Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Weekend Sales and Freebies!

Hello,

Wanted to let you all know that ALL my shops are on sale for iNSD weekend, May 3 through May 6, for 30% off!  The store links are on the right side bar! ScrapBird is posting freebies from today through the 5th and I am participating! The sale at ScrapBird is through the 6th for my shop only.

This is the ScrapBird freebie I have.

I have a new Fan Freebie up on my FaceBook Fan Page so go visit and get yours!


A reminder: this weeks blog freebie is one post below!

Another reminder:  Digi Shop Talk's May Blog Train, Nature's Beauty, begins at midnight Eastern Standard Time! Come back and get my part of this awesome train!

Thanks for visiting!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Just a Quick Note-please read

I just need to remind you that when you sign up for the newsletter you will get a confirmation email that you need to respond to.  There are over 15 of you who have signed up in the last week that haven't confirmed so the newsletter cannot go to you according to Mad Mimi.  Sorry guys, just thought I'd let you know!
Hugs,
Liv

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Goodness! It's Almost May!

Hello Guys,

I titled this post with exclamation points because I am astounded, week by week, how fast my life goes by; does yours?  It seems when you get up in years the days go so quickly and you have so much to do or so much you want to do and there is  just not enough time.  I remember when I was a child, during my school years, that summer seemed to last forever and then you were back in school and Thanksgiving Day came and then it took forever for Christmas Eve to get here. Honestly y'all, don't begrudge those slow moving days, enjoy them while they last.  I use to stand at my kitchen window watching the wildlife in my backyard when I lived in Virginia, it was so calming and beautiful; if I look out the window nowadays, it seems an hour passes in the snap of my fingers, so I don't gaze out the windows much anymore!

Have you been busy this week? Going to those school team baseball games? I love them but haven't seen my Joshua play in over a year. I get a report about every game though and that is always nice. The children on my street are loving the warmer weather and are playing in the creek or riding their bikes and just babbling away; it does make you smile!

I have made you something that I think is a little special this week. It is a digital stamp that you can customize however you would like with clipping masks, styles, size changes, bevels, etc.  There are just hundreds of ways you can use and style digi-stamps.  The one I made for you is Remember and the one that is going in my newsletter is Beautiful; they are coordinating freebies! I added some usable examples for you too. Be sure and sign up for my newsletter, if you haven't already, so you can get the Beautiful stamp!

 You can download this freebie HERE!

This is the newsletter freebie: 

Enjoy your freebies and check out my products at your favorite store!
 
Hope you all have a great week! Come back to see me soon because the Digi Shop Talk Blog Train will be ready on May 1st! It really is a great train ride because there are soooo many designers that link up their blogs to it!






Sunday, April 21, 2013

Some Questions and a Gift


Hi Y’all!
How are you doing this weekend? Have had a good one so far I hope. I didn’t do much other than eat and watch the telly.  Actually, I spent most of my time trying to play catch-up with this designing business. The amount of email that is generated by being a member of a store design team is amazing! It seems like as fast as I read them the faster they are coming in.  Do you get a lot of email? I like getting the store newsletters so that I can see what all the other designers are doing at any given time but I hardly spend more than 20 minutes checking those out. The other thing I like to do when I have the time is go to Cute Overload; love that site. Problem is when I do go I tend to stay a long while catching up on what I have been missing; you should check it out if you love animals.
I haven’t made a new kit for May yet but I am trying very hard to put one together if only in my mind before I go to sleep :) I want to do something flowery and swirly but don’t I do a lot of those? I want to learn how to do the comic or coloring book style of designing; I keep trying but it just doesn’t come to me. What type of scrapbooking kits do you look for?  Do you first look for colors or do you look for your favorite style?  Do you like a lot of papers or do you mainly use the elements?  Do you like to use element templates as well as page templates? How about quickpages? Do you buy quickpages or do you go in search of free quickpages? When I was doing a lot of digital scrapbooking I used a lot of glittered elements, I just love the glitter!  I was always attracted to butterflies and birds along with roses and daisies too. How about you?
I just tried my hand at a simple flower template.  Don’t laugh please! :) I know it leaves a lot to be desired but it is almost coloring book style, yes? There is a layered psd file and the png files for other programs. Well, I hope you like it enough to download it as your gift for this week!  I will try again soon to do a better one.



You can download this gift HERE! 

I will be sending out my newsletter tomorrow morning which will have some word art freebies for you; be sure you are signed up for it (top right on the sidebar).
BellaZingaro Studio/Bellas Studio will be closing its doors on April 30, please come check out the designer sales; my sale is for 20% off everything I have in the shop.
Thanks for dropping by guys.  If you could satisfy my curiosity about your scrapbooking by posting a comment I would really appreciate it!
Hugs,
 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Mid Month Rambling

Hello Y'all,

I am trying to do better with my posting so please bare with me while I ramble :)

I have not been able to design anything for myself lately as I have been too busy with store collaborations and charity kits.  The administration side of being a digital designer is a lot more time consuming than I ever would have thought possible; I spend more time on it than I do actually designing! Having a good CT is vital and I have been really lucky with mine. It was really serendipitous how it came about that Chris is my head CT.  I received an email from a good friend of mine, another designer, and upon opening it I realized she had answered someone's email and sent it to me! Being the kind soul that I am (he he) I wrote her back and teased her about being scatter-brained! She proceeded to tell me about this friend that she was supposed to be emailing. She just mentioned that the lady was a blog friend and that she did some digital scrapbooking.  I jumped on it with both feet and wrote back asking if she thought her friend would be interested in being my Creative Team (I know, she was just one person but what else can I call her but my CT?).  Brenda said she would ask but not to get my hopes up. Well it ended up that I emailed Chris and then she emailed me.  She told me how she didn't think she could do it and she didn't want her family photos exposed to the Internet. I gave her my best spiel about not having to have faces in the layouts and how much fun she would have, ya da ya da ya da. Well the end of my story is that Chris not only started CTing for me she became my best friend!  We 'chat' every day and share our lives with each other; she, and her husband, have been such a blessing to me in my personal life and my professional life.  Sometimes people are just meant to be together no matter where they live, Chris lives in the United Kingdom and I live in the United States, or what they are about.  I believe that everything happens for a reason and it might have been that Brenda was being absent-minded that day but I believe she had a little push from providence!

There, now you know a little more about me and my crazy mixed up life!

I have a sweet gift for you today: a lovely orchid that would be perfect for a Mother's Day card. Chris's husband, Richard, took this photo for me of their beautiful orchids and I have decided to share it with you :) Wait until you see the detail he caught in the photo! Fabulous! This low pixel count preview doesn't do it justice.

 Please click the preview to download your orchid!

I won't strain our friendship with anymore long stories tonight! LOL! Take care and visit me on my FaceBook page and also sign up for my newsletter! Links are on your right in the sidebar!


Friday, April 12, 2013

My Beautiful Gypsy!

I just had to come by and show you the two layouts that Joyce 'Chickadee' Swaim did with my kit Mia Bella Zingaro!



Aren't they beautiful?!  That's Joyce's gorgeous granddaughter Rachael.

You can check out the kit preview on the Newest Kit Preview tab above or you can drop by the shop at Berry Applicious and see it too!  Go HERE!

Thanks for dropping by!

Great Customer Incentive Plan at Heartfelt Perfections!

You don't want to miss out on this!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Store Closing Sale

Hello All,

Some sad news to impart today, Bella Zingaro Studio/Bellas Studio is closing its doors at midnight on April 30, 2013.  Most of the designers are having a last hurrah of a sale including me.



Just head over to the store and pick up some bargains because if you follow me you know I do not have many sales!



Monday, April 8, 2013

Last Month's Newsletter Freebie

Hey Y'all,
I just posted the link to last month's newsletter freebie on my FaceBook fan page because no one was home when I offered it evidently! LOL!  Go to my fan page to get it:  Country Liv's Graphics Fan Page

Hugs,

My Newsletter is in Your Mailbox!

Hello Y'all,

I just sent out my newsletter and hope you are signed up for your copy.  I don't know if you realize it but I have a freebie in every one of my newsletters.  Tonight's newsletter has this week's which is a set of embossing overlays and I also included last week's again which is a pleated flower that matches my Softly Spoken kit.



Sign up (at the top, on the right), then leave me a note here and I will send this week's newsletter to you as a special favor to us both!

Well, it's now official.  My 13 year old grandson, Joshua, is growing up and away from that little boy that squeezed our hearts while holding on to our hands for dear life!  He went on his first weekend outing without one of his parents or me in attendance.  It is a bittersweet chapter in his life for me because I know he is going to explode into being a responsible adult and leave that darling, loving, thoughtful, compassionate, little boy behind; I will miss him.  Kim has done a fine job of raising Joshua and he will surely still be loving, thoughtful, and compassionate but only when his hormones aren't raging or when he isn't going through the horrible angst of being a teenager.  We all have to go through it and parents and grandparents need to take all the hugs and kisses they can get before it hits, so they will last us a pretty long while! LOL! Oh to have this darling back in my arms again!

Isn't he just adorable! 




Sunday, April 7, 2013

A Hello and A Freebie!

Hey Y'all,

Just dropping by to let you know I have two new products at Berry Applicious this weekend, they are part of the Berry Pickin' Time category.  You can get a close up view by clicking on the New Kit Previews tab above.

Also, Chris has made another beautiful layout with my Softly Spoken kit! It really is gorgeous; Chris is a master at blending papers and photos and really shows that talent on this layout! You can find my Softly Spoken kit in all of my stores so pick your favorite one from the links on the right!



I also have a freebie for you today!  This is something that I am always looking for: a really good woven texture to use with my papers and elements.  The file is 3600 x 3600 so it makes a seamless texture for you.  All you need to do, if you want to have it saved as a texture in PhotoShop, is open the file, Ctrl A/Edit/Define Pattern/Name It/Okay and it is in your patterns.  You can then go to Edit/Presets/Presets Manager/Choose Patterns/click on the weave pattern and Save Set to your textures! It might sound complicated but once you do it you will see how easy it is! If you would rather not do that and if you don't use PhotoShop then just open the file and drag the weave onto whatever you want to add the texture to and blend as you normally would. Be sure and close your file so it doesn't get destroyed by accident!


Thanks for dropping by!