Designer's Resources Blues

I'm trying to design a kit with baby stuff - like that hasn't been done a million times - but I can't seem to find any "public domain" stuff to use that I like. I can't afford to buy the stuff right now, so I guess I'm stuck hand drawing the stuff again. It takes such a long time when I have to hand draw all the little things I need. I finished one kit last night I called Flippy Hippy. I couldn't find a hand peace sign, so I had to draw one and it took me about 2 hours to get it right. I'm not that good at hand drawing - I'm way out of practice. Not to brag (too much), but I won an art scholarship when I was 12 for art lessons at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. I was quite good when I was young. I even had a couple pictures on display at the gallery for 6 months.

Here is a peek at the Flippy Hippy kit. I'm not sure when I'll be putting it up for sale yet. I'm working on getting listed at a couple more stores right now, so I'm not sure where it will be listed, but here's what it looks like.

I thought it was kind of fun, with the papers that look like tie dye. I had to mute some of the colours, because the original colour scheme really hurt the eyes. They kind of turned out pastel, but with the tie dye I think it turned out well. I'm surprised how fast I've built up kits. I think I have a total of 13 kits I've made in the last 2 1/2 months.

So I guess no one liked my Think Pink kit well enough to buy it at 50% off and do a layout to get the add-on kit for free. Its kind of disheartening thinking you're putting all this time and effort into this and no one likes it. Oh well, I'll put the add-on kits up in the store and keep pluggin' away.

Well, back to work. I'm hoping to have a little freebie up by the end of tomorrow (stat holiday here in Canada).

By the way, if anyone knows of some good free for commercial use font sites and/or clipart, drop me a note, PRETTY PLEEEEAAAAASE?????

Talk to you later...

Cat

What a Glorious Day!!!!

It's a long weekend here in Canada & I took a vacation day just so I would have an extra long weekend. I'm having a great day. The weather has been fantastic here the last few days. I think we pretty much skipped right over spring and went right into summer. It was 30 degrees the other day (a little too hot for me) and its been around 25 degrees the last two days which is really nice. I slept late this morning, so it was already nice and sunny when I got up. I went out into the back yard to have my coffee and took these pictures of our lilac bush and our ornamental cherry tree. The fragrance from the blossoms is heavenly. Too bad the blooms only last about 1 week (for the cherry tree) and about 10 - 14 days for the lilacs.






I haven't had much time to do any layouts this week or designing anything. I'm trying to keep my computer time each night down to under 1/2 an hour and spend more time with my husband and keeping up with some housework. I think he was getting lonely. But he is napping right now, so its fair game. I am going to start another kit this weekend. I plan on having at least two new kits completed this weekend - and I'm going to force myself to use PS7. So hopefully I will have two new previews ready for you next weekend. So many times I've tried to sit down to blog during the week, but I'm so tired from work, my mind is mush and I just can't think of anything to say. So I'll leave to a weekend thing.

Well that's it for today. Have a great weekend!! And to all the fellow Canadians - have a extra great LONG weekend!!!

Cat

Nothng New

I can see that there isn't any interest in my contest. Oh well, I'll put the add-ons up in the store when the deadlines close. I just wanted to post a couple of layouts I made with two of my kits. They aren't up in the store yet, but hopefully, I'll have the kits finished soon and they will be available for purchase.

Not much else is new. I'm just going to go to Walmart with my husband to pick up a couple of things and do some house/yard work and that's it. Maybe we'll bbq later. It is sure nice now that the weather is getting warm. I want to go to the park and get some pictures of the Canada geese (yes Canada geese - not Canadian geese - they're not Canadians, although some have taken up permanent residence here. :) Sorry, just had to put that in there. I read someone else's blog and they were going on about Canadian geese.)

Well, anyway, here are the layouts I made. Let me know what you think...

This first layout is done with my Sunwashed Summer kit.



This one is made with the Mind Maze kit. The only thing is the two black papers aren't available. I had a mishap and lost those papers and had to rework the kit, but it still shows how the kit would look because it is all in black & white. All the other elements and papers are available in the kit. This is a huge kit. The main kit has 12 papers & a bunch of elements. I also have 3 add-on paper packs of 6 papers each to go with the kit. So, here's the layout...



That's all I have to say for today. Check out the sale at digiscrapcentral.com. I believe today's the last day for 50% off.

Cat

Boo Hoo!!!

I didn't even make through the first round for the contest at digiscrappin.biz. Oh well, I have other fish to fry. I have two kits up for sale at digiscrapcentral.com this week. They are having a 50% off sale this weekend!!! So if you like my Think Pink kit and/or my Think Blue kit and thought you might like to pick up one or the other, now's a good time. Here are a couple of layouts I did with the two kits:





I think since I didn't get anywhere in the ultimate scrapper contest, I'll have my own little contest. The first three people to email me a link to a layout they have done with either of my Think Pink or Think Blue kit will receive the corresponding add on kit. That means six people - SIX - will win an add-on kit! Here are the previews:





You can purchase either of the kits here. If you're not a member, its free to register.

Now for the rules (there are always rules...).
1.) You must post in an on-line gallery of your choice (eg. digiscrapcentral.com, digitalscrapbookplace.com, thedigichick.com, etc. - you all have your favourites).
2.) You must give proper credit for the kit in the posting.
3.) You must have posted the layout on or before May 20th, 2006, 12:00 midnight MST.
4.) You must email me with a link to the layout to catscrapfever@shaw.ca on or before May 20th, 2006, 12:00 midnight MST.

That gives you one week. Usually, I put a notice up on a couple of boards to let people know I have a new freebie, but this time, this is the only place you will find the information about this contest.

I will email all the winners with a link to the add-on kit. I don't expect an overwhelming response to this, but just in case I get a lot of emails, I will only be contacting the winners. I will get the emails out by the following Wednesday at the latest (May 24th, 2006).

So, have fun, show me what you made, and have a good week!!!

Cat

Let The Games Begin!!

So the digiscrappin.biz contest has started and I uploaded my entry thursday night (or rather very early friday morning). I'm not sure. I had this vision of how I wanted the layout to look, but I don't think its quite there. I wanted it to be more graphical than just an ordinary scrapbook page. I'm not sure some of the people in the contest understood the first assignment instructions or if they just didn't read them. It did say to use "your best photo". I asked during the chat if that meant we had to have taken the photo ourself and they said yes, but I see quite a few layouts with pictures that weren't taken by the contestant themself. It is also posted in this weeks instructions for our layout that it has to be a picture we took ourself. I asked my husband what he thought about me mentioning it in one of the forum threads, but he said not to bother - that it might make me look like a trouble maker. I don't think it will be fair to the other contestants (& me) if they get passed through to the next round without following the contest instructions. (Can you tell I'm competitive????)

Here is a link to my round 1 layout. Let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any comments you have about it.

Round 1: Fairy Princess

So other than that I HAVE BIG NEWS!! I will be selling my kits at DigiScrapCentral.com. I uploaded my kits this week and they should be in the store today or tomorrow. I have the Mind Maze kit, the Think Pink Kit, and the Think Blue Kit up for sale. I'm really excited to see how well they are received. I am trying to find other stores that will take me on as a designer, but for now I think I'll sit tight and learn a little more about creating the elements and stuff. Its a lot of fun.

I have a new freebie to offer you. I made an overlay. I call it Linen. Here are a couple pictures I used it on using PS7:



This first one I just used without altering it - just the lowered the opacity so that the background colour would show through. This is one of my babies Mimi. I caught her on our bed in the folds of the big down duvet we have. She got scolded (just a little bit) after I took the picture because its the one place in the house were the cats aren't allowed - my husband is allergic to cats.

The second one done in PS7 as well and I changed the the colour by using the overlay colour in the layer styles. This is a picture of my sweet little niece when she was about 18 months old. I just love this little girl.



The next two pictures I made with PSPX. They are pictures of my sister's little dog - he's called Corky. He's a mischevious little thing, but so cute. The first one I used the overlay as is and just lowered the opacity of the layer it is on. The second one, I changed the layer blending options to colour, used the layer fill for the colour I wanted to change the overlay to and changed some of the opacity settings.




Just to give you an idea of how to use it if you're new to this. Sorry, I don't use other graphics softwares so I don't know how you would use them there.

I'm going to use a different file sharing site than yousendit. I found this one called sendspace.com. You are able to store your files there indefinitely as long as there is activity on it. So this way I won't have to keep uploading the freebies to yousendit everytime the link expires.

So you can download the overlay here.

If you make any layouts with any of my designs I would love to see them. Just send me an email with a link to catscrapfever@shaw.ca

So if you have anything to say, you can always leave me a comment. If you want me to respond, just say so and I will.

Have a good day....

Cat