trimmingthesails

Free Templates + another chance ...

... for Sian's lovely Pass the Book draw, which sadly couldn't be taken up this time, but means that we have a new winner who is ... drumroll ...

That'll be Debs, then! Many congratulations, and if you can send me your postal details, Debs, the lovely Painted Pages, raring to go to a new home, will be on its way.

There have been a few queries as to whether my templates for this year's Learn Something New Every Day were available, either to use for another LSNED or any other monthly record like Journal Your Christmas or December Daily - the ones that looked like this:

And I'm pleased to say that they are! Below you'll find ten psd. files in two zipped groups. The 'even' days (04-06, 10-12 etc.) are already flipped for you so that they are mirror images of the 'odd' days visible above. (You'll see what I mean if you flick through the album gallery here.) Mine are A4 size, but you can, of course, copy the layers in each file and simply paste them into a document size of your choice, such as an 8.5 x 11, for example. The photo space is the correct proportions for dropping in a polaroid made using a Photoshop/Elements action from the wonderful Rita's Coffee Shop Blog, or any photo you like of course.

Download LSNEDTemplates01-15: days 01-03, 04-06, 07-09, 10-12, 13-15:
Download LSNEDTemplates16-30: days 16-18, 19-21, 22-24, 25-27, 28-30

I hope you have fun with them, and do let me know if you use them :). Any problems, do get in touch. And wishing you a lovely weekend - we are off for a flying visit to the baptism of a very special little person, and may well return with a clutch of delightful photos for scrapping next week. A bientôt, bis bald, hasta luego and see you then!

 

The cover story ...

... for LSNED is not going to take long to tell, for there isn't a lot to it, truthfully. Here is how 'simple' my simple really is, and you can see the role of serendipity, rather than skill!

After that, I added a few lines just to link the two columns together and printed it out onto a soft cream whitewashed card. I did ponder adding a little digital flower or decoration to each corner intersection of the lines but decided that, as this was not a feature on the pages inside, to keep it crisp and very simple. Thank-you for the votes for the whitewashed card! and I liked your idea, Lizzie, of this on top of matt black with a narrow rim showing. As this 'booklet' will be an insert inside my This Is 2011 album (part 2), the covers need to be as soft and thin as I can make them this time, but I can see myself using your idea in the future.

Having added a few closing thoughts to the inside back cover, I'm done. Just as well - September has gone, a new month is here with paler sunshine, and today we have the birthday of an eighty-eight year old who doesn't want any fuss. D'you think a little cake and a glass of bubbly will be low-key enough? :)

 

Pulling together ...

... the Learn Something New Every Day pages is, in the first of October sunshine, looking like this:

and, further away, like this:

And the cover could be ... well, anything at the moment. It wasn't till the pages sat together I realised that, far from being rich autumnal colours, they're softer and more chalky. But perhaps for a back-to-school month, that's appropriate - for those us of a certain pre-whiteboard age! Oh, and the remaining entries for September are over in the album in the sidebar. So it's a toss-up between white-washed card, Kraft, or brown paper. Any thoughts? Hopefully, I'll have decided by Monday!

Wishing you a gentle and sun-filled start to the new month ...

Phew!

Yes, I know that needing not to be caught up is fashionable but I do like not having things hanging around! So it is with some relief that pages 19-24 of Learn Something New Every Day are now complete:

 The brevity of this post is accounted for in day 24! Now where's that floor mat and cushion ... Hoping to be compos mentis corporis (is that a phrase?) by Wednesday!

Passing the Painted Pages and LSNED ...

Roll up, roll up! It's your once-in-a-lifetime (well, for at least a month) chance to have Sarah Ahearn Bellemare's Painted Pages sent to you for free, anywhere in the world! It came courtesy of the thoughtful and generous Sian to begin with (whom you might like to go and congratulate on her latest exciting news), has had a sojourn with the talented Sandie, (love those shoes in her header), and is now awaiting a new owner - will it be you? Let me know in the Comments below if you'd like to be in the draw, which will take place next Wednesday! Aesthetically, I loved the feel of this book with its soft cover, the size of it (almost square), and the pretty colours ...

What's it about? The intro to the Intro says it all: "This is a book about finding your way, your own way, in the everyday, to be creative and make art." I loved it! Alongside dipping into its inspiring pages, I've also been forging ahead with my own for LSNED 2011 (pages all now together in the album in the sidebar):

OK, so I am not quite caught up, but will have to be by Monday because it's fast approaching the end of both September and Learn Something New Every Day. And, as I could have added to the 18th above, Left-Overs Never Get Finished: They Just Grow Fur. Get Them Shifted!

How's your own LSNED going? If you don't 'keep up' with a project, does it ever get done or it is just (ouch!) abandoned?

LSNED contd ...

... though it's continuing slowly rather than apace. There have been comings and goings and more comings here, and it's been a litle dreich ...

Still, here's where the page design is up to:


In fact, with all this ebb and flow, I think I am, more or less, a basket-case! But hoping to be more compos mentis by Friday. :)

 

Polaroid Picnic ...

Popping photos into a polaroid frame in Photoshop for LSNED (Learn Something New Every Day) is not an unmitigated pleasure - I love the end effect, but the dropping and resizing takes time. And 'simple' also means 'quick' this week! So hurrah for finding Rita and The Coffee Shop Blog (via Celeste's super blogpost) where her wonderful Polaroid Effect action does it in one fell swoop, drop shadow and all. For those of you who like a little experimentation from time to time in Photoshop or Elements, you'll find it over here (sixth on the list) and if you're unsure how to load actions, comprehensive instructions here make it, yes you've guessed, a picnic! Here's how they look:


A lovely reader has been on my mind this week and I really wanted to include her in my 9 September entry, but felt she deserved more space. You may remember my post some weeks ago on clouds? Just look what came via email:

Digital mail art definitely rules OK! I was very touched and delighted, Miriam, and thank-you. (And you clearly have the art of drop shadows perfected to a T!). Do call in on Miriam; her own LSNED is shaping up delightfully, and I learnt a number of things I didn't know!

And this feels a good place to say a warm and heart-felt thank-you to you all for popping in so often, whether you're dashing through, perching on the porch step, or sitting down on the veranda and putting your feet up - I really appreciate your being here. :)

Can I do it, can I do it ...?

Yes I can, yes I can ... Oh hello! Sorry, it's the hours of reading aloud the stories of Thomas the Tank Engine, as he encourages himself to pull those chattering and naughty trucks up the very steep hill. But I think I can. Still catch up on LSNED, that is. I've read the prompts, taken photos and made notes - but it's the putting it together on which I am a little tardy. Still, here's days 4, 5 and 6:

And if I manage to get days 7, 8 and 9 done by Wednesday, the Fat Controller says I can go and let off steam with the other engines. D'you know, I really think I need to find some grown-up books. Just wait there on the platform while I uncouple myself ...

Finders keepers ...

... we used to chant as children. I'm hoping I can keep in mind the things I've found and learnt in the first three days of Learn Something New Every Day:

How are you getting on, if you are doing the class? Here, Himself and I have a houseful of four generations again until mid-week and there's a rich vein of all kinds of learning underway. The wisest course of action when a nearly-three is throwing a wobbly is to let his Daddy deal with it and stay out of the way; iphones dropped accidently into the sink can be rescued and dried out on a radiator; and ModPodge sticks absolutely anything to anything else. No, you really, really don't want to know the details! See you Wednesday?

Yes, it's a ...

... notebook. I think. After a fashion. Well, it had to satisfy lot of criteria, if it was going to be suitable for this September's Learn Something New Every Day class. Across the blogosphere, I see I am not the only one tussling with how to structure theirs. Mine needs to be something which ...

• is simple to do: template ready and waiting
• satisfies the eye design-wise
• accommodates micro-learning, compact journalling and one photo or illustration or drawing a day
• fits into my spiral-bound This Is 2011 album (everything is going into one place this year)
• does not take up thirty pages of space - I don't have room

"That's a tall order!" Himself remarked, looking over my shoulder. Actually, it's not so much tall, as, er-r-, wide. Here's what I've come up with:

• A4 landscape, divided horizontally into three shallow oblong tags per page, with room for a photo, journalling and the day/date far right on each one. This still allows for variation.
• Successive pages are each wider (longer?) by the depth of the day/date tab. This makes it interesting to touch and move through.
• The tags are two-sided, so day 4 is on the back of day 1, day 5 behind day 2, and so on: thirty days' worth on six pages. This keeps it slim.
• There'll be a cover front and back to mark it off as a notebook-inside-an-album. This means it has its own identity, yet is part of the whole.

I'll print onto Innova's double-sided digital fine art photo paper (archival quality, acid- and lignan-free), suitable for high quality photos and text - so no separate printing or sticking down of photos, which should make it both time-saving and bulk-reducing. Is Innova new to you? You might like a peek here at my fold-out brochure. At just under £1 per sheet (that's approximately 1.6 USD and 1.5 AUD), and printable on both sides,  it compares favourably with the cost of scrapbooking card plus photo-paper for me. It's also a whole lot simpler, which is a bonus in my (note)book!

And thank-you to all of you who left a comment on my last post - it was wonderfully nostalgic to read your memories and experiences of covering, decorating and doodling on exercise-books and jotters in our collective youth. If you are participating in LSNED, how are your preparations going?

Me? As the class is about to begin and Teacher calls for order, I'm just going to reach quietly for that piece of brown paper ...