Mardi Party

Hey, y’all.  Back down into the deep freeze we go after a week long visit with Spring.  My daffodils are coming up.  No buds, yet, so, hopefully, they’ll survive the coming cold blasts.  Yes, blasts, plural.  We are in for one bumpy ride.  Today, highs are forecast to be in the mid-forties, and, according to the weather guy, that might be a little optimistic.  Sunday and Monday, though, are supposed to around 70.  Then back in the 40s and 50s for Tuesday and Wednesday.

::sigh::

On a brighter, definitely happier, note, Mardi Gras is next week.  Here’s a little kit I’ve been toying with for about a year.  I started playing with it last year, but something wasn’t quite right.  After bringing it out last month, I decided it needed more color, so I added the bright gold color to the palette.  Everything just kind of flowed from there.

Mardi Party contains:

• 24 papers
• 25 frames
• 12 beads
• 5 beaded strings
• 6 masks
• 6 coins
• 4 flags
• 7 street signs
• 7 glitter tiles
• 7 glitter brackets
• 7 glitter circle accents
• 7 glitter curled ribbons
• 6 glitter argyle
• 7 sequins
• 7 Fleur-de-lys
• 6 curled ribbons
• 1 alpha (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)

I used the font Times New Roman for the alpha.  If you have Windows, you should already have it.  If you don’t, you can purchase it here.  You should also already have Verdana, the font used on the street signs.  If you don’t, you can get it from the FontZone.  The glitter brackets were done with Boingo, from Bright Ideas.  It can be downloaded from dafont.com.  Intellecta Crowns and Rough Fleurons (the fleurs-de-lys), both by Intellecta Designs, can also be downloaded from there.  The word Mardi Gras on one of the papers is from the font MardiGras.  You can get it here.

Here’s a better look at the papers:

Download:  In Full or in Pieces

Wintry Mix

Hello, y’all, on this unusually, and ironically, warm Friday morn.  Ironic because of the theme of the kit I’m posting.  Weekend before last, I began to randomly choose colors for a new kit.  After finishing the papers a few days later, I just happened to glance at the radar.  The colors looked very similar. Outside my window, it was snowing, but, closer to the coast, it was icing.  Lots of blues, pinks, and purples on that radar.  Hence, Wintry Mix was born.

Wintry Mix contains:

• 33 papers
• 14 frames
• 19 round labels
• 18 rectangular labels
• 16 paper snowflakes
• 8 jeweled snowflakes
• 8 arrows
• 8 glitter tiles
• 7 buttons
• 7 sequins
• 7 circle accents
• 5 ribbons
• 6 stitches
• 3 clouds
• 2 snow layers
• 1 rain layer
• 1 icicles
• waterdrops
• 2 alphas (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)

Here’s a better look at the papers:

The font I used for the alphas is Franklin Gothic Demi.  Both it and the font on both sets of labels, Franklin Gothic Book, are from Microsoft and come with Windows.  If you don’t have them, you can purchase them here.  I used two separate fonts to make the snowflake elements.  They are DH Snowflakes by David Holm and Faux Snow BRK by Ænigma.  You can download them at dafont.com.

If you want to make your own waterdrops, I used this tutorial:  How to generate realistic mass waterdrops on a surface.  It’s for GIMP which is a free image manipulation program you can download here.

Download:  In Full or in dial-up friendly Pieces.

 

Lots of Love & Kisses

Morning, all.

Here’s a Valentine’s kit that’s a bit bolder, more grown-up than Valentymes, yet still appropriate for layouts of your kids.

Lots of Love & Kisses contains:

• 22 papers
• 34 frames
• 12 flowers
• 6 glitter hearts
• 6 glass hearts
• 6 shimmer hearts
• 5 sketched hearts
• 1 entwined hearts
• 6 dog tags
• 8 labels
• 6 buttons
• 5 kisses
• 4 curled ribbons
• 6 glitter tiles
• 6 sequins
• 6 ric-rac
• 1 alpha (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)

Like with Valentymes, the lips, or “kisses” are the letter “A” of the font Love Romance from Blue Vinyl Fonts.  You can download it from there, or from dafont.com.  The alpha font is Old Sans Black by Manfred Klein and the one on the labels is Sketch Block by artill.de.  Both fonts can be downloaded at dafont.com.  Oh, and the word “Love” on some of the papers is also from Love Romance.

Here’s a better look at the papers:

Download:  Full or in Pieces.

Valentymes

Happy Groundhog Day, y’all.  I say we blindfold all of the groundhogs so not one of them sees his shadow.  What do you guys think?

And a happy birthday to my grandniece, Kaylee.  She’s now a five-year-old big girl!

Today, I have for you a Valentine’s Day kit in lovely pastel shades of pink, blue, and purple.  It’s really girly.  Very much suited to scrapping Valentine’s parties at school or birthday parties for your girly girl.

Valentymes contains:

• 19 papers
• 19 frames
• 18 flowers
• 27 labels
• 7 buttons
• 7 glitter tiles
• 12 glitter hearts
• 6 glitter dot hearts
• 6 glitter heart dangles
• 6 balloons
• 6 glass hearts
• 5 heart accents
• 2 plaid quilted hearts with lace
• 5 curled ribbons
• 6 sequins
• 10 pieces of washi tape
• 3 alphas (upper- and lowercase letters, plus 1 set of numbers and symbols)

The alphas in this kit were created using the font Love Letters by StimulEye Fonts.  You can get it from dafont.com.  The lips, or “kiss” is the letter “a” of the font Love Romance from Blue Vinyl Fonts.  Euphemia is the font on the smaller label set.  It was created by Tiro Typeworks and comes with Windows.  If you don’t have it, you can download it from the FontZone.  The fonts on the other labels are as follows:  Orial by Salmon Boosty, Old Sans Black by Manfred Klein, Parisienne by Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute, and headthinker by Ian Currie.  You can get all except Parisienne, which you can get at Font Space, from dafont.com.

Only one tutorial was used when making this kit.  I adapted this Cute Metal Coin tutorial at Design Tutorials to making the metal outline for the heart accents.

Here’s a better look at the papers:

Download:  Full or in Pieces

Cold Snap

Good morning, y’all, on this very frosty Friday.  It was cold and drizzly yesterday, so we have lots of frost this morning, though, thankfully, no fog.

Is it just me, or has this winter been extra cold?  Maybe it just seems that way.  It’s certainly been long.  We didn’t even get out of the forties for Thanksgiving.  Normally, we’d have been in the mid-60s.  Of course, Christmas was warm.  About what it should have been for Thanksgiving, actually.  Go figure.  And, of course, there was the horrible “polar vortex”.  We were 23, one day, when we’re supposed to be about 53!

Yes, definitely cold.  But, sadly as yet, no accumulating snow, just a couple shots of flurries.  For those of you lucky enough to have snow to play in, here’s a new winter kit I’m calling Cold Snap.  It’s got snow, icicles, snowmen, and even a snow fort.  Some of the blues and the green in this kit are the same as those in Yuletide, so you should be able to coordinate the two, somewhat.

Cold Snap contains:

• 20 papers
• 23 frames
• 16 glitter snowflakes
• 9 flowers
• 20 pieces of washi tape
• 7 glitter tiles
• 7 sequins
• 7 buttons
• 5 labels
• 4 snowmen
• 3 snowballs + one stack of snowballs
• 2 fallen snow
• 2 snow layers
• 1 penguin
• 1 icicles
• 1 snow fort
• 1 alpha (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)
• 1 set of date stickers

I used lots of snowy, wintry fonts with this one, all of which can be downloaded from dafont.com:

• DH Snowflakes by David Holm
• Faux Snow BRK by Ænigma
• Snowflake Letters by Darrian Lynx
• Snowflakes TFB by zanatlija
• IglooLaser

Other fonts used in the making of this kit are:

• Orial by Salman Boosty
• Romance Fatal Serif by Juan Casco (the date stickers)
• Parisienne by Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute
• Old Sans Black by Manfred Klein (the alpha)
• Lane Narrow by GemFonts

You can get all of them, except for Parisienne, which you can get from font space, from dafont.com.

Here’s a better look at the papers:

Download link:  In Full or in Pieces

Chirpy

Hey, y’all, here’s what I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks.  A bright, happy, fun kit I decided to call Chirpy.  Not just because of the cheerful colors, but for all the little birds.  I was on a bird kick, I have no idea why.  They’re just so cute.  I also couldn’t resist making some birdcentric labels.  Don’t worry, I included some blanks as well.  And the PSP settings for the font.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t decide on an alpha.  Without further ado, I give you Chirpy:

Chirpy contains:

• 36 papers (I know, I went overboard)
• 18 flowers
• 24 frames
• 8 birds
• 8 labels (plus 8 blanks)
• 4 curled ribbons
• 6 sequins
• 6 buttons
• 6 brads
• 6 glitter tiles

If the colors look familiar, it’s because they are.  This is one of the favorite palettes.  The same one I used to make Laugh!, Birthday Giggles, and Joyous.  I wanted to redecorate around here, and, as always, I came back to these colors.

The font on the labels is Lane Narrow from GemFonts.  I got it (and you can, too) from dafont.com.  The gorgeous patterns on some of the papers come from the dingbat font FreeTiles, which you can get from the Dingbat Depot.  Here’s a closer look at those papers:

And… You can see the patterns a bit better on these.

You can download this kit in full or in dial-up friendly pieces.

Enjoy!

Summertime

Why is it so cold in May?  Luckily, we’re not it’s-gonna-snow-cold the way some of y’all are, but, still.  Last year, winter lasted, like a week, and this year it won’t let go.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to be warm.  Bring on the summer!  That’s what this week’s kit is all about.  The fun in the sun we get to enjoy in the good ole Summertime.

Summertime contains:

• 21 papers
• 13 frames
• 5 flowers
• 2 frame clusters
• 2 curled ribbons
• 4 journal arrows
• 5 journal arrow stickers
• 5 glitter tiles
• 5 gems
• 5 sequins
• 2 beach balls
• 2 kites
• 1 cruise ship
• 2 lifesavers
• 1 sailboat
• 1 pool
• 1 volleyball net
• 2 water

Here’s a closer look at the papers:

Summertime sprang from last week’s kit, Shine On.  I kept the oranges and yellows, then added an off-white color and a blue for a warm, summery feel.  After that, I’d make an element, like the journal stickers, for one of them, and wonder how it would look with the other.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

I actually made the cruise ship last year for another kit I was working on that just didn’t go anywhere.  While making Summertime, I remembered the ship, and the lifesavers, and recolored them to work with this kit.  I hope y’all enjoy.

Download:  In full or in dial-up friendly pieces.

Shine On

Good morning, y’all.

Mom’s doing great.  She no longer needs PT, or the walker.  However, she still prefers to use it when she leaves the house, which is fine.  Whatever makes her feel safer and more secure.  She’s also well enough to start bitching about the lack of salt in her food.  Her doctor’s reply to that was “Tough.  Get used to it.”  The doctor is also talking about reducing her insulin.  They’ll be doing a bunch of blood work during her next appointment, and we’ll see how that goes.  Oddly, her eye doctor says there is no sign of diabetes in her eyes.  There are a few little blind spots in her right eye due to the stroke, so driving is a definite no-no, but no sign of diabetes.  It’s odd, and that’s something else we’ll be discussing with her regular doctor.

Anyway, I’ve found some time to play in PSP, and the result is the kit I’m post today, and one I’ll be posting next week.  They sort of grew from each other with similar color palettes.  Today’s kit is about spring.  It has warm, yet earthy, colors, lots of flowers, and cute little birds.

Shine On contains:

• 19 papers
• 10 frames
• 3 frame clusters
• 25 flowers
• 8 birds
• 3 curled ribbons
• 7 journal arrows
• 7 journal arrow stickers
• 7 glitter tiles
• 7 sequins
• 7 gems
• 1 alpha (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)

Here’s a better look at the papers:

The font I used for this alpha is Georgia by Matthew Carter.  This is a Microsoft font that usually comes with Windows.  If you don’t have for whatever reason, you can download it from the Fontzone.

Download links:  In full or in dial-up friendly pieces.

Next week, it’s summertime!  Here’s a peek:

Refreshed

Hi, y’all.  Long time, no scrap.  But, today, I finally have a new freebie for you to download.  Refreshed is all about rainy days.  Rather apropos, since it’s been raining all night, and will continue to do so for the rest of the day.  This kit makes me think of spring.  In fact, I actually started making it last spring.  I was inspired by the Deck the Halls Colour Challenge last May over at Digital Scrapbook Place.  After saving the palette, I started experimenting and doodling, but nothing really seemed to work right.  Nothing “jelled”.  So, I put it away for awhile.  This happened a few times, until I brought it back out a few weeks ago.  Everything finally started coming together.  I changed the colors some.  Darkened a few, added saturation to others, and so on.  Here’s the result.

Refreshed contains:

• 21 papers
• 21 flowers
• 16 frames
• 8 labels
• 2 rain layers
• 3 dragonflies
• 1 rainbow
• 4 sets of falling raindrops
• 4 ric-rac
• 3 scalloped edges
• 7 sequins
• 8 glitter tiles
• 5 clouds
• 7 string flowers
• 1 waterdrops layer
• 2 alphas (one lower- and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols, one lowercase letters only)

Here’s a better look at the papers:

The water alpha was created using Water Script by Yaqi Huang, you can download it from dafont.com, and this tutorial:  How to create realistic mass waterdrops on a surface.  I then added a some sparkle to the hightlights with this one:  Create sparkle on any object!.  Both are for GIMP.  The waterdrop tutorial was also used to make the waterdrop layer (duh, right), some of the falling raindrops, the drops on the square frames, and the dragonflies.  The font used for the second alpha was Dream Orphanage Regular by Typodermic Fonts.  It and Romance Fatal Serif (created by Juan Casco), the font on the labels, can also be downloaded from dafont.com.

You can download this kit in pieces, convenient for dial-up, or in full.

Oh Happy Day

Hi, y’all.

Someone obviously forgot to buy Mother Nature a calendar because she appears to think it’s June.  Temperatures in the 90s and not one but two preseason storms in the Atlantic.  You can tell that, weather-wise, this is going to be a fun summer.  Cue sarcasm.

Today, I have a freebie for you inspired by the May Color Palette 1 over at Scrapbook-Byes.  The colors are just so bright and happy that I just had to use them.  As you can see, I even used it to redecorate my blog.

Oh Happy Day contains:

• 16 papers
• 15 flowers
• 12 frames
• 5 glitter tiles
• 5 gems
• 5 sequins
• 5 buttons
• 5 butterflies
• 7 glass beads
• 2 curled ribbons
• 3 clouds
• 1 sun
• 2 alphas (upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols)
• 1 journal block
• 1 stitched line
• 3 scalloped edges
• 1 string wrap

Both of the alphas were made using the font Old Sans Black by Manfred Klein.  You can download it at dafont.com.  The journal block and the flowers were created with some of Shawna’s awesome shapes.  You can download them here.

It has come to my attention that some of the forums using my kits aren’t too happy about the way that I break-up my downloads into small, dial-up friendly, parts.  So, I’ve decided to start including a link to download the full kit in one go.

Download:  In Parts or In Full.