Blog train time!!

It's time for another blog train!! This month's Color Challenge at BAM (BabyAndMe forums) was hosted by Kaelira, who came up with a very pretty pastel-y palette, perfect for scrapping your Mother's Day photos, your Easter photos, or whatever else you can dream up! :) Here's the palette:


I called my minikit "Spring Flowers." Click on the preview to download!


We each made a minikit with 3 papers and 3 elements, but many of us got carried away and did more than that! So make sure to check back over the next few days. I'll be posting an addon, a CU glitter pack, and an alpha! For now, visit the other BAM designers and leave them some love too! Oh, and if any of the minis aren't up yet, just check back in a while. ;) We're all in very different timezones, but all of the minis should be available within the next 24 hours.

BAM Color Challenge #2 Blog Train!
Kaelira's Digiscraps
geniaBeana Scraps
Digital Designs by Me
Creatively Mom
Creativity Meets Girl
Scrap It Simply
Kimi's Kreations <--- you are here!

A few pretties~

First of all, we had a speed scrap today at BabyAndMe forums (which you frequently hear me refer to as BAM). We were to use white as a background color, and a lot of journaling, and try to use just one color other than neutrals. I used two, but she said at one point that green could count as a neutral, so I guess I'm safe. *lol* Anyway, here's my page:

Credits:
kit - Tracie Stroud's "Snips and Snails" (LOVE this kit)
glitter - BCC1 Glitter Styles by Kimi's Kreations (still available on this blog!)
font - My Own Topher
So, I actually have done quite a bit more than just this one layout in the past couple of days, but I can't post most of it. I have some free photobook credits at Artscow, so I made a lovely little photobook for my sister of her seven darling children. Since they're not my kids I probably shouldn't post them publicly. ;) BUT, one of the layouts used quite a few pictures, and became Template 35!

Additionally, another mommy on the forum asked about my "alpha" used in this layout, and I had whipped up a real alpha for her before I noticed that she asked if I could make it in pink. *lol* So you get THREE freebies today -- two "My Own Topher" alphas and a template!

Topher's Tangerine and TwinkleTopher Alphas
These alphas both use the font "My Own Topher" from Kevin & Amanda. The glitter is from my BAM Color Challenge #1 glitter pack. Simple, but effective. ;) I'm loving this font lately. (Incidentally, if you haven't picked up the glitter yet, you can find it by clicking the "glitter" tag to your right.)

Click on the previews to download! (Two separate links!)


Template 35
This template is a doozy! It's a very versatile two-page, 50-square template, just a little wonky. You can fill all the squares with pictures, or just a few smatterings of pictures among squares of pretty papers. You can turn a few squares off for a "window" to your lovely elements or title work. In the preview, I have turned off a few of the squares layers, but they are all included in the PSD for your toggling pleasure. ;)
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!


...But wait! Don't forget to come back tomorrow~ Late tomorrow evening, the BAM Blogtrain for Color Challenge #2 will be leaving the station! I'll be posting a minikit for you -- with glitter styles, an alpha, and an addon to follow over the next few days! PLUS, you'll get links to all of the other awesome designers at BAM, including a few who were not included in the last blog train! Woot wooooot! See you then!

Has it really been a week?

This past week has absolutely flown by. I'm not sure why. I went through a major scrapping spree early-on, working on the next BAM Color Challenge. Then, I think about mid-week, I found one of my templates on someone else's blog, hacked into a two-pager and claimed as an original. Thanks to Angie (IkeaGoddess), the blog was deleted for copyright violation. In case it's not clear, it is so not okay to take mine or anyone else's templates and/or graphics and claim them as your own. *sigh* Anyway, I got into kind of a funk after that and it took a few days to recover.

But I did! :) Here's one I did for the Altered Candy Challenge at Digital Candy. My alterations were the burnt edges on the cream-colored paper, sanded edges on the flowered paper, and a subtler change -- I flipped the orientation of the silver part of the clip.

Credits:
Modern Neutrals kit and addon by Christie Lemmon Designs

There was also a speed-scrap this week. We got to do a lot of new things, like photomasks and layering/stacking and using brushes. :) Great fun! I also entered this in the Fontastic challenge at Digital Candy. This is my oldest at less than a month old. Isn't he so sweet?

Credits:
kit - "In Dreams" collab by Steel City Scraps and Christie Lemmon Designs
brushes - Obsidian Dawn
photo masks - Gunhild Storeide
fonts - FG Jayne Print and Splurge

Last but not least was the weekly challenge. I doubled-up on this one with the Numbers Challenge at Digital Candy (if you're on DC, you may notice a few slight differences on that one that I had to add to make it work). All the hostess wanted us to do for the BAM challenge was to use some "real" flowers or bits of nature. Easy peasy! :)

Credits:
Most stuff is from "Pure Perfection" by Stolen Moments.
Rubber-bands are from "Playtime" by geniaBeana.
Green glitter is mine, from BAM Color Challenge #1.
LO inspired by geniaBeana. :)

Template 34
This is a 3-photo template with inspiration! You can use any clip you like to hang the photos from a pretty ribbon or string (or rubber band, in my case!). There's also room for some layered papers and plenty of white space. Inspired by the templates of geniaBeana.
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!


That's all for today! In case I don't get back here this next week, keep an eye out next Thursday/Friday for another blog train!! BAM Color Challenge #2 is on its way!! Choo chooooo! That means no less than SEVEN coordinating minikits to download, plus addons from those of us who just didn't know when to stop. And yes that includes me! I will also have a GLITTER PACK to give you! Watch for it!

Collaborative recipe challenge LO and Template 33

For those of you just making your way to my blog, be sure to check this week's post -- I've been template happy and there are a lot of freebies there now. ;)

This was done for BAM's first collaborative recipe challenge. Basically, a random 6 participants each picked a step, one each day for a week, and then we had an extra week to finish. The steps were:
1. Pick 1-3 photos. Make one of these photos the main focus of your page, in whatever way you choose.
2. Choose a color from your photos (one they all have in common) and pick one paper and one element (any element) that is that color or has that color in it.
3. Add something that is a circular shape, a square shape, and a triangle shape. It could be your pictures, an element, papers - your choice!
4. Add three staples, and a string. Put the string under an element.
5. Use an alpha to make one word in your title pop out from the rest. You can use another alpha for the rest, but one word should be totally different and really pop!
6. Add a doodle, copy it somewhere else, you can shrink it or stretch the copy if you need to.

The circle is the string, the square is the papers (okay it's a rectangle, whatever), the star's points are triangle shaped. :D I'm pretty sure everything else is included/obvious.
Credits:
kit - "Fresh Air" by Steel City Scraps
staple - "Front Porch" by Steel City Scraps
font - Pea Kawai

As I usually do with multi-pic layouts, I got right on the ball and made y'all a template from this one. ;)

Template 33
This is a clean and simple one-page template with rounded edges, very thin-edged mats for a touch of color (or white), and only three photos. There's also room for a few papers and plenty of white space for elements and journaling. :)
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!

Speed scrap LO and Template 32!

Yep, another Speed Scrap! :) Tonight's steps included three pictures, certain instructions for clustering, and required use of a bracket and wordart. I should note that I got the idea for my wordart from one I saw online somewhere, but didn't download. I thought it was particularly appropriate to the pictures. We are always warning Richie that someday Andrew will be bigger than he is (most likely, since he was 4 lbs bigger at birth) and he needs to be nicer to him. *lol* Here's my interpretation:

Credits:
Papers - Blast Off collab
Elements - Grosgrain Girl collab by Mel_h, Color with Caryn and ScrappyWeiss Designs
Font - My Own Topher

I then modified this layout into a template for you. Ordinarily I'd wait until the next day, as I try to spread out the freebies, but I don't know how my free time will be tomorrow. So you get lucky tonight. ;)

Template 32
This is a one-page template in PSD format, with room for 5 pictures. Please remember to check the TOU, and be sure to send me a link to any pages you might make with my templates, I'd love to see them and leave you some love!
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!

New LO and Template 31

I participated in this week's Grand Theft LO at ScrapMatters. I love how the page turned out, and I learned/played with some new shadowing techniques. I had no idea you could make your drop shadow into a new layer and mess with it! If I wanted a wonkier shadow, I usually would duplicate the layer, fill it with black, mess with the edges....etc. Took a lot longer! Anyway, here is my LO:

Credits:
The worm extraction is from an actual photo of the worm, but the stick it's sitting on comes in the kit.
kit - "Snips and Snails" by Tracie Stroud
font - My Own Topher

Template 31
This template comes from my "To Love Oneself..." layout. It's a two pager, with room for 7 largeish pictures.
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!

(Edit: Link fixed)

Template 30!

Woot, look at that round number! I don't know when I'm going to get more free time, so you get your template early today. Don't forget to scroll down to the previous post for yesterday's pretty two-pager, and remember to come back tomorrow for #31!

Template 30
Today's template is a one-page, 12x12", crazy mishmash of wonky pictures with mats. There are nine of them squished into one page! I tried to do a layout for you, but ended up wanting to do something different with the pics I had chosen, so you'll have to imagine it for yourself. ;)
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!


I'm trying to branch out here and there with my freebies, but sometimes I'm not sure what would be well-received as a standalone freebie. What are you guys interested in? More alphas? Glitter? Standalone elements? Or should I get my butt in gear and release a minikit?

BUNCHES of new layouts...and a freebie too! :)

I've been busy! I have three templates all ready to go for your enjoyment... they'll be released one day at a time, though. ;)

Let's see, where did I leave off? Ah yes. My layout a few posts down, "Banana Boy," won the speed scrap at BAM, so I got to host the next one. My rules were simple; no title, and basically create a clustered set of pics with lots of white space. I left it pretty open-ended. This is what I came up with:

Credits;
kit - "Growing Up" by Stolen Moments Design
font - Pea Kawai

Then, there was a weekly challenge. I got to host that one too, since the layout I used for Template 25 won THAT challenge. ;) My criteria for that challenge were simply to use one of the Design Star Round 4 kits for the layout. I used "Little Man." Here's mine:

Credits:
Everything is from the "Little Man" kit by Purple Tulip Designs.

Still feeling scrappy, I decided to branch out and do a challenge or two at other websites than BAM. I entered this in "Grand Theft Layout", scraplifting certain design points from a user named Bethanny (as per the requirements). Hers is here. Mine's a two pager. Here's the full layout:

And the close-ups:



Credits:
kit - "Modern Neutrals" by Christie Lemmon
fonts - My Own Topher, Pea Kawai

Then finally, I entered a Digi Dare challenge over at Digital Candy, and doubled up by also entering this in the Weekly Challenge at BAM (which was to scrap something funny).





kit - Alphabet Remix by Stolen Moments
fonts - Goudy Stout, Pea Kawai

Both of my two-pagers have been made into templates, one of which is...

Template 29
This was taken from the "Let's Take a Hike!" layout. It's a 2-pager, obviously, with room for 9 pictures. Clean, simple frames included. Be wary of the picture on the fold and don't put any good details right on the seam. ;)
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!


Enjoy~ And come back tomorrow for another!

Something sparkly~

While working on my minikit for BAM's April color challenge, I made this little random alpha. It's not much, just pink glitter and a little white, on the Microsoft font "Curlz MT." I called it...

Girly Curly Alpha
This very girly little alpha pack contains a full upper and lower case alphabet, as well as numbers, curly brackets, and other common punctuation. Enjoy :)

Click on the preview to download!


I'm not sure when the Color Challenge blogtrain will be; probably at the end of the month again, unless everyone gets done early. I'm hoping to have at least a couple of freebies a week for you, though, so stay tuned ;)

CU Glitter anyone?

Hey guys, I have a proposal for you.

I recently figured out how to make SEAMLESS glitter textures, so I can fill an entire 12x12 paper with glitter, no funky lines. It's awesome, and it has way increased the quality of my glitters. Anyway, thus far my glitters (the few I've put up on this blog) have been personal-use freebies. I will continue to do those when I make kits, but I was wondering if there's anyone out there who would like a custom glitter set, from your own color palette, for COMMERCIAL USE, for a small donation. You could use it any way you like (except to redistribute the exact files I give you and claim them as your own) -- you could make your own kits for freebies or to sell, make your own pretty glitzy alphas, or anything you want.

The downside of this plan is that I am not affiliated with any shops, so you would have to trust me and take my word for it (and Paypal's) that I'm an honest person who will do what I say I will. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to hook up with a shop, but for now this is all I can do.

Let me know what you think. Here's my proposal:
-You make a $3 donation to my Paypal account.
-You e-mail me a color palette, up to 5 colors (or buy an additional 5 colors for $2 extra).
-I give you an estimate of the amount of time it will take (most likely 24-28 hours, unless crazy things are happening)
-When I'm done, you get the following:
*12x12 SEAMLESS glitter papers matching each of the colors you sent me
*A custom set of layer-styles to use in Photoshop, applying the glitter texture to your images and/or text.
*Permission to use these files for making your own kits, as freebies or to sell.

This is just a "feeler" post; please comment here with some feedback for me if you'd like to see some custom CU glitter! :) How do you feel about this proposal?

Speed scrap and Template 28

Yay, we had another speed scrap tonight! It was a lot of fun. I got to use a pic of Andrew that I just took today. I will probably make a 2pager with the rest of this photoshoot, though. He was being so stinkin' cute and totally playing to the camera.

I don't feel like hunting down the rules at the moment, but suffice it to say that if you wonder why I did something the way I did it (only one pic, elements clustered together, some layered between things, number of papers, etc) it's probably because it was in the rules. ;)

Credits:
main kit - Lucky Fish collab by Mel and Vicki
green ribbon (originally red) - "deja 1an" by Nini-lolo
frame - shape swiped from "Boys Will Be" by Project B Designs

So in preparation for using more of these pics, I made myself a 2-page template. It's been a while since I did one of these! I'm getting rusty!
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Template 28
As I said, this is a two-pager, with room for 11 pictures, and simple, thin-edged mats. Oh, and rounded corners. :) Y'all seem to like those. I hope you like this one!


Enjoy~

And one more...

I was looking through my other layouts this morning, hunting for LOs that hadn't had a template made for them yet, and came across this one. The final LO for this was awful. I picked the wrong colors, the wrong kit, it just didn't work. But the layout was decent. :) So here you go!

Template 27
This one has rounded corners, small mat/frames, and room for 6 pictures. Don't forget to read the TOU!
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Recipe-to-scrap LO and Template 26

I made this for BAM's second Recipe-to-Scrap. I was watching LDS General Conference at the time, hence the theme that emerged.

Credits:
-Christ picture from lds.org
-papers, most elements - "Front Porch" by Steel City Scraps
-reversed-brad fastener - "Olivia" by kafrounette
-fonts: Everett Steele's Hand, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, Scriptina, Cafe Rojo

And in case anyone would like to scraplift, I also made a template out of this! :)

Template 26
This is more of an "idea" template, with only one real spot for a picture. It was made by request. In my layout, I used the place behind the heart to place a blended picture. I would love to see what you do with this one!
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Template 25!

Oooh, if I had a penny for every template I've made, I'd have a whole quarter by now! *lol*

This week's challenge at BAM was to scraplift someone in the digiscrap world. I did so, but my layout uses pictures that are not my own, so I won't be posting it on this public blog. ;) However, I did make a template out of it!

Template 25
Nice and wonky, this layout has room for 6 photos. I used it for closeups on little baby parts -- toes, tiny hands, a little ear. ^_^ Anyway, I hope you like it~ enjoy!
6/11/09 - This template has been updated and now includes both the original PSD and new PNG files.

Click on the preview to download!

Gushy thankyous and a couple of templates!

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments you have been leaving on my Ready For Sun kit. You have no idea how much they help! Nice comments = motivation to keep designing! I cannot believe the elements file has gotten over 800 downloads! O_O It's mind-boggling. I only hope I can continue to live up to that standard! You all are wonderful, thank you so much. Oh and by the way, Kaelira (another participant in the BAM-CC1 blogtrain and a very good friend of mine) has posted her addon now, too! You can grab it at her blog -- and don't forget to leave her some love! ;)

These next templates are dedicated to sirmeyer and sdwrdt, who never fail to comment on a template. ^_^ Thanks guys ;) And really all of you who come every time and download, and especially comment. You all rock.

Templates 23 and 24
These templates are nearly identical; they started out as a two-pager, actually, but didn't look quite right together. Each has room for 5 photo-strips, or you can use the spaces for papers and really focus on one or two pictures. They're kind of a photo-strip-story type deal. Very simple and clean, two strips in the back for papers if you like that sort of thing. ;) As usual, they are in PSD format with a full-size PNG included for non-PS users (though I'm not positive I'm doing that right...) -- 12"x12" and 300dpi.
6/11/09 - These templates have been updated and now include both the original PSDs and new PNG files.

Click on each preview to download!


I'm participating in BAM's color challenge for April, so keep an eye out for that. ;) I don't know if I can release much before the end of the month (I think we're doing another blog train) but if I don't, I do have another at-least-mini-sized kit in the works!