Digi's Red White and Blue Sales Event!

Digi is excited and so are we!

This week's featured kit at Sophisti-Scraps is Puppylicious! If you like puppies - and who doesn't - you'll LOVE Puppylicious! It fill with all sorts of wet nosed, tail wagging goodness! 20 Patterned papers and 91 elements including 2 plush puppies and 5 puppy stickers. Irregardless of whether you are making a tag for you, or for man's best friend, you're sure to find something to please in Puppylicious!

And this week - through Sunday, July 5, Puppylicious is 25% off! Plus is comes with the Patriot Pup Mini-Kit enclosed!

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But wait! There's more!

The Bits'N'Bobs Blog Train leaves the station tomorrow, Wednesday, July 1. Stop by Digicats (and Dogs) and download Something Borrowed!

It's the height of Wedding Season and we're sure you'll find something new included in Something Borrowed. Come on down to Sanibel Beach in Florida for the wedding of your dreams - sun, surf, even flamingo flower girls!

But there's more to this deal than just cake and champagne. Included in the download is a coupon good for 35% all my kits at Sophisti-Scraps through the month of July. That's right! You can save an additional 35% on top of the already reduced price for Puppylicious! Plus you get a free fabulous taggers size wedding kit out of the deal!

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Need more?

Join us on a trip through America was we wish a happy birthday to the United States aboard The Goodie Train! Americana is also yours FREE just for stopping by Digicats (and Dogs). 30 800 x 800 pxl papers, 106 elements and yes! Fireworks! Make this kit explosive fun! And as Digi says, you'll find Liberty and Freedom inside for all!

But that's not all you'll find inside! Enclosed is a coupon good for 35% off my store at Stargazers, and this one is also good through the month of July! Free kits, plus money saving deals? You're insane, you might say and well we may be because wait....Digi's still got more deals for you!

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Choo! Choo! Climb aboard the Gothic Impressions Blog Train as it chugs off to The Summerlands! Yet another fabulous freebie for you, this great fantasy themed kit includes 24 Papers and 104 magical elements. Do you have the key to fit the door into summer?

This enchanting kit also features a Fae poser courtesy of Bits'N'Bobs, so be sure to stop by Digicats (and Dogs) for a ride into The Summerlands.

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What's that Digi? YOU MEAN THERE'S MORE???!!!



A FOURTH OF JULY SALE! 35% off everything in the Digicat's catalog at Scrappetizing! This sale starts July 1st and ends July 15th, so hurry on over to Scrappetizing to grab your bargains today including a discount on our newest releases:

Wild Horses
Sunshine Beach
and
Fairy Delightful

A mostly wasted weekend

Well, Friday started out okay. I helped Dolores get tickets to the Royal Palm presentation of Peter Pan so she could take her grand daughter, and I turned Rowena on to RedPlum.com, helping her to replace the $10 coupon to the Hair Cuttery that Ronaldo had tossed out.

Then I stopped at Walgreens on the way home and had to stay to wait out a bit of a rain shower. So I get home around 2, and James, my neighbor is leaving and he says "The power just went out". I thought that a bit odd because while there had been a rain shower, they're been no lighting or thunder.

I go in the house and go to put my purchases away, and get a shock when I touch the fridge door. Everything metal in the house that was attached to the power grid had a mild current running through it. Scary stuff. In short - the power did not get fixed until around noon on Saturday. The tree in the back yard had rubbed through the power lines and shorted everything out.

This is - of course - negligence on the part of the landlord who should have kept the tree trimmed back from the lines, but that's neither here nor there.

Once I had power again and could inspect the damage, I discovered that the surge protector had slagged, totally. I still have to get into the cubby hole and get it out and put the new one in, but the plastic on it was melted and everything around it is black, black, black. We just barely managed to avoid an electrical fire, is my guess.

My alarm clock was dead as well, I had to get a new one, but the stuff taht was plugged into the surge protector seems okay. Guess it was worth the money I paid for it. This time around I bought a power squid, which has more insulation on it.

Beyond that, the sleeping pills worked well. Too well. I didn't want to get up. I have to talk to him about this and see about maybe just the Ambiem without the CR stuff. The "CR" whatever that is, is supposed to keep you asleep. I does that and it doesn't. I mean, I still wake up in the middle of the night and I"m dopey, but that's no different than what I get with the over the counter stuff which costs a fraction of the price. So why would I want to change?

The Ambien is a little easier to throw off though, so I'm thinking if I get just the regular Ambien....

So that was the extent of my fun weekend. I got a couple of tutorials done and that was about it. And a few tags.

There were all done using the "English Garden" kit from Creationz by Jo. It's available in both full and tagger size and you can get it at Stargazer Scraps as well as other fine Digi-Boutiques. Jo sells out of quite a few of them.

The "Green Fly" poser is from Perfect Posers and given all the licensing issues with CILM of late, I'm beginning to think posers are the way to go. Not so much of a hassle.





There's some really pretty elements in this kit. I was trying for the "outside looking in" perspective on these pieces and I think it worked out okay.





When she's not doing Twilight, Jo's been putting out some very nice fantasy themed kits. She's still one of my favorite designers and I still love playing with her work.

Now...if I can only wake up....

Wicked Witch of the East Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Dianna Richards of Digicats (and Dogs). Any resemblance to any other tutorial, published or unpublished, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Please do not rebroadcast, redistribute or otherwise claim this tutorial or any part there of as your own work.

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Items you will need to complete this project:

The Yellow Brick Road taggers kit by Toni's Scraparoni. This kit may be purchased at Sophisti-Scraps.

Tube of choice. I am using PSP13062 Necromancy by Unholy Vault Designs. You must have a license to use this tube which may be purchased at MyPSPTube.com.

Wee Scots Lass mask #136, which you can download HERE.

Black Epoxy Alpha, which you can download HERE.

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Note that H# and V# refer to Horizontal and vertical coordinates on your canvas grid. Make sure you have View, Rulers checked in order to see the ruler grid.

When I say "Add to your canvas" I expect that you will copy and paste it as a new layer, unless otherwise state in the tutorial.

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. It was written using PSP X1, but should work in most other versions of PSP.

Open a new canvas 800 x 800 pxls, flood filled white.

Open YBR Paper 04. Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk and locate Wee Scots Lass Mask # 136. Make sure the "Fit to Canvas" box is checked and the click on load.

Layers --> Merge --> Merge group. Then copy and paste Paper 04 to your main canvas.

Open PSP13062 Necromancy by Unholy Vault Designs, and select the tube layer. Copy and paste to canvas centered at H200, V350.

Open YBR Frame 01, resize by 75% and place on your canvas, centered at H230, V340. On the layer pallet, click on the tube layer to select it, then use you pick tool to resize the tube to fit inside the frame. You might need to erase a small bit of the pentagram that is showing outside the frame.

Open YBR Paper 02. Select Adjust --> Hue and Saturation --> Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Change your settings to the following: Hue -5, Saturation -15, Lightness -12, then click on okay. Use your selection tool to draw an ellipse on the paper, roughly the save of the frame, then copy and paste to you canvas. Use your pick tool to resize the new paper layer to fit the frame, then, on the layer pallet, drag it behind the tube layer.

On the pallet layer, click on the frame layer to activate it.

Open YBR Pin 02, resize to 75% and add to the canvas centered at H550, V350. Rotate the pin slightly clockwise, and erase a small portion of the pin so that it appears to be stuck through the paper.

Open YBR Doodle 02 and resize to 35%. Copy and paste to the canvas, centered at H350, V550.

Open YBR Beads 01 and resize to 60%. Copy and paste to the canvas centered at V400, H630.

Open YBR Button 01, resize by 50% copy and paste to the canvas centered at H250, V620. Rotate 45% clockwise using your pick tool.

Set your foreground and background color to #c1a852 (which matched the background behind the frame). Select your text tool and using a font of your choice enter the copyright information for the tube. For PSP13062 Necromancy, the copyright information is:

(c) Unholy Vault Designs http://asaenath.deviantart.com
Your License Number

Make sure it's legible and a bit on the larger size, as we will be reducing the image.

Select your tube later and added a drop shadow to the tube. I am using Offset Vertical and Horizontal 10, Opacity 60, Blur 25, and color Black.

Select Image, resize, make sure the "Resize all layers" box is checked and resize to 75% (600 x 600 pxls).

You can now save the artist's copy at a .pspimage.

On the pallet layer, click the eyeball next to the white layer to make it invisible. Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge visible. Using your pick tool, center the image to H300, V300, and then bring make the white layer visible again.

Adding a Name: I am using the Black Epoxy Alpha for this, which is a free alpha. You may choose to add your name in a different manner, which is certainly alright.

The alpha is a full sized one. For the moment, minimize your main canvas and open a new raster canvas, 800 pxls wide, 300 pxls high with a transparent background. You can turn your grid on if you'd like, I just use the little checkerboard pattern on the canvas to line things up.

Open the Black Epoxy Capital letter of choice. Resize to 25%, add to the canvas. Repeat the procedure with each of the lower case letters in the name you are spelling out. If you have double letters - as in the A and N in my name - you need only do this once as you can use duplicate function to replicate them on the canvas.

Using the pick tool, line the letters up on the new canvas to spell out the name you wish to add to the tag. Note that if you have a LONG name, you may need to make the letters a bit smaller to fit them all onto the canvas.

One you have the name composed to taste, select, Layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible. Edit and copy the name and then reactivate your main canvas. Add the name to the canvas, centered at around H400, V430. This may change depending upon how long the name is. Use the pick tool to resize and relocate the name to taste.

Delete the white layer and select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible. Save the tag as a .png file and your finished!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to E-Mail me.

Angel Pet Tutorial

This tutorial creates a Memorial Tag for a beloved pet who has passed over the Rainbow Bridge. For the purposes of this tutorial, I am using my friend's cat, Mouse, who was a beautiful Scottish Fold.

This tutorial was written by Dianna Richards of Digicats (and Dogs). Any resemblance to any other tutorial, published or unpublished, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Please do not rebroadcast, redistribute or otherwise claim this tutorial or any part there of as your own work.

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Items you will need to complete this project:

The Chloe's Angel taggers kit from Gemini Creationz. This kit may be purchased at Sophisti-Scraps.

Tube of your choice. I have extracted a picture of Mouse from a photograph provided by my friend. It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to teach you to do extractions. If you do not know how to create tubes, various designers offer tubing services online.

Mask # 119 by Wee Scots Lass. You may download this mask for free HERE.

Optional Angel Element pack by Digital Delights to provide wings and halo. Patty wanted me to put wings on Mouse, and I offered to add the halo as well. This pack is available at Scrappetizing.

Pastel Blue Alpha by Crazed's Creations which may be download for free from her blog.

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Note that H# and V# refer to Horizontal and vertical coordinates on your canvas grid. Make sure you have View, Rulers checked in order to see the ruler grid.

When I say "Add to your canvas" I expect that you will copy and paste it as a new layer, unless otherwise state in the tutorial.

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. It was written using PSP X1, but should work in most other versions of PSP.

To begin, open a new canvas 800 x 800 pxls, flood filled white.

Open CA-Paper 9 and add to canvas

Open CA-Paper 6. Select Layers, Load/Save Mask --> Load from Disk and find Wee Scots Lass mask #119. Make sure the "Fit to Canvas" box is checked and then click on load.

Select layers, merge, merge group. Copy and paste the masked CA-Paper 6 to the canvas.

Open CA-Star Curtain and add to canvas, centered at H400, V280.

Open CA-Grass. Using your selection tool set to circular, start at H550, V400 and draw a circle in the grass extending to either vertical side. Copy and paste the selection to your canvas and use your pick tool to resize it to it in the circular area of CA Paper-6.

Add your tube. placement is going to depend on the side of the tube, but initially it should be centered. You can then use to pick tool to adjust as needed.

If you're going to add the optional wings and halo, now is the time to do so. As the Digital Delight pack is in full size, you will need to resize it down. In the example tag above, I resized the wings down to 25% to fit Mouse and the Halo I had to adjust further using the pick tool as 25% was still too big.

Once you have added wings and Halo, erase any part of the wings that hangs outside the circle created by CA-Paper 6.

Returning to the Chloe's Angel kit, open CA-Grass 2 and resize by 50%, Add to the canvas centered at H220, V450. Duplicate, then mirror.

Open CA-Grass 3. Resize to 25% and copy. Place three copies, evenly spaced down along the front of the circle, between the two grasses 2.

Open CA-Flower 1, resize 50%, and add to canvas centered at H270, V630.

Open CA-PNG 5, resize by 50%, and add to the canvas centered at V550, H600.

Open CA-Mouse 2, and add to the canvas centered at V470, H690.

Under the circular area where most of the composition is done, you may put your "Scraps by", and "tagged by" information at this time. You still need to add the name. However, once you've added the information in this section, save the tag as an artists copy in .pspimage format. You might also wish to add a drop shadow to your tube at this point.

Adding the Alpha: I am using the Pastel Blue Alpha by Crazed Creations. It is tagger sized and as I used only lower case letters I did not have to resize. Try to center as best as possible. In this case, because there is a "M" to start the name, the "U" has to be moved over from dead center to compensate.

It you are using a longer name, you will likely have to resize the letters to make the name fit. You can do this using the Image --> resize function or by using the pick tool once you have added them to the canvas. Which every way works best for you, use it!

Once you have finished with the name, go to Layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible and save as a .jpg file, and your all done! You now have a tag to post on your blog or website commemorating your beloved fur-baby!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to E-Mail me.

Counting horses, not sheep

So...my blood work came back fine and yesterday was my follow up visit with my doctor. He's now decided we're going to try a mild sedative - Ambien CR - to try to get me to sleep regularly. I sleep pretty good using over the counter stuff like Simply Sleep, but I can't kick it the next day - it says in my system and it's a battle to stay awake. He did say that wasn't an usual reaction to it though.

I got maybe a handful of hours of sleep last night and that was fitful at best.

I can't start with the Ambien until Friday though, and he said even if I'm still groggy on Saturday to take it Saturday night as well, as it might take while for my body to adjust to it.

"It we can get you to sleep through the night..." That won't happen. I still will need to get up once or twice to pee.

As for my leg, he said I might have done some ligament damage to it when I fell, which is why it's not working right. He said just leave the brace on for know and stay off it as much as possible. I go to see Dr. Clark in August, so if it's still bothering me then, they'll order an MRI on it, and determine what the next step is from there.

I DID get my Wild Horses kit finished up and it should be going into stores, maybe tonight, once I get the attendant paper work finished and get the files zipped. Once this kit goes up I'm going to take some time out for tutorials and tagging and then get my blog trains all on the right tracks. And maybe, fingers crossed, get some sleep.

Here are some tags to give you an idea of what it's going to look like. I'm really jazzed about the papers, I think they turned out fabulous!



The rawhide alpha is from Wenchd Grafix and is not included in the kit. It's only for tag purposes. The light trail however, is in the kit, one of three glittery overlays.



Mustangs are a vanishing symbol of the Western United States. The offspring of escaped Spanish horses, they become heavily hunted to allow cattle to use their grazing ranges. Brutal methods include helicopter round ups in which the horses literally ran their hooves off and then were loaded into trucks to taken to rending plants to be used in pet food.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 offers some protection for the horses, and there are strict guidelines as to how they herds may be managed in public rangelands. 27,000 head is considered a manageable number of wild horses by the BLM, the herds are currently over 33,000. It should be noted that horses can thrive in ranges that cattle can not and so the argument that they detract from cattle grazing ranges is not valid.



The white grunge alpha used in the tag is from DreamsFulfilled and again, is not included in the kit.

There is mixed Native American symbolism in the kit. I wanted to make it a bit more authentic than more of the previous kits that have been released on this genre, but I'm no expert, that's for sure. There are quite a few Native American elements but they are not specific to any one tribe.



I had stalled on this for a bit, but once I got going again it came together fast. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

For more on Mustang and the history of wild horses in the Americas, please visit Mustangs4us.com

Come to Sunshine Beach!

Looking for a place where it never rains, and there's fun to be had, 24/7? Then come to Sunshine Beach, the most magical beach anywhere. It doesn't matter if you like swimming, sailing, sunning, or hunting up treasures on the shore, you're sure to find dozens of things to enchant you in this beautiful Summer themed taggers kit.



Some fabulous finds await you in this one, including 10 bows, 9 seashells, 5 boogie boards, 5 vanity license plates, 5 strings, 5 string wraps, 5 ric rac, 5 wild roses, 4 paper clips, 3 summer cuties, 3 sandy borders, 2 clumps of beach grass, 2 clouds, 2 sailing boats, 2 sets of waves, a bubble, a toy boat, 1 grass border, 1 sand half page, a beach umbrella & ball, a crab, a deck chair, a set of flip flops, a hat, an island with a palm tree on it, a kite, a lighthouse, one message in a bottle, a sand pail and shovel, a sand castle, a sand dune, a seagull, a starfish, the sun, a toy lighthouse, a treasure chest, "Friends" word art, and "Summer" word art.

Add to that 5 popsicle stick frames beautiful decorated with tropical flowers, 5 life saver frames and 5 postcards to make sure your friends know that you wish they were here with you.

30 patterned pastel papers provide the backdrop. The summery pastels give it a washed out memory look, but believe me, your memories of the time spent at magical Sunshine Beach will never fade!

This kit has been retired and is available for FREE elsewhere on this blog!

Goals and Accomplishments

My goals for the weekend were to do (one) tutorial,
Finish up the wedding kit,
Finish up the Wild Horses kit,
Scrap myself going over the falls in a barrel.

I ended up doing (three) tutorials,
I finished the wedding kit (but need to rework it a bit),
I’m stalled on the Wild Horses kit as I need to think about it,
And I still haven’t gone over the falls in a barrel.

However, I did learn how to make a discount coupon in Zen Cart AND how to make my own ads!

I also started a new beachy themed kit which I should finish today and hope to have in my stores tomorrow.

Plus I did the four Paradyce Lost tags and uploaded 24 of the 36 new brushes I bought and did some work on the 2T2P secret project, although...that will likely need to be redone as we're still hashing out the pallet.

As for the wedding kit, I did this little bit up to post on the S-S list since I was using Kirsy's templates for the Bride and Groom. That's not what she intended them for, but they work. And then I used 3 of Joanne's CU products and the gazebo is from a template by Aquarius Design. So it was sort of a C.U. CT exercise. LOL.



I'm going to have to redo the preview for the kit, tho. I knew I had some more stuff to add in, but I couldn't find it. Last night, I was looking for strings and seashells and guess what?

Oh well, at least it wasn't the day before launch and those friggin' overlays I wanted to use never did turn back up.

My hard drive is like the Bermuda Triangle. Things vanish in there, never to be seen or heard from again. :)

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I called my mother on Sunday and she's like "Aren't you going to wish me a Happy Father's Day?" I pointed out she ISN'T my father. She copped this attitude after the divorce that she was both my mother and my father, and I hated that. I hate the way she puts my dad down all the time.

He wasn't perfect - far from it - but he tried to be a good father when he was around. But she's not perfect either and as such, she doesn't have the right to cast stones. Especially as the man is dead and in his grave for some 20 years now.

To make matters worse, my sister sent my mother flowers - my mother was of course ecstatic about this - that said "To the best Mother AND Father in the whole world".

I pointed out that the next time Carol does something stupid and she comes back at me with "BUT YOU RAISED HER!" I'm going to remind her that Carol obviously thinks otherwise.

"Yeah, I thought about that," she says.

"I'd be happy to share my flowers with you but you're so far away."

Yes, another dig about my so called "running away from home". It's only been what? 26 years? Time for her to get over it, don't you think?

And then she has the never to tell me she doesn't carry grudges. The woman's like an elephant she never forgets, or forgives, anything.

Anyway, enough venting.



Miss Diamond does not think that I'm her mother OR her father. Just her furry best friend. LOL!

Scroll down to check out my Summer Splash tutorial. It's really adorable!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. One last thing. It seems that Jay has decided to ditch her personal CT, and just run with the one at the store. It would have been NICE if she'd e-mail us and let us know, but no...I had to find out by reading her blog. She never did acknowledge the "Splash" tutorial I did for her, and I guess that explains why.

Ah well, I didn't think it was working out anyway. She's become heavily addicted to Twilight tagging and I - for the most part - don't do Twilight tags.

This allows me to focus my efforts on the designers at Sophisti-Scraps now, which I think is a good thing!

Summer Splash Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Dianna Richards of Digicats (and Dogs). Any resemblance to any other tutorial, published or unpublished, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Please do not rebroadcast, redistribute or otherwise claim this tutorial or any part there of as your own work.

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Items you will need to complete this project:

The Splish Splash Splosh taggers kit from Gemini Creationz. This kit is available at the Sophisti-Scraps Boutique.

The Cookie - Seasonal Fae from Sophisticated Scraps. This poser pack is exclusive to the Sophisti-Scraps Boutique.

Wee Scots Mask #116, which may be downloaded for free from her website.

Shel Belle's FTU Summer Sun alpha, which may be downloaded from her blog. This is a full sized alpha, I have scripted it down to use for tagging.

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Note that H# and V# refer to Horizontal and vertical coordinates on your canvas grid. Make sure you have View, Rulers checked in order to see the ruler grid.

When I say "Add to your canvas" I expect that you will copy and paste it as a new layer, unless otherwise state in the tutorial.

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. It was written using PSP X1, but should work in most other versions of PSP.

Open a new canvas, 800 x 800, flood filled white.

Open SSS Paper 9. Select Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk. In the drop down box select Wee Scot's Lass Mask 116. Make sure the "Fit to Canvas" box is checked and click on "Load".

Layers --> Merge --> Merge Group; then copy and paste to your canvas, centered.

Repeat with SSS Paper 5, but resize the Paper to 80% before loading the mask.

Open SSS Frame (the white circular frame) and add to canvas, centered.

Select Image --> Resize and resize the canvas to 75% (600 x 600 pxls).

Open SSLisa - Seasonal Faes - Summer 1 and add to canvas, centered.

Open SSS-Watersplash, mirror and resize to 75%. On the layer pallet, click on the frame layer to activate it, then add the resized splash to the canvas, centered at H220, V220.

Open sss-Seaweed1, and add to canvas, centered at H175, V350 (behind the Fae, and to the left).

Open SSS Seahorse, and resize by 50%. Add to canvas centered at H480, V280 (behind the Fae and a bit to the upper right).

On the layers pallet, click on the Fae layer to activate and add a drop shadow. I am using Offsets of H10, V10, Opacity 60, Blur 25, Color black.

Open SSS Bucket, resize by 50% and add to the canvas, centered at H170, V460.

Open SSS_flowerfushia, resize by 50% and add to the canvas, cented at H250, V500.

Add your copyright information to the tag. For Lisa's Summer Fae, the information you need to add is:

(c) LKDesigns http://sophisticatedscraps.blogspot.com/
Scraps by Gemini Creations

I have set my foreground color to #0078bc (blue), and my background color to #6eb814 (green), and am using the Archon font set to 12 points, bold, centered.

You may now save the artist's copy as a .pspimage.

Adding a Name: Usually I leave this up to you, but if you wish to use the Summer Sun Alpha, proceed as follows.

The alpha is a full sized one. For the moment, minimize your main canvas and open a new raster canvas, 600 pxls wide, 300 pxls high with a transparent background. You can turn your grid on if you'd like, I just use the little checkerboard pattern on the canvas to line things up.

Open the Summer Sun capital letter of choice. If you have already recripted the alpha to taggers, resize to 50%, add to the canvas. If you've not rescripted it, you may need to reduce it to 15% or 20%. Repeat the procedure with each of the lower case letters in the name you are spelling out. If you have double letters - as in the A and N in my name - you need only do this once as you can use duplicate function to replicate them on the canvas.

Using the pick tool, line the letters up on the new canvas to spell out the name you wish to add to the tag. Note that if you have a LONG name, you may need to make the letters a bit smaller to fit them all onto the canvas.

One you have the name composed to taste, select, Layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible. Edit and copy the name and then reactivate your main canvas. Add the name to the canvas, with the Vertical center at around 450. The exact location will depend on the size of the name you are adding. Once you have added it to the canvas, use your pick tool to resize and relocate it to taste.

Just on a side note, you should always place your name somewhere over the image in you tags, as that helps to prevent piracy of your work. Yes, believe it or not, there are tag pirates out there too!

Just for fun, I've added a drop shadow to the name as well. The detail are the same as for the Fae tube.

You are now ready to merge the image, and save the finished tag as .jpg or .png file. If you want to save it as a .jpg, simply select layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible, and save and your all done.

To save as a .png, you will need to delete the bottom, white layer before merging visible and saving.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to E-Mail me.


Alternate .jpg version

News, WWLD, and Layouts!

News! I have been accepted as a designer into Scrappetizing! This puts me in three stores now, which will help get my name - and my products - out there.

I did very well this week on commissions to, getting around $18 total, which surprised me to no end. Of course, I turned around and spent this on more scrap stuff, but what did you expect!

Getting accepted in Scrappetizing also gives me a 3rd store to promote on through the blog trains. As I've been doing three trains a month, that gives me one store per train to promote! Gotta take advantage of my advertising opportunities!

Question: Which brings me to my "What would Luke Do?" question for the week. I am including coupons into the Goodie Train and and Bits'N'Bobs Train good for 35% off on my products at one of my stores. I hadn't actually thought this through until Toni brought it up but...

I can make the coupons good for a one (1) time use per customer or I can make them good for a multiple use per customer. I guess I was thinking like a printed coupon where you use it once and that's it...it just didn't occure to me that I could do multiple uses with it.

So which way do you think I should go? A one time use coupon or a multiple use coupon? The coupons are only good through the month of July.

Layouts: Lillian Campbell, who I know through the Stargazer's Store, is a moderator and lesson writer for Winni's Lesson's Groups. Winni has loads of groups for designing with PSP, Letter Creator (brand new), Animation, etc...

There is a list at the bottom of this post. Lillian had asked for kit donations to use in her lesson writing, so I sent a few on and she's done wonderful things with them. While these are taggers sized kits, she's doing the lessons on the internet. These were all done for the Scrapbook Lesson Group.

This first one uses my Big Kahuna kit:



There have been over 500 downloads of this kit, making it the most popular one I've done so far. The last day to get this as a freebie is June 30th, so if you haven't snagged it yet, you might wish to do so A.S.A.P.

The second uses my Bike Night kit and I LOVE what she's done with it!



I think that's a box raft and they're certainly not going to cross the Atlantic in that anytime soon!



The third uses my Fairy Delightful kit. This is another freebie that you have until June 30th to snag, so don't delay. And isn't Coolbeanz just an adorable little doggie?!

These are all just fabulous!

If you'd like to get involved with Winni's lesson groups, here are the links:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Designs/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-New-Groups/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Kids-PSP-Lesson-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-psp-lessons-group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Designer-Lessons-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Animation-Lessons/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Scrapbooking-Group1/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-LetterCreator-Lesson-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-script-lessons-group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-script-writing-group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-PowerPoint-Lesson-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-HolidaySeries-Tut-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Everything-for-PSP-Share-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Fonts-and-Alpha-Group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-Scrap-Share-group/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Winni-War-Group/

I'm told there is a lesson group for Poser and Photoshop in the works!

I hope you enjoyed those layouts as much as I did. I'm just tickled pink with the whole thing!

A Peaceful Ocean Tutorial

When Joanne first introduced her kit Peace, the first thing I said was "I want to do a tutorial with that." I should point out that I'm a beach addict, so anything to do with sand and waves is going to attract me. (Why the heck do you think I live in Florida?)

This is a really beautiful kit though with subtly patterned papers and some truly delightful elements. One tutorial may not be enough! You really need to check it out to appreciate the work that went into it. With that being said, I present to you my tutorial for my tag "A Peaceful Ocean":



This tutorial was written by Dianna Richards of Digicats (and Dogs). Any resemblance to any other tutorial, published or unpublished, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Please do not rebroadcast, redistribute or otherwise claim this tutorial or any part there of as your own work.

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Items you will need to complete this project:

The Peace taggers kit from A Taggers Scrap. This kit is available at the Sophisti-Scraps Boutique.

Tube of your choice. I am using "Playing in Water" by Joseph Corsentino. You must have a license to use this tube, which may be obtained at MyPSPTubes.com.

Cameron's Mask #132 as well as Mask #1 from her Ocean's Collection, which may be downloaded for free from her website.

Optional alpha. I am using the Jeweltone Alpha by Barbara Lee, which is a full sized alpha that I have resized down for tagging. You can download this alpha for free at her blog.

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Note that H# and V# refer to Horizontal and vertical coordinates on your canvas grid. Make sure you have View, Rulers checked in order to see the ruler grid.

When I say "Add to your canvas" I expect that you will copy and paste it as a new layer, unless otherwise state in the tutorial.

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. It was written using PSP X1, but should work in most other versions of PSP.

To begin, open a new raster canvas, 800 x 800 pixels, flood fill white.

Open Paper 13 and add to canvas.

Open Paper 11. Select Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk and locate Cameron's Ocean Mask #1. Make sure the "Fit to Canvas" box is checked, then click on load.

Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Group, then copy and paste the paper to your main canvas.

Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Down.

Select Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk and locate Cameron's Mask #132. Make sure that both the "Fit to Canvas" and the "INVERT TRANSPARENCY" boxes are checked before clicking on load.

Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Group.

Open Glitter Beads 4, and add to canvas, centered. This should all fall within the paper area of the image. If any don't, use your eraser tool to remove them.

Select Image, resize, make sure the "Resize all layers" box is checked and resize your canvas to 75% (600 x 600 pixels).

Open PSP12489 "Playing in Water" by Joseph Corsentino, select the Tube Transparent layer and add to canvas, centered.

Add a drop shadow to the tube. I am using a Offsets of 10 each (vertical and Horizontal, Opacity of 60, Blur of 25, and the color black.)

Open Paper 14, Select Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk and locate Cameron's Mask #132. Make sure that both the "Fit to Canvas" and the "INVERT TRANSPARENCY" boxes are checked before clicking on load.

Use your select tool (rectangle) to select the top half the paper image (from H0, V0 to H800, V400), then hit your delete kit. Selections --> Select None.

Change your select tool to circle, and position at center. Drag the circle out to H200, then press your delete key again. Selections --> Select None. This should hollow out the image, giving you a brown half border. Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Group. Resize by 75%, then add to the main canvas.

Use your pick tool to position it to that it lines up with the Raster 1 paper group (more or less, a little offset is desirable.

On the layers pallet, click on the bead layer to activate it. Open Shell 4, then flip the image. Add to your canvas, centered at H300, V360.

On the pallet layer, click on the brown half-circle layer to activate it.

Open Flower1, resize 50% and add to canvas centered at H80, V300.

Open Shell 7, resize 50% and add to canvas centered at H120, V370. Rotate slightly to match the angle of the brown border.

Open Flower 2, resize to 35% and add to canvas, centered at V80, H400.

Open Shell 5, flip, and resize to 35% and add to canvas, centered at H130, V480.

Open Flower 3, resize to 35% and add to canvas, centered at V180, H520.

Open FishFrame, mirror and resize by 50% and add to canvas, centered at v400, H450.

Open Paper 5. Using your select tool, select a small circular section of the paper, then click on copy, then close the paper. Paste the selection to your canvas, over the fish frame. Use your pick tool to resize it to fit the circular part of the frame. Then, on the pallet layer, drag the paper, under the fish frame.

On the layers Pallet, click on the fish frame to activate it.

Open Bud3, mirror, and resize to 50%. Add to the canvas centered at H30, V455. Using you pick tool, rotate the image counter clockwise so that the stem falls under the peach colored flower, then adjust as need to bring the bloom back into the center of the fish frame.

Open Tag 2, and then rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. (Image --> rotate right.)

On the materials pallet, set your foreground color to #4d6f74 (gingham green) and your background color to #759ca1 (aqua).

Using the font of your choice, enter the copyright info on the tag. For the Corsentino tube I am using the info is:

(c) Joseph Corsentino
www.timeofthefairies.com
YOUR LICENSE NUMBER

Use as much of the tag as possible as we're going to resize it down and you'll want the into to still be visible when we do that.

Then select Layers --> Merge -> Merge Visible and rotate the tag 90 degrees to the right. (Image --> Rotate Right.)

Resize the tag by 50% and add to the canvas, centered at H530, V320. Use your pick tool to rotate the image slightly clockwise as shown above.

Add your "Tag by" information where ever you wish, and then save your artists' copy as a .pspimage file.

Add the name you wish to be displayed on the tag. Location is up to you. I have put mine at H300, V500, but your millage may vary.

Once you have added your name, you may save it as either a .jpg image (with the white background) or as a .png image by removing the white background before you Merge Visible and save.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to E-Mail me.

Thanks to Joanne at A Taggers Scrap for allowing me to work with her beautiful kit Peace. There are so many wonderful elements in the kit that they could not all be properly used in just one tag.

Paradyce Lost

I had done these tags earlier and wasn't going to put them up until a certain kit was launched, but as the scope of the project has changed, I guess I'll throw them out now.

These tags all use scraps from the old "Paradyce Lost" collab kit that was available some time ago from Farrah's Designer Scraps store. I have added some of my own scraps in, but on a limited basis. The posers are all the wonderful artwork of Lisa from Sophisticated Scraps and Images.



The little charmer in this tag is from the Gothic Dollz freebie pack on Lisa's Blog. If you haven't snagged it yet, head on over and do it now.

I used to work as a radio personality (a.k.a. Disc Jockey) and did a goth show. It aired under the name of "Di before Dawn" although everyone thought it was "Die before Dawn". I guess that was understandable. Hence, I dubbed the tag, "Die before Dawn".



"Toni Punked" was available briefly from Simply Beautiful Scraps before Farrah gave it over to Krissy and Sox. Lisa's been doing all cookie posers with Sophisti-Scraps, but I just love this particular bunch of girls. Very urban grunge.

As Toni has a love/hate affair with Zen Cart, I've named this tag "Zen ate my soul".

The license plate is something I made up, and something similar is going to be available in our new secret "2TtP" project.



The little charmer in this one is something Lisa donated to the "2TtP" project. If you're on the designer list, you know what I'm talking about. The rest of you...::shhhhh::: It's a secret!

Need I say the tag is entitled Paradyce Lost?



Who needs heaven when you can have Paradyce? So "Heaven can wait" is dedicated to the wonderfully talented Lisa, and uses one of her Leather Cookie posers which is available at Sophisti-Scraps.

I love the whole cookie poser line. The chibis that were so popular for a while just sort of weirded me out - I really didn't think they were cute for the most part - but the cookies are deliciously adorable!

Anyway, 'nough playing around. I need to do my CT Assignment.

Huggs!

Splash Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Dianna Richards of Digicats (and Dogs). Any resemblance to any other tutorial, published or unpublished, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Please do not rebroadcast, redistribute or otherwise claim this tutorial or any part there of as your own work.

---

Items you will need to complete this project:

The Splish Splash Splosh kit by Heartbeatz Creationz which is available at the Heartbeatz Creationz Boutique as well as other fine Digi-Scrap Shops. Consult Jay's Blog for details.

Tube of Choice. I am using PSP4805 Siren by Cane Hoyer. You must have a license to use this tube, which may be obtained at www.mypsptubes.com.

Cameron's Ocean Mask # 5 which may be downloaded from her website (Hint: It's the third icon from the end in the top row.)

Shel Belle's FTU Summer Sun alpha, which may be downloaded from her blog. This is a full sized alpha, I have scripted it down to use for tagging.

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Note that H# and V# refer to Horizontal and vertical coordinates on your canvas grid. Make sure you have View, Rulers checked in order to see the ruler grid.

When I say "Add to your canvas" I expect that you will copy and paste it as a new layer, unless otherwise state in the tutorial.

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. It was written using PSP X1, but should work in most other versions of PSP.

To begin, open a new canvas, 800 x 800 pxl, flood fill white.

Open SSS Paper 14, and add to canvas.

Open SSS Paper 6. Select Layers --> Load/Save Mask --> Load Mask from Disk. Locate Cameron's Ocean Mask 5 on the drop down list. Make sure the Fit to canvas box is checked and click on load.

Select --> Layers --> Merge --> Merge Group, then copy and paste the merged group to your canvas.

Open SSS Frame 2 and add to canvas, centered.

Select SSS-Element 1, resize 75% and add to canvas, centered at H550, V370.

Open sss Element12. Click on the Ocean Mask layer on the layers pallet to active it, the add the element to canvas centered at H200, V200.

Select Image --> Resize --> and resize your canvas to 75% (600 x 600) pxls.

Open PSP4805 tube - Siren by Cane Hoyer, and copy the "siren" layer.

Returning to you main canvas, click on the palm tree layer on the layers pallet to activate it, then paste the siren to your canvas, centered. Select Image --> Mirror. Adjust the tube to center at H240, V270.

Returning to the tube, select the "Tail Poison Siren" layer, copy it and paste it to your main canvas. Mirror it, then use your pick tool to adjust it so that it aligns properly with your siren. (Be sure to make it visible!)

Select Layers --> Merge --> Merge Down.

Repeat the process using both the Shell Bra and Necklace Layers from the Siren Tube.

Add a drop shadow to you Siren tube. I am using Offsets of Vertical and Horizontal 10, Opacity of 50, Blur of 24, color black.

Open sss Element10, resize by 50% and add to the canvas, centered at H420, V430.

Open sss element 9, resize by 50% and add to the canvas, centered at H140, V475.

Add your copyright information to the tag. I have added mine near the top of the tag as I will be add the name to the lower right hand corner by the crab.

For the Siren tube, the copyright information is:
(c) Cane Hoyer www.canehoyer.com YOUR LICENSE NUMBER

I have my foreground color set to #ffc440 (Sunny Orange Yellow) and my background color set to #ce0012 Fishy Red and I am using the font Archon, which is my new favorite font, set to 14 Points, bold, centered.

After you've added your copyright info, you can save the artists copy of the tag as a .pspimage.

Adding a Name: Usually I leave this up to you, but if you wish to use the Summer Sun Alpha, proceed as follows.

The alpha is a full sized one. For the moment, minimize your main canvas and open a new raster canvas, 600 pxls wide, 300 pxls high with a transparent background. You can turn your grid on if you'd like, I just use the little checkerboard pattern on the canvas to line things up.

Open the Summer Sun Capital letter of choice. If you have already rescripted the alpha to taggers, resize to 50%, add to the canvas. If you've not rescripted it, you may need to reduce it to 15% or 20%. Repeat the procedure with each of the lower case letters in the name you are spelling out. If you have double letters - as in the A and N in my name - you need only do this once as you can use duplicate function to replicate them on the canvas.

Using the pick tool, line the letters up on the new canvas to spell out the name you wish to add to the tag. Note that if you have a LONG name, you may need to make the letters a bit smaller to fit them all onto the canvas.

One you have the name composed to taste, select, Layers --> Merge --> Merge Visible. Edit and copy the name and then reactivate your main canvas. Add the name to the canvas, down near the crab. The exact location will depend on the size of the name you are adding. Once you have added it to the canvas, use your pick tool to resize and relocate it to taste.

Just on a side note, you should always place your name somewhere over the image in you tags, as that helps to prevent piracy of your work. Yes, believe it or not, there are tag pirates out there too!

Just for fun, I've added a drop shadow to the name as well. The detail are the same as for the siren tube.

You are now ready to merge the image, and save the finished tag as .jpg file.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to E-Mail me.

An update from the battlefront...

OMG! OMG! OMG!

We have CONTACT!

I went home for lunch and when I was getting ready to leave, I turned around to pick up my purse and there....

on the coffee table....

sleeping...

TOGETHER - actually physically touching one another -

Were Diamond and Tristan!

No hissing, no boxing, no whapping.

Just soft kitty snoozings.

It's only taken like 9 months!



Look! Look! Look!

White feet on black fur!

I do hope Miss Diamond groomed herself extra well after this, because otherwise, she might end up with Kooties!



I am using the Lullaby Lambs kit from Random Inspirations. I've had this one for a while and like it a lot. You can find it at Inspiration Lane.

Peace on earth - especially in the middle of the Tabby Wars - now that's a tad bit harder to find.

Gas! plus some Emerald Ice

So Tuesdays I only work half a day, so I took the car over to Auto Parts after I got off at noon. I'm glad I went in the middle of the day as there was no one there.

It took all of 30 seconds and a large wrench to get the locking gas cap off the car, so now I have a new, non-locking gas cap, plus two new windshield wipers (buy one, get one free, installed), and gas in my car.

It runs much better with gas in it. :)

The girls were playing around on the Sophisti-Scraps list as to when they graduated from High School and I called them all puppies. Well, they are.

This lead to the passing around of the nickname of "granny" so I was sort of playing with it in my head while we were installing the windshield wipers. So of course when Toni went and teased me about it, I was all set for her.

She got quite a kick out my signing my response "Granny Dianny".

Anyway, Scrappin with Lil Ole Me as put out a new taggers kit called "Emerald Ice". I comes with one of KairinaKat Kreations posers, put I decided instead to use the Liela poser from Perfect Posers to put together a set of snags for you.

Cindy said on her blog she'd been taking scrapping lessons from Farrah, and you can see in this kit, where it has influenced her style some. This is a much more mature work than what she's turned out in the past.



I am particularly fond of the "Dream" and "Dance" word art included in the kit. I love the way that was done.



I wasn't sure, so to be on the safe side, I stashed these on Picasa. You can never tell with Photobucket and their policy on "half naked women", as one traditional digi-scrapper called them. Personally, I don't have a problem with the female form, and possibly because I live in Florida and am used to it, a lack of clothing doesn't bother me much.

In fact....she's kind of well dressed - by Florida standards.



Isn't this pretty? This is a really nice kit. I purchased it from Scrappin' Bratz along with some new CU items Cindy had put out.



Speaking of traditional Digi-Scrapers, what gives some of them the right to be so downright rude. Someone by the name of "delitescraps" has been out leaving very rude and annoying messages on tagger sites, telling them that "PROFFESSIONAL DESIGNERS don't do tagger sized!"

I don't know. I design. People pay to purchase my work. Tagger sized or not, as far as I'm concerned, that makes me a Profession Designer (but not a "Proffessional" one, what ever that might be). Incidentally, said individual is not brave enough to link to her blog or provide an e-mail addy, preferring to hide behind the mask of anonymity.

(And then some joker wanted to know why I don't accept anonymous comments.)

Whatever happened to "do unto others as you'd have them do unto you"?

Now available: 40 Days & Lion Hunt!

And the animal came, two by two,
It was a couples only cruise
What else could they do?

Looking for rainy day fun? Look no further. Come take a ride aboard a big floating zoo and tag your way to the sun.

30 800 x 800 pxl papers, 20 Frames and 10 tags are only the beginning. Add in another 98 elements and you've got a mega-good time on the good ship Noah.

On board fun stars with 6 fish stickers, 6 animal love stickers, 7 animal couples, 10 bows, 10 flowers, 10 waves, 5 buttons, 5 clouds, 5 ric rac, 5 wraps, 5 stick pins, 3 lightning bugs, 3 rain curtains, a selection of weather related doodles, a pair of rainbows and a pair of doves to help you find dry land again.

And don't forget the ark!

Getting stranded at sea was never so much fun! Book your passage now!

300 DPI. Personal use only.

Sorry, this kit has been retired and available for FREE elsewhere on this blog.



Also added to my both my stores is my Lion Hunt kit, so if you missed it as a freebie you can still get a copy of it.

It's great fun, deep in the heart of Africa, but please be careful when using this kit! It appears that some of the animals have already escaped and are running loose!!

Lion Hunt is the next best thing to a wild African Safari - and probably as close as I'm ever going to get - unless I go through the drive through one in Orlando!

This kits have been retired and is now available for FREE!
Download your copy HERE!

Summer in America

"I don't wanna go to school Mommy!" my inner child screams. I can sympathize. My back hurts, my knees hurt, my hip hurts. Dragging the trash can out to the curb is agony.

Growing old is hell. And unfortunately, I am much more responsible than my inner child. So I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go...

I have finished up the Noah's Ark kit, which is entitled "40 Days", but I'm stalled on the preview. I don't like the one I did, so I need to redo it. I think I have a better Idea for it though...

I also finished up my contribution to the July Goodie Train, which is entitled "Americana" as well as my contribution to the July Gothic Inspirations Blog Train, which is sporting the theme/color scheme of "Summer".

First the Americana kit...



I am using the Pixie Pride posers by MediEvil Creations in these tags, and she is not included in the kit. Nor is the chrome alpha, which was a blog freebie from ScrapDolly.

I had started doing my first tag with this kit, had added like two pieces to my canvas and said "I need fireworks. I didn't do any fireworks? What the heck is wrong with me?" So now the kit includes fireworks, both doodle and non-doodle. You can see a sample of the doodle ones in the background of this tag.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the old document in the background is NOT a copy of my birth certificate. It is in fact, a replica of the Constitution of the United States. I've also included the Declaration of Independence, AND the kit contains Liberty and Freedom for all. Don't ask about Justice. He's off busy playing baseball in Erie, Pa. and couldn't make it for the party.



There's lots of ribbons in this kit. Twirly ones, curly ones, loopy ones, and twisty ones.

There's a bit of glitter in it as well. Originally I was trying to stay away from that, but I finally gave up. I like glitter. I can't help it.



Since the 4th of July it America's Birthday, I did the wrap with a birthday bow in it! And check out the dog tags, I think they turned out cute!

The kit features the clip art of Whimsy Primsy. I discovered I have a lot more patriotic clip art than I thought, so I might yet do another patriotic kit - although it would be PTU.

Our next destination is Summer. Jessica gave us a very bright four color pallet to play with and I came up with some half baked idea of magical keys and the door into summer (which is a mythical place that a cat in the Robert A. Heinlein story keeps looking for).

Mine look for it too...cats are very optimistic creatures. Just ask Tristan who asks for his dinner at 2:00 and 3:00 despite the fact that he know that "meow" does not happen until after 5:00 PM.



I am using the Fairy-at-Play poser pack by Bits'N'Bobs for this one, and to a certain extent, that poser pack also inspired the kit. However, you don't get any of these Fae in the kit, although there is a Fae included.

The Glass Alpha is also by Bits'N'Bobs and was a blog freebie.



About the same time I was looking for the door into summer, Joanne released the Roses and Pearls Swag Script and it fit so well that I used one of the swags on the door. I also used one of her scripts for the flowers.

I only discovered her scripts since I moved into Sophisti-Scrap and I do have to say, I really like what she's done. Plus I can get them to work, which, given that I am usually a script retard, is a bit of a blessing.

I laugh at some of these designer call notices that say "send a sample of your best work, do not use any scripts or actions." I'm like "okay I hardly ever use scripts anyway", so it's not like it would be a problem!



There's quite a few fun elements to play with in this kit, and I think you will all enjoy it when it comes out. There's also a bit of darkness in it, as befits the "Gothic Inspirations" part of the Blog Train.

So, I just need to finish putting together the documentation and previews, zip everything up, add Lion Hunt and 40 Days to my stores and then I can turn my attentions to Something Borrowed, which is a wedding kit, and Wild Horses which is Western/Native American themed.

Happy Flag Day!

The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America's birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as 'Flag Birthday'. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as 'Flag Birthday', or 'Flag Day'.

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.

There would be various celebrations of the flag, and after 3 decades, the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

The full history of Flag Day, plus lots of various other items about the Flag of the United States of America, can be found at www.usflag.org.

In celebration of Flag Day, I am offering 50% Off my Entire catalog including these great Patriotic Themed Kits:

	American Heroes Dedicated to the Men and Women of America's Armed Forces, this kit is packed with both red, white and blue and soldier green. 20 Camo papers plus 100 elements make this kit perfect for Patriotic tags and to show your support of the troops! Includes art work by Whimsy Primsy!
All Decked Out What would the summer be without some great cook outs and fun times with your friends? In this kit you'll find a great setting to help bring all the summer fun of your tags to life. Lots of red, white and blue and even some fireworks for those Memorial Day, Flag Day and 4th of July cook outs!
	Puppylicious Like Puppies? Then your gonna love Puppylicous! This adorable taggers kit reminds you that the best things in life are furry! Puppylicious features the art work of Whimsy Primsy, and comes with 2o Papers, and 91 elements, plus a Paw Print alpha! Also included is my 4th of July themed Patriotic Pup 28-piece Mini-Kit.>
Lion Hunt Enter the heart of the jungle and go on safari with this too cute taggers sized kit. 25 papers and 101 elements including lions and tigers and bears (0h my!) I had a lot of fun making this one and I'm sure you'll have a blast playing with it.

NOTE: These kits have been retired and are available for FREE elsewhere on this blog!

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Just for you for Flag Day, I've whipped up a set of snags, which could actually be used for any Patriotic Occasion.

I am using the Pixie Pride poser from MediEvil Creations, as well as the Independence kit from Kimmie's Kreations. Independence comes in both a traditional page Kit version as well as a taggers version.

I have to say I had a lot of fun with it, as it's packed with a bunch of Patriotic goodies. I especially love the fireworks papers and the sparklers, more so as they don't make noise when shot off in the neighborhood until 3:30 AM. Both these items are available for CU as well, check out Kimmie's store at Sophisti-Scraps for more information.



Medi's Pixie Pride came out like a day or two after I'd purchased a similar set from Perfect Posers for twice the cost, and I really like Pixie Pride better. There are 12 posers in the pack, so there's lots to work with.



I love the RW&B corsets in the kit as well as the padded hearts. Kimmie is using the kit in her blog layout too, if you're looking for some additional ideas. AND, I've done a Tutorial called Miss USA which you can find by CLICKING HERE.



Yup...I snagged that quote from the song, but then, all the quotes are snagged.

Kimmie saves her papers to 700 x 700 pxl, but she's scripting the elements down from her full sized kit so some are included in the set in unusually large sizes. The glitter trail used int he background of this tag is an example, as it's sized at 1800 x 1800 pxls. The Oval frames are also like 800 + pxls high, so you will need to do some resizing of items while you are composing with the kit.



The quote on this snag is from Ben Franklin, in case you didn't know.

I had pulled this kit several weeks ago to do a tutorial with have been putting it off as I get bogged down in other projects, but it worked out well, as I know have it for you on Flag Day.

I also was finishing up my Americana kit this weekend, which will be part of the July Goodie Train, but I'll have the tags I did with that one up tomorrow (maybe). Meanwhile, a sale, four snags and a tutorial should be enough for you for today, don't you think? :)