Chibi Goth

Not surprisingly, Rowena did not like the "Lil Mischief" chibis but did like the "Cuddle Lady Bug". I can't say I'm partial to the cuddle bugs but we're playing to mixed audiences, sooo....

Twisted Gray



The "Lil Grey" chibi is (c) by Krissy's Scraps. I used the "Toxic" taggers kit from Soxsational Scraps for the tag material. It seemed like a natural fit, but didn't work out that way. I ended up fighting to get a descent look. I'm not overly pleased, but in the end, I'm not displeased either.

Razor Wire



The "Lil Rebel" chibi is (c) by Krissy's Scraps - all the "LiL" series in this post are by her. The scraps are from the "Twilight" taggers kit by Grunge and Glitter which she says was inspired by the books/movies. Interestingly enough, there isn't a heart to be found in the kit and given the subject matter, I found that odd.

So I used a mask, I believe it was from Wee Scots Lass, to put a heart in the background. In the the end, I love the way this turned out, although Sisters of Mercy's "Ribbons" kept playing in the back of my mind while I was doing it, for some strange reason.

Lil Drummer Girl



I'm using the "Lil Rebel" chibi again. This time the scraps are from Honored Scraps' "Rock It, Roll It" taggers kit. I think this is a new release for them, but I got it for a buck during the Christmas sale at Treasured Scraps. There was a Digital Embellishment tube set I wanted that was 37 cents, and I hate to do paypal for less then a buck, so I snagged this kit while I was at it.

It also struck me as a little ironic to be doing this tag with this kit, as I've got the Blue Rocker and Pink Rocker kits from Krissy and probably should have used her own scrap kits with her chibi. Oh well. It was more an excuse to play with the "Rock it, Roll it" kit, which in the end I figure I'll use on and off with Sir Tristan.

Sweet Lil Gothling



The "Lil Gothling" chibi is (c) by Krissy's Scraps (of course) while the scraps are from "The Sweet Goths Sanctuary" taggers kit by Chaos Priestess. It's an interesting kit that has more of a fairy tale feel to it. I'll have to try it with some of the fairy posers I got from Shelly.

So, now that I've done the Gothic end of things, I'll turn my attention over to the sweet end of things.

More Elven Magic

I had intended to work on fairy tags last night, but I just wasn't feeling it, for some reason. So....

More elves which are (c) by Lacy Clagg, although this one is a little different from the last set.

Santa's Little Helper



That's right little elf, load that sleigh!

Scraps are from the "Christmas Bits" collection by C.C. Designs/Jack UR Scraps. The word art is courtesy of Cupcake Sprinkles by Caitlin.

I kind of really like the feltie stuff, but even their "small" papers were much larger than the usual tagger sized offerings.

Making a new friend



A snowman friend that is! Again, the scraps are from the Christmas Bits collection by C.C. Designs. The word art is by MW Designs.

While I was reading through the designer blogs this morning, there was a note on one blog in which some strange individual wrote "Just wondering what your little boy would say and think if he sees the nasty pics you post here?" I gather this elf would count as one of those nasty pics and I have to say, if you're really that prudish, what are you doing out in the world? I truly feel sorry for some of the crap these designers take from people for no good and apparent reason.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart



Leaving the felties behind, I went with the "Brrr Baby" freebie kit by Farrah's Creations. The word art is courtesy of Cupcake Sprinkles by Caitlin (again). Farrah's been confusing me because she keeps posting that she's having a $1 sale on all her stuff and I keep going over to DSLL and not seeing a sale. It seems she has a private store called Designer Scraps, which is where the sale is. This seems to be the latest rage, and I really don't like hoping from shop to shop to shop to buy things.

Anyway, the mask is from Wee Scots Lass as are all the masks used in the tags in this post.

Certified Nice



If your nice you get a pressie, and I don't know, if this little elf is part of the pressie, you might not be considered nice once you're done opening her. (At least, the prudish individual above would certainly think so.)

The scraps are from Yarrow's "Xmas Night" taggers kit, while the word art is courtesy of Scrappin' Obsessions.

Speaking of naughty and nice, a certain naughty tabby cat I know was quite distraught to find his "stash" had been relocated to a place he can't get to. Poor baby boy.

Your turn!



I really like the way this one turned out! The mask created a window effect, and I just sort of went with it. The scraps are from the Silent Night (version 1) kit from Soxsational Scraps, although since I don't use any of the clip art, either version would work. The light colored background paper is from the "Ice Warm" kit from Yarrow - the Silent Night kit didn't have a background that was light enough to make the piece work.

Party Thyme



Having partied with Sox, I moved over to Krissy's Scraps and the "Christmas Thyme" kit. I also used one of her "Christmas Thyme" dolls in the piece. The bar code word art comes from Kanela's Xpressions.

Krissy and Sox have opened their own store as well, jumping onto the designer specific bandwagon. It's called "The Goodie Loft" and you can find it HERE.

Bad Kitty Cats' New Year

These were all done for the BKCFoC #77 that was hosted at Tristan's Blog this last weekend, except for the bonus kitty.

Missy Be-Trayed



Missy is from the Elms in the Yard blog. I'd originally intended to use this picture for Thanksgiving but one thing led to another and she ended up getting bumped.

The scraps are from the "Celebrate 2009" from Heartbeatz Creationz which bills itself as the only New Year's Kit you'll need. It has both word art and an alpha, but is really, really lacking in New Years related elements. I had to recolor a party hat to use with the kit, for example. However, as I paid like 60 cents for the thing, I'm not going to complain.

Heartbeatz has been selling at Heavenly Taggerz, so I keep running across them, but they're not a designer I'd go out of my way looking for.

Luna, the life of the Paw-ty



Luna's pictures, as they are posted on Cat Synth, are very small and generally hard to work worth. I notice I get better results with PSP than with Photoshop in working with smaller sized photos.

The scraps are from DMK Designs' "Kiss Me at Midnight" taggers kit. I threw a bit of a glow behind the word art to make it stand out, otherwise the purple faded into the purple background.

Mushka, the Mistress of Mayhem



This was such a really nice shot of her that I had saved and I don't know why I haven't used it before. The Scraps are from the "2009" taggers kit from Creationz by Jo.

"Let them eat cake!" she meows as the clock strikes 12!

Phoebe, the Paw-ty Animal



This was a bad exposure to start with and I just couldn't get it saturated for fixed properly. Too bad, as I like the ruffled color she was wearing.

The scraps are from the New Years Bash collaboration kit from Taggers Scraps. Since TS is no more, you can find out more about obtaining the kit at Candy's Treats, who also provided the word art.

Wally the Wino



I was wondering if I was going to get into trouble for turning Wally in to an alcoholic, but so far, no one has said anything.

The scraps, including the wine bottle, are from "A Beary Happy New Year" taggers kit from Soxsational Scraps. The "2009" word art is courtesy of Lindsay Jane Designs. It's a cute kit, but it doesn't seem to work all that well in kitty cat tags. Maybe I'll try it with a poser and see if I get different results.

BKCFoC Banner



The scraps are from the "New Years Bash" collaboration kit from Taggers Scraps, except for the clip art kitty cats, which are from Designs by Sue and which can be purchased at Aussie Scraps. The "Celebrate" word art, which is from Evercila Designs.

The BKCFoC logo is of course courtesy of the BKCFoC website.

Bonus Kitty - Tristan



This is the profile picture for January for Tristan's Blog. The scraps are from the "New Years Bash" collaboration kit from Taggers Scraps. The "Satin Gold" alpha is courtesy of Free Digital Scrapbooking.

Red Elf, Blue Elf

The Blue Elves, and the Dancing Doll, are all (c) by Lacy Clagg and available at the LC Tube Store.

Tis the Season



Soxsational Scraps finally re-released the three holiday kits she'd replaced the clip art in, and I don't know that I like the new ones as well as the old ones. I used the original version of "A Country Christmas" for this tag, and one of the reasons for buying it in the first place was for the adorable Christmas Cat. He is not in the new version (of course).

The background mask was provided by Wee Scots Lass, while the word art is courtesy of Cupcake Sprinkles by Caitlin.

Snow Day



I haven't tried double masking yet, but I'm sure that's coming. The light blue area is a background that had been masked into the current shape, which is kind snowflakey. Then I put a second, darker background behind it, and added the actually snowflakes on top. It looks great...I'm really happy with the results!

All the scraps are from the Wintry Wonders kit by Krissy's Scraps, while the word art is by Bekah E. The mask is from Wee Scots Lass, who has more (More!) posted on her blog including some obviously Christmas ones.

Blue Christmas



Sort of the same deal as above - in fact the two tags are very similar in their construction, demonstrating my lack of imagination. The difference is that the scraps came from the "Ice Warm" taggers kit by Yarrow, except for the present, which is from the "Xmas Freebie" from Chaos Priestess. I was trying to get the brushes that came in that freebie to work, but evidently, I don't know what I'm doing yet. I seem to recall having a document on loading brushes (or tubes) and am going to have to find it and read it. ::sigh::

I also added drop shadow under the masked layer, to help make the papers - which are all very light colored - stand out.

New Years Girl



The mask for this tag came from Designs by Ali, and didn't work the way I was hoping it would. However, I am not unpleased with the results, it's just that they were different than what I expected. The scraps are from the New Years Bash collaboration kit from Taggers Scraps, although both the backgrounds were from Amanda's portion, while the glitter edge came from Candy's Treats.

Elf Clearance

If I don't do them now, I'll be doing them in June when they'll be really unseasonable. Then again...I'm as like to do Vampires at any time of the year, so why not Christmas?

All of the elves are (c) by Lacy Clagg and available at the Lacy Clagg Tube Store.

I Believe



I uses the "Spirit of Christmas" kit from Creationz by Jo, and applied a star sweater overlay that I got from Scrappin' Cop to the paper. The word art is courtesy of TBugz, and was a recent download via Digifree.

Note that there are a couple of new freebie search engines that have popped up out there. These are not Digifree, nor are they related to Digifree. Beware, take care and accept only the real thing!

Red Christmas



The scraps, including the word art, are from the "All that Glitters" kit from Baby Cake Scraps. The mask was one of the bonus ones I got for registering PSP. I got a whole bunch of new masks - 300 of them - courtesy of Wee Scots Lass, so I'm pretty set for a while, I think.

Traditional Elf



The scraps are for the "Christmas Traditions" taggers kit by Bittersweet Designs.

Pressies



The scraps are from the Snowel taggers kit from Krissy's Scraps, while the Word Art is from Bekah E.

Having discovered how to apply a mask, the next step was experimenting what you would do with, which included setting the opacity at various levels to see what sort of effect I achieved. This was one of my first experiments.

Cats on Tuesday - Snuggle Time

I finally finished the first book of the Twilight series, and I generally feel like I'm only person in the world who doesn't like it. I personally can't believe someone wrote four volumes of such drivel, but...there you go.

As I was generally avoiding reading the thing, it's been a while since Diamond and I had a snuggle fest, but I remedied that on Sunday when I started another romance. She likes to be read to, so I settled down with my book and a good little black cat sitting on me. So I read, and I pet her, and she drools all over me, which is the most "snuggling" we ever get, as she hates being held or restrained in any way.

Tristan was outside, so we had a good hour of snuggle time to ourselves.

I do wish they'd start getting along better, but with Diamond, it's likely to take a long while before she finally accepts him, as she's pretty set in her ways, and this is still "her" house. At least they're not growling and hissing anymore, but that don't stop her from taking a swipe at him from time to time. That might be about the best we'll ever be able to manage.

The bedroom seems to have become more or less Tristan's domain, but isn't going to stop Miss Diamond from getting her snuggle time in. Oh no. Especially if I'm going to read to her. And especially if there is a cat in the book. (Well, there were kittens, and I guess that counted.)

---

Diamond's "evil eye" layout was done using the "Dangerous" taggers kit by Farrah's Creations. The mask is courtesy of Wee Scotts Lass, while the "So Dangerous" word art come to use from Calypso Designs.

Holly Daze - Vol. 1, Part 2

I guess I better get going on the Christmas Cats, as it will be New Years before I know it!

Holly, nesting



While I really like this kit ("Happy Christmas" by Scrappy Lover), I wasn't all that pleased with the tag. I think it was the weakest one of the group. The "Gold Foil Alpha" is from Free Digital Scrapbooking, where I got a number of the alphas used on the tags in this post.

Abby



The scraps are from the "Wintry Wonders" taggers kit by Krissy's Scraps, except for the little white polar bear, which was from an embellishment pack by Moni Scrap.

The White Christmas Alpha is by Delicious Scraps.

Dr. Tweety



Both the scraps and the alpha came from the "Spirit of Christmas" kit from Creationz by Jo. I like the kit very much, the alpha leaves a lot to be desired.

Chase



"The Magic of Christmas" from Cinnamon Scraps provided the scraps for Chase's tag, while the "Antique Christmas Alpha" is courtesy of Major Tigger Scraps.

CeCe



I'm not sure if CeCe is on Santa's naughty or nice list and CeCe isn't saying, of course. The scraps are from the "Xmas Night" taggers kit from Yarrow, while the Gold Alpha is courtesy of Andjelina's Designs.

Christmas Grr



I'd done this tag back in October and just let it cool it's heels for a while. The scraps are from "A Country Christmas" by Soxsational Scraps. This is one of the kits that went on recall, which is a pity, as it's a real nice set.

The Island of Misfit Toys alpha is from Free Digital Scrapbooking.

Spooky Do - Bonus Kitty



This is another one I'd done back in October but decided not to use it. I'd painted the eyes in, and they just didn't work out. The scraps are from the "O Christmas Tree" mega-kit from Candy's Treats, while the Candy Cane alpha is from Free Digital Scrapbooking.

T-13 Banner & Guest List



The scraps came from Impy's Christmas around the World mini-kit. The ornament alphas were free ones that I got from Sugar Mama Scraps during their December give away.

Mila

Mila is one of the new posers that is (c) by KairinaKat Kreations and I really love the Turquoise Blue color she uses, especially in the wings. You can find Mila along with Shelly's other offerings at Creative Scraps.

I had actually bought a kit from Farrah's Creations that has turquoise in it and was going to use that, but in the end I went a different route as I was experimenting with the PSP controls again.

And this is when I learned how to color. With glitter no less!

A Dream is a Wish



My dreams are usually so freaky, that I could really contest this saying. However...

The scraps are from the "Midnight in the Garden" kit from Designs by Helly. If you want to play with glows, this is the kit to do it with, as everything is black-on-black. In the end though I really only added a glow on the lace, everything else stood out on it's own.

The word art is from Cupcake Sprinkles by Caitlin. I think most of the glitter tiles I have on my system are from Candy's Treats, so I'll credit her with the "crayons".

I could never get glitter to work right in PS5.0. I'm so jazzed to have glitter crayons to play with now. LOL!

Dream On



All the credits are the same as on the previous tag, except for the moon, which is one of the pre-decorated ones from the CU Moon Pack by Chaos Priestess.

Star Light, Star Bright



I usually love anything done by Tizzy's Angel, but I'm a little less than enthusiastic about her latest release, which is called "Rainbow Blues". Maybe it will grown on me.

The rainbows are nice. She works a lot of religious icons into the scraps and I'm not a religious person, which might be the problem. The doodle is by Calypso Designs, while the word art is still courtesy of Cupcake Sprinkles by Caitlin.

Dream like you'll live forever



The scraps were provided by the "Minutes to Midnight" taggers kit by Yarrow. The word art was longer, I cut the second half out because it was too long for a tag.

Now I want to learn how to do a glitter fill like in the magic wand. I have all these glass charms from Candy's Treats....

I am bummed because loooong holiday weekend is over and I have to go back to work tomorrow...and deal with the Powells. ::sigh:: And even though it's only half a week before we go on New Year's break, I'd still rather stay in bed.

Oh wait....I can't get in bed, Tristan is using it!



And how could I disturb anyone that looks that comfy?

Hosting Bad Kitty Cat's Festival of Chaos is obviously really hard work!

New Years Hangover

Since I finished with the kitty cat's New Years, I put together a few tags along the same theme line. These all use posers from Lacy Clagg.

Spicy New Year



Apple Spice makes a good party girl even after Christmas with the red velvet dress. The scraps are from the New Years Collaboration kit by Taggers Scraps. As the store is defunct, the designers involved in this collab are either selling, or giving away, their portions of the kit. You can visit Candy's Treats for a list of the individuals involved and links to their blogs.

I also used a mask on the paper, when doing this design, go the get the semi-warped effect. The "Glitter" word art is by Lindsay Jane Designs @ Scrapbook-Bytes. Don't ask me why I didn't use the word art from Candy's Treats...I guess I wasn't thinking at the time.

The problem with masks is finding them. I have a number of "factory" ones that I got an a bonus incentive for registering my version of PSP, but it's not an item I usually see for sale at any of the boutiques I frequent.

New Beginnings



What am I gonna do with all the elves I have? Urf! This was actually kind of fun to do, but it took a while too, creating the view in the window first. Then I fought with the word art for a while, which is from Karina. It was not designed to be re-colored, nor was a glow working properly with it.

The Blue Elf is (c) by Lacy Clagg, while the scraps for this tag are from the Taggers Scraps New Years Collaboration kit. I don't have the whole kit. I have maybe half, and believe me, that's more than big enough! I also used the kit for Tristan's Blog layout for January. I still have to do a profile picture for him and for Miss Diamond for January.

More importantly, what am I gonna do for T-13 themes now that the holidays are over? It's too early for Valentine's Day.

Midnight Kisses



"Chrissy" is a freebie that is (c) by Lacy Clagg. I believe she was done for a blog train. The scraps are from DMK Designs' "Kiss Me at Midnight" kit which is one of the kits I bought with the DSLL gift card. The word art for the kit is a freebie that is available at DSLL.

Chrissy's New Year



Same poser, but I used the "2009" taggers kit from Creations by Jo for the layout. I think I'm going to use this kit for Diamond's Blog layout, which I'll probably work up later today, but which won't be revealed until Thursday.

Stop making Sense

PSP just started making a whole lot more sense. I knew I could do the things I wanted to do, it was just a matter of how. I'm used to PhotoShop, so when I wanted to add a glow or a drop shadow, I'd go to layers, then effects.

Not so in PSP, where the whole thing is a function of what is essentially the filters menu, although PSP calls it effects.

Anyway, as it transpired, once things started clicking, a whole new vista opened up...and I don't mean the new Windows' interface.

I got the New Year's T-13 done in record time, and I think I did better work than I've ever done in the past. It was certainly more creative.

There are still some things I'm struggling with - the text tool being the main one - but otherwise I've had a bit of fun. I'm thinking I might have to make up my own word art or a while in order to get the hang of the Text Tool. It doesn't react the way I expect it to.

Brrr Babies



I'm not sure when I got the "Brrr Babies" kit from Farrah Creations, but it was a blog freebie. It's a full sized kit, not a taggers sized kit and she usually sells both, and I usually buy taggers. In any case, the "Brrr Baby" Chubbie Doll was one of the things I bought with my gift card.

It actually game in two tubes, one for the Chubbie and one for the polar bear, so I didn't have to crop him away from the doll in order to move him around. The "Snow" word art is by MW Designs. Note it's still in gray scale. I figured out how to color it - in glitter no less - last night, but these projects were from yesterday morning, which is when I discovered...

Scotty Girl



How to apply a mask! That's what gives the background that really cool, there and not there, look. I also used masks on some of the T-13 projects. w00t! I'm excited.

The "Scotty" Chubbie and the "Scotty" kit are both by Farrah's Creations. This is one of two Chubbies in the pack, the other is not quite so glamorously dressed. The Chubbies equate more with Krissy's Dolls than they do with a poser tube. I tend to use Krissy's Dolls more as element add ins, while I think the Chubbies are intended more to be subject matter (similar to posers).

So Dangerous



This is the tutorial I'd wanted to try off Calypo Designs' blog and despite a less than perfect understanding of the french language, I managed to get through it and get the the tag to come out the way it was supposed to as well!

Maybe I'll try one of Candy's tutorial's next, now that I'm starting to get the hang of the controls.

The "Dangerous" Chubbie is from Farrah's Creations. The scraps were part of the tutorial materials on Calypso's blog. I did pick up the "Dangerous" taggers kit from Farrah as well, but haven't worked with it yet.

I'd been resisting the Chubbies up until now - I'm still not all that sold on them - but these were sort of fun to work with, so I will probably buy several more once I get paid again.

My Misty

When I moved to Florida from Ohio, I made a decision not to move my cats with me, largely because I didn't know where I was going, where I was staying or how long it would take me to find an apartment and a job, and having pets along would only complicate the matter. Not to mention the the fact that they would not have like the airline trip.

So I spent a lot of time finding good homes for them where I thought they'd be happy. I know that Eclipse bonded with the younger daughter of the family she was placed with the two where nearly inseparable. Coke became an only cat, which I think is what she wanted as she was always skittish and afraid, and was happy to be in a secure environment.

Nothing specific was ever said about Misty, but when I was talking to my mother on Christmas Eve, she related how Misty kept returning to my old house, looking for me. Then my mother would have to go, lure her off the roof, and return her to her new family. This happened several times, evidently, she just kept coming back. Whether she was actually looking for me, or if she was just equating the old place with being "her den", I don't know.

It's the way my mother put it. That she was "Looking for you."

25-years later, she's still punishing me for "running away from home" although I was well into my twenties at the time and had moved out on my own in the first place.

After growing up in an abusive household with an alcoholic parent, I suppose I was running way from home, but I certainly didn't run far enough, as she can still call me up to make sure I have a "happy" holiday.

Diamond of course says it shouldn't matter. She says I was destined to move here anyway and save her from living as a wild kitty ("yes and give Tristan home too") and what happened with "one that came before" shouldn't matter to me.

But it still makes me sad, breaking a little kitty's heart like that.

---

The "My Kitty" Chubbie and the "Scottie" taggers kit scraps are all (c) by Farrah's Creations. The exceptions are the stocking - which is from Aussie Scraps Holly Jolly blog train contribution - and the kitty in the ornament which is from Designs by Sue.

Sue's little clip art cats can be purchased at the Aussie Scrap Store.



Tristan really was a naughty boy yesterday, so I got quite a kick out of the word art from Scrappin Obsession. The scraps are from the Holly Jolly/Christmas Around the World blog trains by Aussie Scraps, while the coal is courtesy of Queen Brat Designs.

And don't let this picture fool you into thinking he wss feeling at all remorseful about it. He slept in a pile of catnip yesterday and today. How remorseful could he be?

Cinnamon Shrooms with Elves on the Side

"Cinnamon" is (c) by Sharon Becker and I think it one of her better offerings to date. Sharon does very little with mature posers, she likes to focus on kids - specifically little girls - with the Nana chibis and various Sadie versions. Cinnamon is of course of the later.

Cinnamon's Dream



The scraps are from Urban Mermaid's "Fairy Dreams in the Fall" kit, which I have in taggers size. However, the Add-on was full sized, so I could take things - like that leaf element, and make it huge in the background. It defies perspective, but it gives it a really cool look.

The "elf" down in the right hand corner is (c) by Calypso Designs, while the fairy on the vine belongs to the FDF kit.

Cinnamon's Enchantment



This contains another of Calypso Designs' elves, and the Hummingbird is one of hers as well. The rest of the scraps, including the word art, butterfly and various critters are from the "Enchanted" kit by Cinnamon Scraps.

Cinnamon Dance



The "Mushroom Man" was a freebie from Aussie Scraps. He LOOKS really familiar - like I've seen these before, but where? Shrek?

The scraps are from UMD's "Fairy Dreams in the Fall" again. I did one each of the elf and the mushroom man with FDF and one each with the Enchanted kit. How predictable is that?

A Dash of Cinnamon



So here is the other "Mushroom Man" and of course this was done with the "Enchanted" Kit from Cinnamon Scraps. This was actually a really good kit to use with the Shroom Guys because it has all the realistic looking mushrooms in it. LOL!

Cinnamon's New Year



There were five tubes in the pack and she came with a bonus Christmas Tree that matched her outfit. However, her coloring made me think she'd go really good with the Taggers Scraps New Years collab kit, and I wasn't wrong. With the demise of Taggers, the various designers are selling or giving away their portions of the kit. I didn't buy all of them, but I have several - three or four - which make for a pretty good size collab kit.

If you visit Candy's Treats, you can find a list of the some of the designers involved.

I have to do a New Year's themed T-13, and I don't have that many New Year's themed kits, so I'm going to be relying heavily on this one.