My "Flash" New Site!

Hi there, I thought it was about time I showed you what has been keeping me away from my little blog.  I've been completing a number of tasks for TAFE and this is a pic of what I've been working on today. 

This is the home page for another website that I am creating using Adobe Flash - which is a fantastic animation and multimedia application.  There will be 4 or 5 pages in total, and they will be animated to swipe off the page when the navigation (signpost) is activated.  My process starts of by creating each page as a separate layer in one Photoshop document. I then export it to Flash and add animation and coding to make it interactive - pretty cool huh?

The Home page of my Flash website.

I am constantly amazing myself with all the new skills I am learning at TAFE - but I have to admit that sometimes my head runs out of 'memory space' and I have a bit of trouble locating the files in my head from last semester! I wish I could upgrade my own memory a couple of RAM...:)

I also have another website under construction that will contain heaps of relevant information regarding Online Marketing Tips for businesses. The content of the site will be a combination of information gathered by my TAFE class. 

Well, back to work... I must admit to being very busy, but absolutely loving it!

G

*bespoke* Issue #7

I am so thrilled to be a part of the current edition of  *bespoke* magazine which will start appearing in stores next week.  I received my copy today in the post and it looks simply amazing!! I will definitely be devouring this before I head to bed tonight!

You can find my article '"We Love Ipswich"  on page 27, where I chat too the lovely ladies from cultiver  , The.Gift.Tree, Mimmis and The Handmade Markets .

These four stores are all located in and around the Ipswich region and are just part of why I love this town.  The creativity we have here constantly surprises me. If you live in South East Queensland and love quality handmade crafts then Ipswich is definitely a place you must visit.

Check out my article in Issue #7 of *bespoke*, or visit the individual links to the stores mentioned for locations and contact details.

Cultiver

The Gift Tree

Heading Home....

Just a short note while I am sitting at Newcastle airport.  Heading home after a fantastic weekend visiting friends and family.  Every time I come down to this area of NSW it reminds me of how much I love it!! And now that my sis and best mate are down here, it makes it so much the better :)
I discovered Warners Bay on the Sunday morning.  A gorgeous town with beautiful parkland and a bike-way right along the edge of the lake.  I don't think I have ever seen so many cyclists as I did on my drive from Newcastle to the Central Coast!
Who knows maybe if I move here I could get fit too? It certainly is a beautiful place for walking and cycling.

Action!!!

Well, Adobe Flash using Action Script 3 to be precise. In my first lesson of Commercial Web Design today we created a (very) short video.  It is a Flash animation, and while it looks very basic I'm so pleased that I understood what I was supposed to do.  Enough so that when I got home from TAFE I kept fiddling with it and added extra bubbles and seaweed all on my own.

My next step is to create one of those annoying little ads that we all choose to ignore on web pages.   I call them 'Digital Junk Mail' but my lecturer assures me that studies have shown them to be an effective form of advertising.

Personally, I am thinking Blinkies .  We have all seen the flashy, sparkly ones... but I am going to try my hand at creating something with a bit more style, just like the ones at The Shabby Shoppe  which I think are super sweet !

Abbey Medieval Festival

Lords and ladies,

My good sir and I have spent the last few days attending The Abbey Medieval Festival, in Caloundra. It was an amazing celebration of all things Medieval, held annually during the first week in July, this award winning event is the biggest Medieval Festival and Jousting Tournament in Australia. 

To be honest - being a Festival Virgin (aka my first time in attendance) I wasn't sure what to expect, yet I joined in with the rest of the family in wearing medieval attire and enjoyed myself immensely.  

The week long festival started with a Kids Day where my youngest squires attended archery workshops, practiced spinning wool and marvelled at the weaponry on show. For the more genteel folk there was gypsy dancing classes, crown decorating, fencing classes and heaps of other activities for the children to participate in. 

The weekend festival was certainly the highlight of the week, the public is free to wander the bustling marketplace (I spotted some gorgeous silver jewellery and medieval fashions for sale) and it was so easy to lose ourselves amongst the colourful tents of the medieval re-enactors’ encampments where campfires certainly warmed up a rather overcast day. Turkish Oil Wrestlers, colourful dancers, Viking raiders, nobles and peasants wandered the grounds inviting spectators to participate in a wide range of events.

Here are a few photos we took over the weekend.  Hope you like them…

Kids Day Activity

Do they come in a smaller size ?

Special Cake for a Special Occasion

I absolutely adore this gorgeous cake created by my very talented niece Renee from Cake Haven.  She was lucky enough to attend a workshop with the talented Cake and Chocolate extrodinairre, Julie Whitehead from Julie Whitehead Cakes, and this is the beautiful creation Renee made on the day.
Renee has created many stunning cakes for friends and family over recent years, here are a couple of my favourites.... Renee lives on the beautiful New South Wales northern coast and is happy to create her magical cakes for people in Brisbane as well.  Check out Cake Haven's Facebook page for more details.

Perfect Baby Shower Cake!!

A Spooktacular Cake!!

What a great cake for a Star Wars junkie!!

Short and sweet....

Sometimes you don't really need to say very much to mean a lot.  And that's what I liked about this short and simple quote I have used in today's design.  Apart from creating the PNG file with the transparent background making it easier to use on whatever backing you like, I also had a bit of a play with it in Photoshop.  I used a great textured background, one of the many I have gathered over the years, and layered the word art on top.  By using filters and adjusting fill and opacity levels I think I have given the saying a well worn look.  What do you think?

Words Worth Titles....

Just a quick post to show another of my Word Worth creations, and how I used it as a title for this (very quick) digital layout I created.

Once I imported the title image into Photoshop I was able to recolour it, as well as adding texture and a drop shadow.  Hope you like it...

I love words!! I love reading, writing, poetry, ... all of that kinda stuff.  I love playing with words, and I love decorating with them too.

I've been collecting quotes for as long as I can remember.  Even as a child I used to scribe any gems I came across in books I read or songs I heard.  I have memories of sitting in my bedroom with my portable tape recorder playing and stopping songs line by line, so I could write down the lyrics just right!!

My love of words is now combined with my love of creating.  I've started to have a play with creating PNG files for use with digital scrapbooking.  My first hurdle has been familiarising myself with the suite of programs I am using to create them.  That mastered I am now thrilled to share them with you.

My next hurdle is working out how to allow you to download them for your own use... that one I am working on.

In the meantime here are a couple I created today and some layouts to show you how they can be used.

I would love some feedback on them.

---

---