PixelScrapper December 2014 Blog Train: The Nutcracker

(The link to the official PixelScrapper blog train post: HERE.)

Once again, I was NOT feeling the colours - the red + green of the holiday season is just... YUCK, in my humble opinion. And I am not a real big fan of nutcrackers; they're freakin' creepy. BUT, I LOVE ballet! 

I took ballet class and performed in holiday shows and a yearly company-wide show until I was a teenager. I quit the year before I would join a show/competition troupe and graduate to toe shoes. (I did graduate to my high heel tap shoes - God, I loved those shoes!) I loved to dance, but I was becoming quickly aware that my body type was not desirable in a dancer... my mom used to heckle me about it. But, anyway - that's the past and not the can of worms to open now. (lol, baggage.) What I was getting at is that I will always have a love and affinity for dance.

My great aunt once took me to see the Nutcracker performed by the Kansas City Ballet, and it was one of those life-altering, I-will-remember-this-forever, this-has-shaped-the-way-I-see-the-world events (my great aunt gave me a lot of those kind of events). And the part I remember liking the most was the Flight of the Sugarplum Fairies. So, I really tried to channel some of that into my portion of the blog train.

I was thinking about gentle snow falling, the patterns on the ballerinas' costumes, the fluff of their skirts and sleeves, and the twinkle of pixie dust. <3

So, without further ado, my contribution to this month's blog train:

(Download from Google Drive HERE.)

(Download from Google Drive HERE.)

(Download from Google Drive HERE.)

(Download from Google Drive HERE.)

(Download from Google Drive HERE.)

And, as always, thanks for visiting and please enjoy! ;)
Have a happy holiday and be safe! <3

When Christmas Barfed

While I was working on my contribution for the December PixelScrapper blog train, I made what was, IMHO, a really ugly paper in Christmas colours. Then I decided to make some more of them! Because, Christmas time is famous for really ugly sweaters and some other colour/pattern combos that make an onlooker wonder what the heck the designer was thinking!

So, without further ado, this is what I think it would look like if Christmas barfed all over someone's house!

(And, just to make things clear, I mean the title of this kit very humorously. I am a Christian, and I certainly mean no disrespect of this holiday. I more or less mean to poke fun at the consumerism of this holiday, which I think anyone can appreciate. So, I hope I have not offended anyone.)

Available to download through Google Drive: HERE.

PixelScrapper October 2014 Blog Train: Autumn Art

(Here's the link to the official PixelScrapper Blog Train post: HERE.)

I almost missed this one! In fact,it was Oct 1st when I saw the train go live, and I decided on the spot that I wanted to participate. So... that's why these are late! And, of course, I got totally carried away... which, I hope, is totally yo your benefit! LOL.

Apparently, these colours were really speaking to me about stripes - dotted stripes, straight stripes, ziz-zag stripes, etc! :D
Quite a few of the packs ended up dark (and LARGE - so beware the file sizes, sorry), but I was really thinking of backgrounds that spots and splatters might look good on, like drop cloths. In the end, my kits kind of remind me of the gypsy-style caravan tapestries and clothing I'd see at my local Renaissance Festival - which is rather fitting since it starts up in Sept and runs through Oct. ;) I was going to go with the leafy theme that everyone else seemed to be going with, but I just wasn't feeling it. /shrugs

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Download from Google Drive HERE.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy! ;)

At The Beach - PixelScrapper Aug 2013 Blog Train

Nine months ago, a tragic experience in my life cause me to lose all of my electronic devices, including but not limited to the laptop where I created all of my art. I did not have many things backed up, so I lost a lot, including my promised participation pieces for PixelScrapper's August 2013 blog train. All I had remaining were the resources I had downloaded from PS (thank God!) and the previews I had uploaded to the forums.

It would be an understatement to say that I am excited today. This week has been the first opportunity in nine months that I have had to access a computer able to recreate that work. So, I've been working my tushie off these last two days, and have been delighting in every minute of it!

I have prayed incessantly for the opportunity to make digital art again. God has answered my prayers and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that He continues to bless me beyond what I could ever comprehend! As Luke 6:38 (NIV) says, "a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap," indeed!

So, to be true to my promise, here is the recreation of my contribution to the blog train "At the Beach"... with interest. ;)

I hope that these papers will be a blessing in their own way. Enjoy!

Click HERE to download from Google Drive!

Click HERE to download from Google Drive!

Click HERE to download from Google Drive!

(Bonus Papers 1 actually contains more papers than what is shown - 13 papers, to be exact.) Click HERE to download from Google Drive!

Click HERE to download from Google Drive!

2014-07-25 EDIT: Files now hosted at Google Drive (instead of 4Shared) and are now in .ZIP format (instead of .RAR). Both changes made to provide easier accessibility. Thanks for the feedback!! ;)

The Crystal Coast Paper Kit

When I posted the last paper kit on PixelScrapper, I said I was working on papers for the upcoming blog train there and got really carried away and inspired and ran down a few rabbit holes, and voila! - I ended up making about 60 papers, including the previous kit and this paper kit! (haha, all the rest of them are going to have to wait until Aug 1st when the blog train goes live!)

PixelScrapper's August Pallette

While I was working with the colours for the blog train, themed "At the Beach", I noticed that they reminded me of the colours my family painted the rooms of the house we lived in when I was a child. We used to have stark white walls in every room until the first time we vacationed at the beach in North Carolina. When we came home, we painted the kitchen yellow like the sun, the living room beige like the sand, the bathrooms pink like sea shells, my bedroom blue-green like the ocean, and my parents' room lavender like the dune flowers (my sister painted her room bright pink because that was what she wanted); we loved the colours that we had experienced in NC so much that we wanted to take them home with us!

Now my husband, daughter, and I are stationed in North Carolina along the Crystal Coast. We visit the beach about every other weekend and the smell of the ocean reminds me of some of the better moments in my childhood. For this kit, I added green for the dune grasses and orange for the caution flags that they put up on days with not-so-ideal weather, which just so happens to be some of our favourite beach days!

So, without further ado, please click HERE to download them from Google Drive!

And thanks for downloading them! I hope that you're able to make some really beautiful things with them - and you can post a link here or message me on PixelScrapper if you want to share what you've done! I would love to see it! :D



2014-07-25 EDIT: Files now hosted at Google Drive (instead of 4Shared) and are now in .ZIP format (instead of .RAR). Both changes made to provide easier accessibility. Thanks for the feedback!! ;)