Have a treat for my reBirthday!

About a year ago I started this blog because of the Art of Digital Design Class (Jessica Sprague).

I had a lot of fun creating my High Tea kit and I was very proud to get great critics from Carina Gardner about my mini kit.

And I looked forward to treat freebies as soon as I got my certificate. 

But then it all ended (for a year)  and now I am ashamed because I never showed anything on this blog for al those 600 interested people who visited this place since the end of June 2011. Well, I could say I stopped creating due to circumstances and in fact I did when my father got  diagnosed with asbestos cancer 1 June 2011, became severely ill and died 20 January 2012. Imagine a hard time for our family...

Now it’s about time to face future again and to decide which way to go. Fortunately Photoshop and Illustrator called me and after a year I made some babysteps in creating ‘new possibilities’. So let’s celebrate and have a cupcake! It’s my treat so it’s for free : )  

This link will take you to the website where you download the cupcake button without shadow. 

Have fun!

Kimono Kit Blog Hop

Credits: DDD_Kimono_Paper_Stripe / jellybean_kimono_lime_paper / DianeR_KimonoKit_Paper2 / kh_brads_Kimono / MH_Kimono_Teapot & TeaTime

Welcome to my blog! 

If you are joining me from  A Little Birdie Design I am so happy to see you here. If not, you might want to start here so as not to miss a single Quick Page we created for you

You're invited to download both my invitation card and Quick Page for free! For both I used the beautiful papers and embellishments from the Kimono collaboration kit I wrote about yesterday. Wouldn't it be great when our own start as new designers can f.e. support kids in Japan to start school again!? So head over to the shop for the Kimono Kit and remember all proceeds go to the Red Cross for those in Japan who suffered from the earthquake/ tsnumani.

The card is created as a 4" x 6".jpg so you can put it in a new document of 8" x 6" to print it on any background you like as a folded card. You can download the card by clicking on it or here.

 

The Quick Page will open as a .png with transparent photo spots. I would love to see your creation with the quick page. Feel free to share your layout in the gallery at jessicasprague.com or email me the result.

Credits: Pamla_JC_Kimono_pinkpaper / mpouliot_kimono_lantern_emb2 / Pamla_JC_Kimono_cherryblossom / PixelsAndPix-Kimono-journal-block / YM_Kimono_Peace_Sign

Thank you all for participating!


All Kimono Blog Hop Designers:

Kim Hackworth 

Melanie Ritchie

Michele Pouliot

Stephanie Costello & Dori Melton 

Pamla Klenczar 

Rosa Mia Nissenbaum 

Christina Ming 

Anissa Burson 

Foosa Moon Creations 

Mary Moseley  

Maribeth Graf 

The Digital Celt 

Zindra Nelson 

Jellybean Design

Lady Bug Designs  

Corie Farnsley 

Yvonne Michelle   

Little Birdie Digital Designs 

Monique Helfrich

Collaboration kit for Japan

Many of  my AoDD class mates participated in the creation of a wonderful kit for Japan. The kit is called "Kimono" and includes over 50 papers and more than 35 elements and is for sale at jessicasprague.com. You can purchase the Kimono kit here. You are able to purchase the kit at 25% off until Sunday, June 5th, midnight eastern time, after which it will be sold at full price. 

All of the proceeds of the "Kimono" kit will go to the Red Cross to benefit those who suffered due to the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

We were supposed to create one or two papers and an embellishment pro person.
I only contributed these two .png files: a teapot and the Tea Time words.
They both came out of the kit I designed for the AoDD class.

Why Monique Helfrich Design?

I've always been drawing and playing with my handwriting since I was a little child. In my profession as a speech therapist I always used drawings to support my lessons for voice, articulation and language disorders.
In 2003 I joined our awesome subculture called scrapbooking (yeah!) and I was quite overwhelmed by everything I saw; beautiful papers, alphabets, embellishments, patterns, colors, techniques. I felt like a sponge - absorbing all this inspiration. I dived in and learned swimming along with other creative souls and I'm happy to may call them my friends (hi there!).
In July 2007 I became a DT member for Scrap-Club.eu. I still love to monthly create layouts with the beautiful kits Adriana provides.
Since May 2008 I create layouts for the bimonthly Scrapbookmagazine.nl.
I hear you thinking...'that's all paper scrapbooking'... and you're right.
I got so curious in theory of design that I graduated LOI Graphic Design/DTP in October 2010. We learned a little about Illustrator and a lot of InDesign (the patience work of aligning text and images) which I use for clients nowadays. I felt an absolute lack of Photoshop knowledge and all of a sudden I remembered I once put some classes of Jessica Sprague in my shopping cart (now you know me -  lol).
Fortunately they have lifetime access and that's where it all started, step by step. I felt overwhelmed by inspiration again and at the moment I was wondering how I could create a paper of my own there was an announcement of the AoDD March 2011 class. Nevertheless I never created a digital layout except from those hand-in-hand by Jessica I subscribed... and yes I had a hard time... but loved every minute of it!

Starting this new blog and writing my first post it was only 7 months ago that I knew nothing about Photoshop techniques... uh... I hope you still put some confidence in me. Trust me for I was taught by the best; both Jessica Sprague and Carina Gardner are great designers don't you agree!?
So now I'm able to create digital designs for scrapbooking and I hope this blog can spread the word.

What's next?
First finishing my AoDD certification; deadline May 23.
Then cheer up this blog layout with graphics and fonts. Yes, colorful and cheerful will be  my marks.
As soon as I got Carina's feedback for my certification I'll use her tips in my future design.
I hope you'll join me and that I can inspire to color your life and give it a swirl and some dots.

Monique

This is me ; ) (2008 layout published in Scrapbookmagazine.nl)