the information on to them so that people can be aware of this!! (** See below for more)

Link below from where this was copied (dots left where I left out parts and my bold and italics. Read original on the link below:

>>
The Trillium is a symbol for ALL ONTARIANS .... Ontario's trillium has long been the symbol of hope and opportunity for all. The classic T-shaped logo was first used by the Ontario government more than 40 years ago. It's been used no matter which political party was in power. That is, until now. .... And he's using taxpayer's dollars and a Liberal friendly ad agency to do it. The cost - $219,000 taxpayer dollars to design a new logo.

>>To read more, please go here: http://www.savethetrillium.ca/
Click on "take action" at the top, or on Share to send it on.

**If you are a scrapbooker (digital or paper) I'll gladly send you a Quickpage in return for reading here, to use for your own pictures, which you can print and keep in an album or frame or give as a gift. Just slip your own pictures in - of a family friend, or of your own trilliums, perhaps.
To get the quickpage: Download from
Yousendit until July 28th here ;
or from
Rapidshare here - and I'll appreciate it if you leave a comment on the blog when you grab the freebie! Always nice to read who liked it enough to snag! **
The quickpage is described here in the Blog, with a link to a bigger view in a gallery. **

Stained Glass kit

Someone searched and found me, to get hold of the Stained Glass kit - glad to help, and glad you like the kit and the quickpages, Susan! Hope you enjoy the elements.

To the right is one of the pages made from the kit, but it includes 7 glass alphabets, and some coloured backgrounds, multi-coloured frames, etc. Should really get scrapping again ...

Oh yes, below is a pic of what the Stained Glass kit looks like with the other items included:

Clicking on the pic to the left should take you to a bigger view.

Clicking on the blue thumbnail above, should take you to the gallery where a bigger view is uploaded.

Have fun whatever you are doing!

Three annoyed cats

Picture of the three cats, taken Sunday afternoon after we got home from gallivanting the whole weekend. They look thoroughly fed-up with us leaving them alone, don't they?

Oscar on the left, Essie with closed eyes and Chatter just giving us his masked wonder look.

We attended the Carabram (Brampton's annual multi-cultural festival), we visited the Lucas Holtom annual fair, we sold cookbooks at the weekly Farmer's Market - it was a full weekend! Pics should be uploaded to the Picasa Web gallery soon, if anyone wants to see more.

The Ukranian pavillion was utterly wonderful when the international group visited on Sunday. The Polish pavillion was something I would have gone back to and spent many more hours at, looking at the rich costumes, enjoying the dances and the music. It reminded us a lot of the South African dances called Volkspele (folk dances), in a way, but more formal.

Link to the web albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/meerkatster/

Raining cats and dogs here --- very happy for the rasberries in the back yard! 

Had a caricature done!

Well, haven't updated this blog in ages --- life is too busy! Trying to do an update via email now.

Caught a bus to Wonderland this afternoon and met Arno there. Theo was working, and we would have had to go pick him up later anyway. We spent about 4 hours in the park and had several rides without long line-ups. Also a very leisurely meal next to the waterfall, consisting of Teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies.

I've been watching the caricature artists for a while now, and finally we did it tonight. Told the girl to have fun and do whatever she wants. Mentioned our fat cats ... and here is the result of what she did with us. The people who were watching her sketch, had a lot of fun commenting on the picture developing. We had no idea what she did until she was done, of course. Took her only about 10 minutes to do the whole thing, colouring and all.

Re the girl doing it - she must be about 19. They are all very young; last night there were about 6 of them on duty and we watched them all for a while. They are excellent, and not a one of them older than 23! Payment is per person sitting for the sketch. And you can tell them what you want your body to be.

We couldn't make up our minds. I wanted something with computers and cameras and stuff, but also mentioned our fat cats. Then told the girl to just go ahead and have fun - and she did! She's a pretty blonde, and Arno was beaming while she was sketching him, because I told him to enjoy it. Not many men can be facing a pretty blonde with a spouse next to them. LOL It drew a whole crowd, watching her. She kept telling the people behind, "Don't tell them, they don't know!"

This weekend we'll be selling the cookbooks at the Brampton Farmer's Market, and want to attend the Carabram as well.

Have a good weekend, all!