a Romantic quick page & some tags

Ok - last post I shared the January desktop calendar I made with Shani's Golden Nights. I played around more with the kit & made 2 tags & a quick page freebie. I had to do a grocery run today & my wheelchair bumping over the crumby sidewalks has given me quite the backache, so I'm not going to type out tutorials. The tags are basic copy, paste, resize & position as desired.

This kit has loads of potential & I would recommend it.

Enjoy & please stay safe tonight.

Start 2012 on the right note!

I know I already posted a january desktop, but then I got a look at Wicked Princess' new kit called Golden Nights, tagger size, 300 dpi.

For some reason mediafire absolutely refused to cooperate, so this one went into my 4shared account. Starting on the Right Note

If you haven't already done so, bookmark Shani's blog; don't let the "Wicked"part fool you, she's a talented designer, caring friend and wonderful person.

Enjoy

January 2012 desktop

I used Rena Designs Magic Night Frosty Winter to make the desktop calendar for January 2012.

Enjoy.

Quick Page contest

Cool Scrap Digital is having a quick page contest which means you get my entry as a freebie. I used a kit by Scrapper's Delights called Papillions.

enjoy (& consider voting for my entry)

cute kids - a Christmas Tradition

My friend has a very cute littke boy & she likes to set up cute photos - so, licking the gingerbread house was mommy's idea! The visit with the big guy in the red suit was taken at Devonshire Mall. I was very picky about what kit to use to scrap these photos & picked Christmas Traditions by Broken Sky Dezine.

I made the gingerbread layout into a quick page for you.

Enjoy.

corrected December 2011 calendar

Ok. I screwed up - I used an inaccurate calendar grid for my December desktop. Corrected version here.
Sorry about that.

December 2011 desktop calendar

Cherished Moments, one of several new kits from Wicked Princess Scraps, made a wonderful December 2011 desktop calendar.

Enjoy

It's Snow Good

DSO colour challenge

It's Snow Good

5 zips:6 papers & 112 elements

zip01

zip02

zip03

zip04

zip05

enjoy

November 2011 desktop

ok both my laptop and desktop need to go into the shop but I decided to send them in one at a time

unfortunately my winzip is not allowing zipping up, so the 2 sizes of November desktop calendar are in separate files

full

laptop

I used Golden Autumn from Kissed by Cari

enjoy

October desktop calendar

ok, a couple of days late because my computer is trying to drive me insane! but i do have an October 2011 desktop calendar freebie in 2 sizes, for desktop or laptop.

enjoy

autumn quick page

My CS4 has crashed & also refuses to install on my laptop - I'm practically pulling my hair out trying to figure out the problem. I had just finished some work but had saved it in psd & had to get things into a more user friendly format.

I used Autumn Fantasy by Diva Designz, available in tag or full sizes, with lovely posers included.

I made a quick page freebie & I made a tag for Mandy.

My muscles are extra spastic today & I can hardly type, so no tutorial this time.

Enjoy

September 2011 desktop calendar

Ok, I am back, sort of. It's been a couple of difficult months. My furry baby, Smudge turned out to have late stage mammory cancer & I had to take the agonizing step of having her put to sleep. because I plunged into depression, my brother got me a new furry baby from a rescue organization & her name is Emily. Not long afterward, my apartment was hit by bedbugs & Emily & I had to evacuate to my parents. The organization that manages my care hired a company to prepare my apartment for the pest control steps. Almost everything was thrown out so I am trying to replace the essentials. Although the company agreed software & accompanying manuals as well as my computer equipment did not need to be discarded, all my design software disappeared along with 2 flash drives & 2 MP3 players. Add in health problems & doctor appointments & it'll be awhile til I'm back into my groove.

I hunted down a kit by Babycakes Scraps called Love Song to do a September desktop because still having June on my desktop was confusing me - lol.

2 sizes, desktop & laptop

please bear with me as I struggle to get my life back in order

Enjoy

July 2011 desktop calendar

Monday was the worst day of my life - I took my beloved Smudge to the vet because she hasn't seemed to be feeling well & was bleeding from her tits. I thought she was worrying an allergic reaction to the point of bleeding (happened last year) but instead I got a bombshell - late stage mammory cancer. There was absolutely nothing that could be done, even painkillers would increase the bleeding. I had to make the agonizing decision to euthanize her. I plunged into depression. My brother brought me a new rescue cat Tuesday evening, so I now have a new reason to get out of bed.

I put together a bunch of stuff from my 'assorted' file to create a July 2011 desktop calendar.

Enjoy

DSO colour challenge - Waiting for Warm Weather

It's unseasonably cool here, & it doesn't feel much like summer. I've been sick all month with way too many ambulance rides to ER (I HATE going to the ER). So I managed a kit for the June 2011 colour challenge at DSO, only 5 zips this time - lol. Waiting for Warm Weather is in a folder at my mediafire account.

zip01

zip02

zip03

zip04

zip05

If you download, please leave a comment either with the post or in my shout box - I need cheering up.

Enjoy.

another batch of tags

ok first is a tag made months ago using Wicked Princess Scraps "Sweet Pea"

Second a tag using Shani's (Wicked Princess) Breathless Moments.

A tag for Shani's daughter Otelia using "Bee My Honey" by Gina (KiKeKa).

A tag for Shani's other daughter using Choubinette Designs "A Gentle Sweet Taste"

Last, but far from least, using Shani's Everybody Loves Chris" a tag for her son.

tags are about sharing one's original vision & expressing oneself, or expressing one's impression of a tag recipient - it's fun

Some Forgotten Melody qp set & tag

Ok. Been spending more time in hospital ERs than at home lately, but have managed to get a little bit of work done. Dare's Design has a new heritage type kit available called Some Forgotten Melody.

I've made a set of quick pages & done a tag.

I used Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 4 to make the tag. Make sure "show transform controls" is enabled. Open a new transparent canvas 700 pixels x 700 pixels, use the circular selection tool to create a circle & fill with background of choice (paper2).

Select your elements. I used musical notes (22) & victrola (23). Copy, paste, resize as needed, & position each element as desired. I used 5 copies of the musical notes - 4 copies were placed around the circle with parts overlapping the edges of the circle & then moved to layers below the circle, while 1 copy of the notes was placed on the layer above the victrola. I used a metallic style on these notes so they showed up against the background.

I then added my poser of choice (dnscraps' little lolita doll5) & applied an effect called 'hard edge' which is an exaggerated drop shadow.

I used different fonts on this tag: Bangle for the theme, Baroque Script for the name, & Arial for the tag information. I used an effect called 'groovy' on all the text, which is inner shadow+ outer glow+inner glow.

When I was finshed, I saved the tag in my program's default format (psd) & in a web friendly format (png).

Enjoy.

June 2011 desktop calendars

I have a choice of June 2011 desktop calendars for you. Calendar choice 1 is made using Tamaso Fantasy by Wacky Winnie Designz. Calendar choice 2 is made using Fairyland by Wicked Princess Scraps.

Enjoy

whole buncha tagging goin on

Shani has been busy making kits - I can't keep up! Check out her blog & definitely check out her section at Twilight Scraps right now - she has a BOGO (Buy One Get One) sale in conjunction with the store's anniversary celebration.

So a hacker has sidelined my laptop til I can get it into the shop & my desktop keyboard is still suddenly going into all caps without any move on my part - driving me nuts. In addition, the arthritis in my hands is making typing painful. I hope nobody really minds if I just post a bunch of tags without accompanying tutorials.

My basic tag making is:

1. Set your software program to show a bounding box around an element when hightlighted in the layer palette, so you can resize the element by manipulating the corners of the bounding box (some people refer to these boxes as 'marching ants').

2. Try to start with a mental picture of what you want your tag to look like; choose your papers & elements accordingly. Copy, paste, resize as needed, & position as desired. The visibility toggle can help you decide if an element is working or not without backtracking multiple steps.

3. Never be afraid to play & experiment with things like opacity, effect, styles. I don't like using templates & I have yet to figure out the best way to use masks, but eventually I hope to figure it out.

4. Most important is to have fun & end up with a tag that you like.

So, in this post I will share tags made with 3 of Shani's latest kits - Lil Bo Peepers, Nature's Tea, & Ride a Cowboy.

With Lil Bo Peepers, I made a simple tag for all the girly little girls out there. In childhood, I had both a tomboy side & a girly girl side which some adults found strange. I still love tea parties, playing Barbies. The poser is CIZ-Candy4 by Creative Intentionz.

With Nature's Tea, I made a tag, & then experimented with what I had the poser hold & it made the tag look very different. The poser is Shea 4 by Luscious Digi Dolls, aka Luscious Scraps.

With Ride a cowboy, made a tag & a quick page freebie for you. I couldn't resist sticking a photo of my cousin Mark's baby boy into the quick page - he is so cute! The poser in the tag is cowgirl2-1 by Sinful Mindz.

If any of you have a specific question about how I made a particular tag, leave me a comment.

Enjoy

May DSO colour challenge - Puppy Love

My mojo has not been itself this month. I am struggling creatively. I stared at this month's colour swatch at DSO & nothing really came to mind for a kit, so I settled for a quick page that uses all the colours. I put a picture I took of a friend's puppy into the page.

Enjoy