Happy New Year! And attention ALL sig designers!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the new Year! I know i've been VERY bad at keeping up with creating stuff here and i'm sorry, it's just that life has hit me like a truck lately and i'm only just getting back into the swing of things. I havent even made a sig in weeks *sighs*

Oh well, i'm hoping things have calmed down enough now for me to get some new stuff made and shared with you all.

Anyway...i decided today to start a new Yahoo Group for sig challenges! It's called Sinsational Sigs Challenges and this is how it works. I'll send out a tube or a template or fonts or whatever i feel like and you guys get to make sigs out of what i send. This will occur on Monday every week (Aussie time) and you have until the Friday to email in your sigs. Members will then vote on the winner and whoever wins will receive a new sig from me :D

So...if you'd like to join up, you can do so by clicking this button:




I'd love to see you there! Remember though, it's still VERY new and i'm not 100% set up yet but feel free to join up if you'd like to anyway and we'll be underway with the challenges next week.Ok so thats it for now. Have a WONDERFUL new year and i wish you all the very best for 2009!!!

xoxoxoxoxo

Ok here's something i was just messing about with. Hope someone likes it :)


Download

**LINK UPDATED**

News...and new templates :)

Well...i've been offline for AGES, i lost my internet again but i'm back now. And omg have things been hectic. So much for my rest time huh? My mom came over to my place the other night and promptly informed me that her boss wants to see my resume because she wants to hire me! She has also given me three months to get my drivers licence, the one thing in the world that scares me more than snakes do....BUT...i made a breakthrough....

With the help of my AMAZING psychologist (LOL how's that....a future psychologist IN therapy!!), i managed to actually sit in the drivers seat and NOT freak out...i even managed to drive a little way without having a total panic attack!!

So today we went out looking at cars. I've decided i want a VW Bug. I've always wanted one since i first saw Herbie the Love Bug when i was a kid....and so that is my goal. I found one i just LOVE, brand new limited edition...black and white leather interior...white exterior, automatic....but at $33,000 it's a tad outta the budget :( Oh well, i'll get it one day! So yeah, in a few months i'll be on my way to total independence and for the first time in 16 years, i'm not afraid. In fact, i'm excited. This is a HUGE thing for me. Phobias are not easy to overcome and i'm bloody proud of myself.

Anyways...so a new job just around the corner, and a drivers licence before my 32nd birthday next year...possibly a new house (or maybe just a remodel of this one) .... a whole new world just opened up to me.

On the downside, my 7 yr old is sick. Again. We took her to the emergency department this morning and she has a virus AND a nasty ear infection, so she's off school for yet another week. But it could have been worse, we were convinced it was rheumatic fever or diabetes...or both...turns out it was neither. Phew.

Anyhoo....enough of my blabbering on lol....here's the new templates! Hope you like them!!




Download

Download

I made it!!!!

Well, it's over. Five long years of stress and strain, deadlines and temper tantrums, bad grades and not so bad grades.....i FINALLY finished my university studies yesterday. God it's SO weird to not have to study, or read something, or write something...but i can now relax, enjoy life, get some rest, clean my damn house LOL and hang out with the family. My life has been SO scheduled and so inflexible for the last 5 yrs that this is just strange...i guess the plan now is to take some time off and let my brain settle down (cos seriously, i thought it was gonna explode at one point there LOL). I suppose i have to start thinking of what i'm gonna do next. No study for a while, that's for sure :D

Sooooo anyway, just thought i'd share my most excellent news.

Hugs to all

Jac
xoxoxoxoxo

OMG it's soo bad, its FUNNY!!!

Ok i think i'm OFFICIALLY losing the plot. Seriously.

On top of all the other shit i've gone through since starting my honours year in March 2007 (i'm doing this part time remember), i have yet ANOTHER nasty trojan and god knows what else on my pc..and why???? Cos i was tired and frustrated and plain pissed off that i can't afford $1500 to spend on SPSS (the program we use to analyse data)...sooooo after wating FOUR hours for the demo version to download, i went to use it this morning and it wouldn't let me since i've already USED the demo version and it expired a few weeks ago...but i did the "well ya never know, it MIGHT work!" thing...Only it didnt. So at 8am this morning after getting maybe 3 hours sleep and without a sip of coffee passing my lips, i go on a hunt for a serial for spss, which i wouldnt usually do but with ten days before i hand in the thesis and my data isn't finished...well ya know LOL...and i found one...or at least i thought i did. What i had in fact found (and stupidly, blindly, ignorantly downloaded onto my precious PC...and into the REGISTRY of said precious pc of all things!!) was a Vundo trojan horse which has basically screwed my entire sytem.

For example: I wanna search for something on google..so i do....i hit the link...and get taken to weird and wonderful sites which i never wanted to go to. So i now have to copy and paste the desired link into my address bar which i have discovered is a slow and painful experience, especially when stress levels are now within homicidal range...

The popups which have made themselves at home on my usually beautifully clean, spyware free, adware free gorgeous machine are freaking KILLING me and i swear to god if spybot pops up one more time i'm going to pull out what is left of my hair.

So let's see....Since march 2007...

~ All four kids have been sick at least 5 times EACH..including a minor case of whooping cough

~ I almost got divorced (LONG ass story i wont go into right now)

~ I've had no less than 4 severe asthma attacks and one bout of seriously bad bronchitis that saw me in bed with a 40 degree C temperature for a week...

~ I've lost my phone and internet access at least twice because the bastards just wont stop CHARGING me for it. Pfft.

~ I've lost my cable tv once but went without it for weeks while they "fixed" it...and now have a dish on my roof that loses its signal as soon as it rains...and its the WET season

~ I got a virus on the pc that took no less than a week to fix

~ I've been bullied and harrassed for 6 months by a govt dept who know SHIT

~ My house has been inspected four times...

~ I've repainted the house once

~ I've redeveloped my thesis six times

~ I've written no less than four versions of my thesis ethics application cos apparently i can't spell...and didn't spell check...well i would have if stupid ass open office had a spell check that WORKS

~ I've entered 35,000 pieces of data no less than ten times each...thats 350,000 pieces of data. And i wonder why my hands hurt. Hmmm.

~ I have had a snake in my undie drawer

~ I've looked after hubby while he hobbled about on crutches for a week..this of course happened the day i had the snake in my undie drawer and he was too out of his head on pain meds to help me LOL

~ I've had painters in the house who want to totally disrupt my life to "fix" the ceiling rather than just moving house and getting it over with..painters who btw now won't do it because i had the nerve to have a thesis supervision meeting the day they were supposed to come out and do it...so i've pissed them off and theyre gonna reschedule "later"...and the best part...my supervisor was in ADELAIDE when i went in for my meeting with her...apparently my email from her got lost somewhere...so i could have had the ceiling fixed instead

~ I'm surviving on 4 hours sleep a night, sometimes less, and i can somehow still remember where the coffee is and what my name is. But that's about it.

~ I spend 50 bucks on a spyware removal tool which promises me it's gonna fix my spyware infestation...and it removed all but the vundo one...so now waiting to hear back from them (ok so they were VERY fast in replying to my desperate pleas for help...they better be for my $50 LOL)

Ya know i'm sitting here grinning as i'm writing this because it's just so FUCKING ironic that in my final and most important year...all this happens to me.

I'm SO desperate for this to be over. Believe me, the alcohol will be flowing, but dont be surprised if you don't see me for a week. I'm sleeping.

LMAO

New Download Location

Hiya guys,

Just a quick heads up...I got kinda tired of 4shared, i've been having trouble uploading to it lately and it's just plain annoying the hell outta me LOL...anyhoo as i was on my travels around blogger i discovered another site, www.box.net which seems a LOT more user friendly so i'm going to start uploading there instead. Downloads are quick and easy, but so far i havent found a place for you to leave comments so just leave them on my blog for now. I'm leaving the old stuff on 4shared simply because i dont have time to swich it all over right now but i will do it sooner or later.

Hope this finds you all well

Hugs

LS

Template 4

Got a new template for you :) Hope you like this one, i liked it so much i decided to make up a quick tag to show you what you can do with it:



So there ya go :) Preview of the template with nothing done to it is below, and you can download it HERE


PLEASE leave a comment if you download. It takes less than a minute to say "thankyou." To those of you who do leave comments, thanks so much and i really really appreciate your kind and encouraging words :D

Glitter Doodles

Ok so today i tried my hand at making some doodles and was pleasantly surprised at how they turned out. So guess what...yup i'm sharing!! I hope some of you find these useful. They are tagger size and they are able to be colourised if you need to.





You can download HERE **Link has been updated**

New name but same me :D

I don't know if you'll have noticed this but i changed my blogger name to match my TalkCity nick of LilSinful.

Same me, just a different name...i got tired of being Cricket and figured a change was in order and i wanted something that went with the Sinsational Sigs forum name...and i came up with LilSinful...so here it is LOL

Just thought i should let you know :)

Have an AWESOME day and i'll see ya all later

xoxoxox

New mask ~ Devil~

OK, last pressie for tonight cos i really have to get some form of study done :(

New mask for you called simply "Devil."



You can download it HERE

Hugs and kisses

Cricket

Templates 2 and 3

Ok so i'm TOTALLY procrastinating again...here's a couple of new templates for you. Please leave some love if ya download :D



Download Template 2 HERE



Download Template 3 HERE

My first tutorial ~ Using Masks~

This tut was written for Rose who asked how to use masks. It is a very simple, basic level tut which hopefully you'll find easy to understand! Bear with me, i've never written a tut before lol

OK so all you need for this is PSP (i use x2 but it should work in any version), and a mask of your choice (I'm using my Caress mask which can be downloaded from my blog).

So what IS a mask exactly??? Simply put, a mask is like a stencil..imagine you have a piece of card and you cut a circle out of it, place the card on another object and spraypaint where the circle was cut out...your result will be a painted circle on the other object :) A mask is exactly the same.

Ok so to show you very simply...

1. Open your mask in psp
2. Open a new image 500x500
3. Floodfill this layer with a colour of your choice (i'm using white)
4. Add a new layer and floodfill with another colour (i'm using black for this layer)
5. Go to layers > new mask layer > from image and select the name of your mask from the dropdown menu. if you're using my Caress mask, make sure "invert mask data" is checked. Click OK.
6.If you don't like the look of the mask, you can go to layers > Invert mask/adjustment and see if you like that better.
7. When you're happy with how your mask looks, go to your layers pallette, RIGHT click Mask layer and select Merge>Merge Group. Your end result should look something like this:



And thats it. You just applied your first mask. But i warn you...they're addictive LOL

Until next time

~Cricket~

Thanks soooo much!!!

Wow! I just checked my 4shared and it seems a LOT of you are enjoying what i'm creating...i honestly didn't think that my humble offerings would be this well received and i'm SO thankful to all of you for showing your support :)

New stuff to come soon but school is getting really really out of hand and i just don't have much time to create :(

Hugs and kisses

Me
xoxoxoxoxo

Link problems

For those of you who had issues downloading the Angel mask, i tried the link myself and sure enough it's saying it's invalid. I dunno why!! Soooo anyway i've reuploaded it and you can now download it HERE ...if you have any trouble please let me know. Unfortunately i am still VERY new to all this and don't know the ins and outs of 4shared :( My deepest apologies for anyone who wanted it and couldn't get it. I did try this new link and it seems to be fine :)

OMG My First Award!!!!!!!

Well...i'm stunned...totally!! Many many thanks to Christina at Earthsangel Creations for this, my very first award. I'm truly touched...thankyou soooo much hon!!!


This award is called the "Proximidade Award" or "Friendship Around TheWorld Award".
Originally this award was written in spanish, but it translates to highlight blogs that are pleasing or special in some way.

Soooo now i get to pass this onto another 8 great blogs....oooh where to start LOL...let's see:

1. Ali at http://designsbyali.blogspot.com
2. Bluey at http://bluedreamdesigns.blogspot.com
3. Missy at http://divineintentionz.blogspot.com/
4. Melissa at http://sentimentalstyle.blogspot.com/
5. Yvette at http://essenceofcreativity1.blogspot.com/
6. Diane at http://candystreats.blogspot.com/
7. Lisa at http://sophisticatedscraps.blogspot.com/
8. sweetz at http://sweetzdesigns.blogspot.com/

Love ya all loads and loads!!!!!

GRRRRRRR

Stupid stupid stupid blogspot layouts!!!

I tried unsuccessfully for ages today to change my layout. Now since i know nothing about coding them i had to go with a premade one i found online. Three in fact. And not one of them worked!!!

So...i reverted back to the one i have had since starting this blog ad lost all my changes in the process. I now get to REDO all the customisation....again...

I should learn to leave things the hell alone :(

Bloody Typical!

The other night i went up to the university library to work on the thesis. All was going well with doing what i needed to do with my data....i was feeling really good and optimistic and for the first time in weeks felt like this was actually possible.

Then it happened.

The power went out!

And i hadn't saved.

So now i need to redo all the stuff i already did. And i'm pissed. What freaking university doesn't have backup generators?!?! I could have easily lost my ENTIRE thesis. Luckily i didn't, but it's possible.

Oh well, i'll go back and redo it sometime today or tonight...it shouldn't take too long (i hope).

Anyway, i'm going to be hellishly busy over the next couple of weeks so i won't be around too much but i will try to get in here and share with you when i can...

WISH ME LUCK!!!

Regarding blog comments :D

Hi again...i was informed this morning that someone very dear to me was unable to leave a comment on my blog unless she made a blogger profile. Sure enough i had comments set to registered users only. This has now been changed. You should all be able to comment now without having to set up an account :D

My Myspace Journey Ends

So today i closed my Myspace blog. Well when i say "closed" i mean i won't be blogging there any longer. If you're interested you can still catch my old myspace blogs HERE.

If you can't get in that way, my mypace profile is located HERE

When i first joined Myspace and started writing blogs there a couple of years ago i was AMAZED at the purely addictive nature of the Myspace beast. I blogged at least once every couple of days, sometimes more. But now it's lost it's appeal. I'm just not interested in blogging there anymore. Stupid ratings and worrying about how many readers you have and feeling horribly depressed when there's no comments and shit just makes it too much of a competitive environment for me.

A blog, at least a personal blog, is supposed to be just that...personal. I'm not out to make any wild political or religious statements, stir up hornet's nests and be controversial. I don't blog to see how popular i am. I don't blog for ratings and i don't blog to show off. I blog because i can. The net has given all of us a way of reaching out and help others, and in doing so help ourselves by realising things about ourselves that we don't really know until it comes out on the screen.

I blog because i like to. I enjoy writing about my life, my kids, hubby and school and occasionally rant and rave and get all the frustration out of my system which then allows me to clear my head and move on with my day. So this blog has only one follower. That's ok. Yes i'd like more readers. But i can live without them. If i get them, great, and if i can make someone smile and laugh or cry or scream with me, that's even better.

Truly competitive Myspace bloggers THRIVE on the comment and kudos counts. I used to. But i'm over it. Now i just want to be me.

So my blogs are now exclusive to here. They will remain here for you to enjoy and for me to enjoy writing. Without the pressure.

Love n Peace

Cricket

MasksByCricket ~ "Flutterby"

Got another few masks for you today. Enjoy! I'll post them throughout the day on my study breaks LOL

You can download this one HERE

A bit about me...

Well here i am, i never thought i'd do the blogging thing here but...oh well LOL. I kinda thought if i'm gonna be sharing stuff with you, i should tell you all about me so you know who you're dealing with LOL

On my life: I was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1977, probably one of the worst times to be a white family living there thanks to the independence and political crisis taking place. My mom and i moved to England in early 1978 and we stayed there until 1996 when we finally moved to Australia to be with my family after the death of my grandfather. I am married to a wonderful American man named Steve (aka harley) who i simply adore and love with all my heart. We've been married just over 4 yrs. I have four children, all girls aged 11, 7, 6 and 3 who drive me insane but i love em anyway!

On PSPing: I first got addicted to PSP about 4 yrs ago when i started chat and fell in love with the gorgeous sigs people were wearing on their forum posts. I eagerly downloaded PSP7 (no easy task let me tell you, i was on DIAL UP!) and was addicted from the minute i opened my first new canvas. Eventually i bought my own copy of PSPX and that was it...HOOKED. I now make sigs in two rooms at www.talkcity.com - one of which i own :D I discovered the wonderful world of scrapkits etc a few months back and OMG i love them, i can browse blogs for HOURS happily downloading the beautiful stuff these ladies come up with. Unfortunately, i haven't been able to master Photoshop yet to make my own even though i'd LOVE to....so i dabble with masks, templates and a few scrap elements and papers etc but i am NOWHERE near as good as the scrap designers out there. Who knows...maybe one day i will be :)

On School: I started my bachelor of behavioural science (fancy way of saying psychology LOL) in 2003 after my then 5 yr old daughter came home from school and told me she'd been on the internet. I didn't even know how to operate the net! So i decided i'd better do something about that and enrolled in school. I completed it in 2006 after taking a yr off to get married and stuff. In 2007 i began the honours degree which i am now finishing...my thesis is due on October 30th (i SO shouldnt be on here right now LOL) and i'm very excited about getting it done.

Other Interests: I love movies, reading, playing with my kids and my Husky cross puppy Demon and my lorikeet Rocky...i do love my fur and featherbabies! I live near the ocean so i just love that sunset walk on the beach with hubby (not that we get much time alone but it's SO worth it when we do!)..i am ridiculously obsessed with crime..not doing it, but studying the psychology of it...the famous serial killers are my faves...well i guess this explains why someday i'd like to work as a criminal profiler but thats a LONG way off LOL

Well, thats me. Hopefully you know me a lil better now...now it's your turn. Tell me about you!

Huggles

Cricket

TemplatesByCricket ~ Template1

Just thought i'd throw in a template too! It's the only one i have at the moment but if you like what i am coming up with, i'll make more!

You can download HERE

MasksByCricket ~ "Feminine"

And another mask for you :D This was the first one i ever made and it came from a tut (sorry, can't remember where the tut came from but if you wrote it, thanks for my NEWEST addiction LOL)..seriously if you wrote the tut please let me know so i can tell people where to find you!

Download HERE

All masks are in .jpg format by the way :)

MasksByCricket ~ "Caress"

Another one :D You can download from HERE

MasksByCricket ~ "Angel"

Hi all! Time for some PSP stuff!! I've been messing with making masks lately so i'm sharing them with you!

This is the first one (god i'm NERVOUS!!)

It's called "Angel" and you can download it HERE

Remember to leave some love if you download!

Excessive use of certain words and/or phrases

Well...i just browsed through all my posts here and all but two of them (including this one) start with "OK so..." LMAO

I didnt realise i did that so much!

What words or phrases do YOU use excessively?? And yes you can be adultish ;)

Emotional Eating Sucks!!

POK so today i made a decision. One that i'm quite happy with actually. I'm putting off the diet until after the thesis goes in. I just can't sit up all night studying without REAL coffee and snacks...the sad truth is that i'm an emotional eater. Stress, anxiety, depression, happiness...they all send me straight to the fridge and i cannot control it. Now usually i'd kick myself in the ass for this BUT i figure it this way. I can stay on the diet, lose all concentration thanks to me just not getting enough calories in the day and not get the thesis written, but drop a few kilos...OR...i can allow myself those carbs and calories and caffeine and remain fat until after the thesis is done. I choose the thesis at this point, it's only another month after all. I can still drop a dress size before Christmas after i start it up again, so i'm not worried. I'll keep you posted :D

Huggles

Bad Day Today......

OK so basically if i dont get some chocolate..or some pasta...or rice...or bread...or anything else high in fat and carbs soon i may have to actually throttle someone! UGH. I knew this was gonna be hard but i forgot how bad my emotional eating can be at times of high stress and well...today is a high stress day.

I'm FREAKING out over this stupid ass thesis. I have 4 weeks before it's due and i'm NOWHERE near completing it, hell i havent even STARTED data analysis yet. Shit. I'm seriously considering dropping out, the stress is just too much. And i wanna eat. GOD do i wanna eat!!! OK so all the vegies and lean meat and fish and whatnot is great. BUT omg i need sugar and lots of it. I hate study. I hate being fat and having to do this shit to myself. I hate not getting the kids taken out of my hair every day so i can work. I hate being addicted to the internet (seriously this is an issue for me). I hate that everyone in my class just swans on through with NO comprehension of what i'm dealing with. UGH. OK, time for dinner. Yet more fish. Yet more vegies. Great.

UGH

~End of Rant~

See ya next time...

Weight Loss Journey ~ Part 2

OK so i just got home from Tony Ferguson, armed with info, vitamins, fiber, soups and shakes. I'm extremely excited and can't wait to get started first thing Monday morning (yes i'm one of those "I'll start on Monday" people!). Anyway the staff there are AMAZING and the lady i spoke to to (Sue) was sooo nice and supportive, it helps that she's been there and done the program too so she feels my pain LOL

I hated the weighing part though but it is necessary i suppose...i have a very very long way to go to reach my target weight of betwee 52 and 58 kilos but i know i can do it, i have to or i won't be seeing my kids graduate high school....

Anyway...i'm on my way! It definitely feels good to be doing something constructive and making a real lifestyle change for the best...

Stay tuned, next Saturday is weigh in day and i hope to see these lil scales here moving along, slowly but surely!!!

My Weight Loss Journey Begins!!

Ok, so if you know me well you'll know that i've ALWAYS struggled with my weight. It's been up and down more often than an out of control elevator and i've had enough. I am now the heaviest i've ever been and boy do i feel every single kilo. My knees, hips, and ankles hurt all the time, my asthma is just NUTS and i basically feel...well...shitty is the only term i can come up with.


So today i begin my journely towards being fit and gorrrrrgeous!! I'm off to see the girls at Tony Ferguson (if you dont know who this is, check out his site HERE) to begin their most excellent weight loss program. My mom has been doing this for a couple of weeks and lost almost 2 kilos in her first week. I'm very excited about this but scared too since i havent been able to stick to a diet EVER in my life. It's seriously a case though where i either lose the weight or it kills me. Besides, i want my bellybutton pierced before Christmas and that's NOT gonna happen unless i lose this damn tummy that seemingly appeared overnight!


Wish me luck! I'll let you know how i go with it and keep you up to date on my progress...saturdays will probably be my weigh in days so keep an eye out and i'll update you on my loss every week!


Hugs and kisses!!

My First Post

Hey everyone and welcome to my own little corner of the net :D


As yet i have no clue what i'm going to be doing with this blog but i'm sure i'll think of something!! You can more than likely expect some personal stuff (i like to get all my shit out on..well i can't really say paper can i?? But you know what i mean!), more than likely some updates on the kids and hubby and school...and oh yes....PSP stuff!!!


Ok so i'm not a scrapper (yet!) but i do make tags (i'm addicted) and own a sigmaking forum in Talkcity that you most definitely should check out! You can find that HERE You'll need to become a member of TC to chat and post but it's free and LOADS of fun!! I am messing about with making masks and templates and elements and such stuff though so if and when i feel they're good enough for you guys, i'll share them for FREE!


Anyhoo....that's all for today...see ya next time!!


~Cricket~