New Year Blues Tutorial

A new using the Tilly's New Year taggers kit by by Puddicat Creations. I just love, love, love the colors in this kit!

You can try this tutorial for yourself at Di Before Dawn tutorials.



BTW Cindy: Tristan really liked the top hat and is wearing it tonight when he escorts his girlfriend cat T'Abby Normal to the big bash the Man Cat's Club.

I told him I didn't think you would mind.

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!

More from Sir Tristan

I had Tris in the bedroom the other night and he posed quite nicely for me, so have several new tags for him...

Christmas Kittens



I thought, fleetingly, about changing the name of Tris' club to "The Tomcats Club". When I was in Junior High, we had a Playboy Club down the street from the School that had fallen into disgrace so they changed their name to the The Tomcats Club. Now, we all knew what went on in there. For some reason these days they'd probably make the place move for being too close to a school.

In any case...I used the FTU Traditional Christmas taggers kit from Bluedream Designs for the scraps. The Christmas Kitten is (c) 2008 by Perfect Posers. The "glass" is from Chaos Priestess' Magick Workers kit - I need like a bunch of "guy" accessories - glasses, beer mugs, remotes, etc. Maybe I'll grab some off the internet and tube them and do a freebie a la the Maltese Scrapper.

The Green (and Red) glitter alpha I got off Digifree and it didn't come with a TOU, so needless to say, I've forgotten who actually did it. If/when I track it down I'll post a credit.

I wish I could have made those lights twinkle...I know there's a way to do it...but...

Catch of the Day



This is not exactly how I'd originally envisioned this piece, but it works, especially given the smug look on Tris' face. I used Soxsational Scraps' "Pirates Life" taggers kit for the scraps except for Tris' earring, which is from Kirsty's Scraps' "Pretty Dirty Pirate" kit. (The eyepatch is not consistent on these pieces, but I've been sticking with the same hat and now the same earring.)

The Mermaid is (c) 2008 by Bits'N'Bobs, and the Black Epoxy Alpha is from Free Digital Scrapbooking.

Country Trismas



Wednesdays are Wacky Wednesday at Taggers Scraps but when I looked in the morning, no freebies were listed, and I know from experience that they "do not ship to my location" in the evenings, so I went online from work. Low and behold, there were freebies, including quite a few complete kits from Scrapping Mar. I ordered them all, and checked out. Then I went back in and downloaded them when I got home, and it actually worked. W00t!

Two of the kits were Christmas kits. The next problem to tackle is that everything is named 1.png, 2.png, 3.png, etc. Very had to work with and so despite the TOU that says "do not rename my files", they got renamed. The Country X-mas taggers kit was the smaller of the two - the other has like 74 elements, so I'm still working on it.

It's not a bad little kit and it was FREE, so heck...

The pine cone frame was a freebie from Starfire Designs. The Santa Hat is courtesy of the Maltese Scrapper, and the Word Art comes to us from Word Art Fun.

And it's that just the cutest look on Tris' face?

Turkey Tris



I just LOOOOOVE the Jive Turkey taggers kit from Toni's Scraparoni. The Scarecrow in this tag is a freebie from Brandi's Creations and was part of her LeRoy Lion - Wizard of Oz themed kit. (Looks just like the ones from Charly, doesn't it?)

The fun word art is from Word Art Fun, home of really fun word art.

Sir Tristan

I came up with this "Have a holly, jolly Tris-Mas", which I kept singing to Tris last night. Um...he doesn't appreciate my vocal abilities, I'm sorry to say. But then, neither does Miss Diamond.

::sigh::

Mr. Tristan



I had taken this picture while he was finishing up dinner, and it's just a funny expression as he was trying to get the food bits off. In the end I decided it was bad Tuna Grog. I think I'm going to reserve Friday's as "Fishy Fridays" as I post "Mr. Tristan's" adventures as a Pirate cat aboard the Diamond Cutter.

Most of the scraps are from the Pretty Dirty Pirate kit by Kristy's Scraps. The hat however, was from Soxsational Scraps "Pirates Life" kit because all the Pretty Dirty Pirate kit had was captain's hats, and Tris is, rather unfortunately, not a captain. The Black Epoxy Alpha used for the grog shop sign was from Free Drigital Scrapbooking, part of their Halloween collection.

Tristan in the Greenwood



I used the Urban Mermaid's Fairy Dreams in the Woods Scrapkit for this tag. The Green Fly Poser is from Perfect Posers, and the Precious Gold Alpha is from Janyelle Mayara.

The fairy wings on Tris are from Ditter's Free Doodles. I've had a lot of fun with those.

The King



I had anthropomorphizing the cats in part because the heads always look wrong when you put them on a human body. They have no necks. I tried fixing that but I've not found a workable solution yet.

Anyway, Rolling Stone Magazine decided in a recent poll that Aretha Franklin, not Elvis, was the King of Rock and Roll and much as we appreciate Ms. Franklin's body of work, this just grated on poor Tris' rock and roll sensibilities as he idolizes "The King".

I used Helly's Hard Rock Mama for the Scraps, althought the cardboard heart was from one of her element packs. The guitar is from Yarrow's Rock Devil kit, and the gold foil alpha is from Free Digital Scrapbooking.

Goretty Rocha tubed the Elvis Collection kit and offered it as a freebie on her blog.

Dragon(fly) Slayer



Tris caught a dragon fly, brought it home and meowed very loudly on the veranda about the deadly prey he'd brought back.

So I commemorated the moment for his blog with this little fantasy piece. The scraps are from the Enchanted Taggers Kit by Cinnamon Scraps, except for the Dragonfly which is from Danielle Engbretson's Dog Day Afternoon kit. I know, virtually every designer out there has a beaded dragonfly in one kit or another, but that was the first one I thought of.

The wings are from Ditters Free Doodles, but like the ones in the Greenwood tag.

The Paper Pieced Dragon in the background is from Nicole Norcutt and was a element freebie I had saved on my system.

I think that catches me up on Tristan's tags, at least for the moment.

The Fur Kids

Winter Fun

Tristan actually did "model" a bit, he just likes to do it on his own terms. He's a handsome fellow, however, all the white fur tends to cause the flash to reflect when you get to close to him.

This picture wasn't too bad, but I'm not overly thrilled with the design. I need to rework a winter tag for him.



I was using the Winter Fun kit by Cinnamon Scraps which is character heavy, IMHO. (But I do like the little penguins!)

Tristan's Bait Shop

He flashed out in the shot, but it's otherwise a good picture. Maybe once I'ver read through that PS5.0 book I'll figure out how to correct it.

I used to have 7.0 but I had "borrowed" it from the company I was working for and never actually had he disk. That was a MUCH better version that supported animation. Ah well..



I used the Country Tomboy kit from Trantrum Scraps and she's outdone herself. Over 30 papers and some really cool and unusal element make this a great kit for a tomboy, a regular ol' country boy, or perhaps a county tomcat that likes his fishin'.

Aside from the realistic looking fish, you get the little "cat toy" fish which are just a giggle. This is the "other" kit I picked up for buck last night. What a deal!

The hat is courtesy of The Maltese Scrapper.

I really got a hoot out the kit - if only Tris didn't look so pale faced in it.

The Dread Pirate Diamond

While I was doing the write up for Trip's Pirate Lord tag yesterday, I noted a pirate babe dressed in pink, and that kind of set me off.

The photo was from Valentines Day when I was making Miss Diamond wear her antique rose beads. She doesn't like to wear beads, so she was making faces at me.



I used Yarrow's A Pirate's Life kit and the Pirate Babe is of course from Incognito Scrapz. The hat is courtesy of the Maltese Scrapper and the alpha on top is from Free Digital Scrapbooking (but you already knew that, right?)

The ship - A.K.A. "The Diamond Cutter" and the water background were from A Pirate's Life kit from Brandi's Creations, which is a freebie on her blog.

The Florida Coastline is broken up by odd nicknames: "The Gold Coast", "The Treasure Coast", "The Space Coast" (near NASA) etc. For some unknown reason, we're the so called "Plantimum Coast" so...she has a legitmate claim to the locale at least.

She is actually "Captain Diamond, called the Black" when she's in her pirate persona. Now I'm thinking she might have an all female crew except for Tristan, the bilge rat. Hmmm.....

No rest for the weary

So, I was thinking to myself, last night, great, I can sit back and do what I want to do for an evening. No such luck. I remembered we're scheduled to Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos this weekend, so I needed to do headers and possibly some graphics for that.

Then, I saw on Cat Blogosphere that Tiki of Camie's Kitties had been helped to the bridge. He was old, and sick and wasn't really fighting anymore, so it was probably time for him to go.

So I did a memorial graphic for him:



I used a kit that I just bought at Taggers Scraps, called Sunfidulgence, which is from the creative genious of Scraps by Jessica. It has a lot of rainbow and bling and it going to be really nice for fairy tags.

However, we refer to our animals friends as passing "over the rainbow bridge" it works for that too.

(When my mom shipped me off to a Catholic school, I was taught that pets didn't go to heaven because they didn't have souls. I don't know if that teaching has changed, but the idea of the rainbow bridge sort of sprang out of that. Frankly, if heaven's so snooty they won't allow our pets in, then I'd rather pass over the rainbow bridge myself.)


I did "go shopping" at Taggers and at Digital Chaos. I got six taggers kits at Taggers and two at Digital, plus a full size version of CBJ's Goth Child kit which I'm kind of thinking of using for a blog layout.

Besides, I like the colors.

One of the other kits I got was the Snowflake kit from Scrappy Lovers. I've wanted this one for the last week now...



The Fae is from Incognito's Fairy Pack 3 which is a freebie. The little red cat in the backround who's helping to trim the tree is from Brandi's Creations Stuffed Animals 2 set.

Granted, it is very similar to the Snow Fae I posted yesterday, largely because the Fae are very close.

Snow Princess uses the kit by the same name from Cinnamon's Scraps. This time the Fae is from Incognito's Fairy Pack I



The little cat is from Brandi's Creations, same collection as noted above.

And then of course, there was poor Tristan who got ignored in the rush leading up to T-13.



This uses Cowboy Fun from Scrappy Lover, another kit was considering for a blog background. I'm not sure yet though. The kit is kind of ribbon heavy, I'm not sure what to do with some of the items. I'll be interested in seeing some her creative teams' layout work using it.

Tonight I need to track down the Kung Fu Panda pack I'd downloaded a while ago. The theme for this week's T-13 is Costumed Capers, and I've got a Panda Mask I can use on one of the cats and/or dogs. (We have some more woofies to work with this week!)

No Tricks, just Candy's Treats

I made this adorable little Boo Kitty tag from Candy's Treat's Fright Night freebie kit. The Boo-Kitty is 2008 Latte'Dah Designs, (Scrappin A Latte'). This just turned out too cute!

Aside from the Boo Kitty tag and the tag (below) for Sam Sun, I used it to make a couple of tags for my Tabby Cat Tristan. The first is Tris in his "Hall'ween bonnet".



Tris is a bit of a silly boy, but he's a lover and very soft and cuddly. Check out his blog for his sonnet to his bonnet.

Here is the second tag, in which he's wearing his new Halloween Bandanna that I got for him Saturday at Cape Dog Bakery.



He's got a really skinny neck, so he ended up with a small, compared to Miss Diamond's medium. Diamond is also much more easy about wearing clothing, so she doesn't mind a bigger bandanna, or even the shawl.

The Bone Alpha is from Free Digital Scrapbooking.

Just Ghastly!

Count Luxor is of course, the whitest of the boys, and probably the whitest of our group of ghostly cats as well. I used the Dark Thoughts kit from Creations by Jo on this one. I absolutely love the little pewter charms that come with it.



There's no way I could capture the grace and power of Mickey Mantle, without also showing you the unearthly beauty of his one true love, Marilyn Monroew.

This is used the very lovely Rumors kit from Chaos Priestess, which isn't exactly spooky or goth, but it works just right for Miss Marilyn.



Seaborne of The Taylor CatSSSSS is out spooking around on the grounds of Castle Diamond. He's been checkout the scary tree and is not going to see what's in his treat bag.

This uses Creations by Jo Fright Night kit. Don't you just love the balloons?



This is my second try at a tag for Seaborne's brofur Sam Sun, I ditched the first one as Diamond would not put her paw of approval on it. This uses the Fright Night kit from Candy's Treats - with the Pumpkin add on - which is 100% FREE! And we all love treats at Halloween time, don't we?

I love the little bat and the spider. Too cute! Stop by her blog to download, there's also some word art that goes with it.

Tristan also had fun with this kit. Check out Tabbylicious tomorrow to see what he's up to.

All of the Alphas used in these tags are from Free Digital Scrapbooking.