STS March 2013 Road Trip: Monsters, Monsters, Everywhere!

Amidst the chaos of Designer Darling, I took some time out to participate in the STS Road Trip. I simply could not pass this palette and theme up! Monsters! Bright colors! What's not to love? I wish I had had the time to do more, but this is what I came up with:

You can download my portion HERE. Enjoy, and please take the time to leave some love! I read and respond to every comment!

Please also check out my store at Southern Comfort Scraps! Here are some of the products available:

Round 4 Voting Is Up!

The voting poll for Round 4 of Designer Darling is up! Please take a few minutes to register at the Stuff to Scrap forums if you haven't already (its SUCH a friendly forum!) and show your support for me in the voting polls! My entry is called "Callaluna Creations / Backyard Explorer." Please also vote for my friend Sarah of Sairi Designs!

Here is a reminder of what my Round 4 entry looks like:

Download links can be found in THIS THREAD, and the voting poll is in THIS THREAD.

I had hoped to have an add on up on my Facebook page tonight, but I am exhausted from burning the candle at both ends and I've decided it can wait until tomorrow! :) Keep an eye out for it!

Designer Darling Round 4

Wow, this was a tough round. I initially thought it would be easy for me, as the challenge this time was to make a kit completely from scratch. I consider myself a "from scratch" designer, as 95% of my elements start with a blank canvas and my imagination. But before this challenge, I never realized how important my extensive stash of styles, custom shapes, brushes, and overlays has become to me! Designing without them felt like designing with one hand tied behind my back! But what is a girl to do? I reset to defaults and I played with Photoshop and I learned about a billion new things! Everything in my kit is FROM SCRATCH (for real this time!), with the exception of the overlay from the CU kit we were given, which I used on one element. And I love it! I am so proud of this kit, and I can't wait to expand it into full size.... though I don't think I will stick to the "from scratch" rules with the expansion! I miss my styles!

This theme is a bit of a departure for me, as its sort of a boyish theme and I have a girl, and its filled with creepy crawly bugs and even a bird, and I hate bugs and birds! But I tried to keep the color palette neutral so it would work for boys and girls, and as it turns out, bugs are lots of fun to make! Presenting "Backyard Explorer":

The download link can be found in THIS THREAD. Please check back tomorrow for the voting poll, I would appreciate your continuing support. I've made it this far, I want to go all the way!

Pixelscrapper Designer Challenge, March 2013

I am excited to participate in the very first Pixelscrapper Designer Challenge! Our task was to create "a repeating pattern from scratch." I was already hard at work on a mini for the STS March Road Trip (coming on March 1st, so check back for my free mini!), so I decided to create a pattern using some of the cute little monsters I'd already created! I've packaged them with three variations: full color, greyscale, and silhouette. I would have loved to make these CU-friendly, but alas, there are two little bows on my monsters that are not CU4CU friendly. Sorry!

I hope you enjoy these! They are available on MY FACEBOOK PAGE!

I'd like to encourage you to have a look around while you are here, as I have loads of other freebies. I am currently seeking members for my CT team, so if you are interested, drop me a message at callalunacreations@mail.com. Thanks for visiting!

Round 4 and Winter Wonders

I am moving on to Round 4 of Designer Darling! There were no cuts after Round 3, but I am confident I would have made the cut if there had been, as my collection was very well received. I cannot believe I am in the second to last round! I never thought I would make it this far. This round is perfect for me: we aren't allowed to use any CU this round (with the exception of a few things they provided). I don't know if I have mentioned this here before or not, but I am primarily a "from scratch" designer. I use very little CU, and what I use is primarily overlays and a few of the "basics" (ribbons, buttons, flowers, etc.) that aren't that interesting for me to make. So this round should be perfect for me. I have chosen a theme and I am ready to go! Keep an eye out Wednesday for my submission!

The other reason for this post is that I have another beautiful layout from my CT Lórien to share with you! She made this with my kit Winter Wonders. Lórien is from Brazil, and she has never even seen snow! Check out her blog post to hear more about what winter is like in her part of the world! For her second layout, she chose to do a NON winter layout, which I think is fantastic! She's really demonstrating how versatile the kit is with this layout, don't you think?

Just a reminder, Winter Wonders and all of my other offerings are 50% off through the end of February to celebrate my grand opening! You have a couple more days to snag this at a HUGE discount!

Voting Reminder

For those of you that haven't gotten around to it, please drop by the voting forum and cast your vote for Callaluna Creations in Round 3 of Designer Darling!

Here's a reminder of what I did this week! If you haven't snagged it yet, the links are HERE. Thank you for all the support!

Winter Wonders

At long last, I have added Winter Wonders to MY STORE. What was the hold up, you ask? I, um, forgot. Aren't I a pro? Hey, I am new to this store thing! I've been selling for less than a month, cut me some slack, lol!

I probably am not supposed to say this about my own designs, but I LOVE THIS KIT. This color palette is just beautiful, and there are some gorgeous elements in here! I love the alpha, too, which is made to look like chiseled ice. Winter Wonders is a kit to celebrate the beauty of the winter season. I am not a fan of cold, mind you, but even I must admit that there is a beauty to this season that is simply incomparable. The way the frost creeps up the windows and trails along the edge of every leaf, the slow descent of big fat snowflakes, the whole world clean and new after a fresh snow fall...

Winter Wonders includes 20 papers, 5 full size glitter sheets, a full alpha, and more than 30 elements!

Here are some layouts I did with this kit:

Here is a layout my CT member Lórien (of Lórien's Workshop) did:

And here are layouts my "Guest CTs" (for lack of a better term) did with Winter Wonders. The first is by Sarah (of Sairi Designs), the second is by Raquel (of Build a Memory), and the final two are by Robin. Thank you to all of you ladies for doing such an excellent job showcasing my kit!

You can buy Winter Wonders HERE, and great news! Like everything else in my store, it is 50% off for the month of February!

I would love to see any layouts you make with Winter Wonders, and keep in mind that I am still seeking regular CT members as well if anyone is interested!

Time to Vote Again!

The voting poll is up for Round 3 of Designer Darling! Won't you take a minute to go and show your support for me? My submission is called "Callaluna Creations/ A Case of the Sniffles."

The voting poll is HERE. Please also consider using one of your 3 votes for my friend Sarah of Sairi Designs!

If you haven't downloaded yet, what are you waiting for? Most of the submissions this week (including mine) are CU friendly! The thread listing download links is HERE.

Thanks again for all of the support!

Designer Darling: Round 3

Our challenge this week was to make our own designer resources via extraction. This is MY week. I am confident in my extractions - its the very first thing I learned to do in Photoshop! But as I learned, there is more to extractions than, well, extracting. My big challenge this week was getting good quality photographs. But after a lot of fussing, I finally managed.

I chose to do a themed collection, and my theme stems from my young daughter who is sick WAY more often than she should be! Our house is awash in medical supplies, so I ran with that. I'm calling this CU-friendly collection of designer resources "A Case of the Sniffles." I'd love to see what you do with it!

The links to download this collection are located in THIS THREAD. Please keep an eye up for the voting thread, which will be up in the next couple of days, and place a vote for me! I really want to see how far I can go with this competition before my wild ride ends!

I made the cut!!!

I am so excited to announce I made the cut for Designer Darling and will be advancing to Round 3! I have no illusions that I am capable of winning this thing, but I want to stay in as long as possible so I can keep learning! Thank you all for the support, and keep an eye out for my round 3 freebie! Its due Wednesday! Round 1 and Round 2 freebies are still up, scroll down to my earlier posts to snag the links!

Layouts With Derby Girl Wannabe

Here are a few layouts I made with the mini I created for Round 2 of Designer Darling: Derby Girl Wannabe.

Download links are in THIS THREAD.

The voting poll is HERE, and I'd really appreciate your votes!

Duck...Duck...Bath Add On

At long last I have packaged up the Duck... Duck... Bath Add On for you! This kit was originally inspired by my extensive collection of crazy duckies, so I made some recolors that are reminiscent of some of the ducks in my collection! I also recolored the towel paper and made a few new patterns during the process. Enjoy!

You can download it HERE, and the original kit (pictured below) can be found HERE.

Do you like the add on? Are you grateful? Great! Then could you go and vote for me in the current round of Designer Darling? The voting thread is HERE and this is my submission, Derby Girl Wannabe:

The thread to download Derby Girl Wannabe is HERE.

Ready? Set? VOTE!

The voting poll is up for Round 2 of Designer Darling. There are cuts in this round, so please PLEASE go and vote! I need all the votes I can get! I am determined to make the cut!

You have to register in the forums to vote, but its a really great place to hang out and socialize with other scrappers! Please note that they are having issues with registration emails going through to hotmail and yahoo accounts. Gmail and mail.com accounts are working fine, so if you have trouble, try a different email address. The voting poll is HERE! My submission is "Callaluna Creations - Derby Girl Wannabe." And again, please consider tossing in a vote for my best bud Sarah - "Sairi Designs - With the Girls."

Here is a reminder of what my submission looks like. I will have a small add on coming soon!

Links to download all the free minis are in THIS THREAD.

Thank you for your continued support!!!

Love Bites: An Anti-Valentine's Day Kit!

Are you looking at all the happy cheerful couples today and rolling your eyes? Heart broken? Scraptherapy to the rescue!!!

Valentine's Day is all well in good... if you're happily in love! But love isn't all chocolate and roses. Sometimes its a pile of soggy tissues and holding a photo over the candle flame! STOP: Don't burn that photo! Scrap it instead! This is the first in a planned series of kits I am calling Scraptherapy. Why not use scrapping as a way to work through those difficult emotions? Love Bites will help you do that!

Love Bites includes 20 papers, 6 layer styles, 2 alphas, and 52 elements!

BONUS: Since it was requested, I am including the torn photo template shown in the preview as a free gift!! Please note, it is a .psd file that was created in Photoshop CS6 and I am not sure it will work with older versions.

And guess what else?? My entire store is 50% off during the month of February! Head on over to my store to grab it!

Here are some layouts made with Love Bites: These first two I made myself:

And these adorable layouts were made by my new CT member, Lórien! Aren't they fun?? Welcome Lórien, I am excited to have you aboard! I am still seeking creative team members if anyone is interested in getting my kits for free! Email me at callalunacreations@mail.com for more info!

Designer Darling Round 2

I am astonished I was even able to finish my kit this round, as my daughter got REALLY sick the day this round started, and has gotten sicker each day. I designed most of this with her laying asleep on my lap! I don't think this is nearly as good as it could have been, but I am happy to have finished at all.

For this round, we were given two photographs and a little story to provide inspiration, and we had to choose our own theme and color palette. One of the photos was of a roller derby match! I realize roller derby was an obvious choice, which is kind of funny, because I feel like my greatest strength in designing is creativity. But I idolize derby girls, and a derby kit has been on my "to do" list for ages! I simply couldn't pass up the chance. Its also got a brighter color palette than most people like, but I was inspired by the derby matches I have seen and the crazy colors I saw there!

You can find the links to download Derby Girl Wannabe in this forum thread. I would appreciate it if you would take the time to go and vote for me while you are there! Enjoy!

Open For Business!!!

My store at Southern Comfort Scraps is officially OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!! January was a rough month around here, so it took longer than I'd planned. But its up and running now! I've added two products so far:

Belgian Countryside is a set of eight CU friendly overlays created with original photographs I took in the fields and paths around my house here in Belgium. They create beautiful papers! My favorite is Storm Clouds. I captured the most interesting little swirls in the clouds that day, I'd never seen anything quite like it... The weather here in Belgium is frequently insane!

Next up is Urban Decay, a set of 5 CU friendly overlays. I am fascinated by the textures I find in my everyday surroundings. The ugliest things can be beautiful when you photograph them close up and look at the details. Peeling paint is fascinating. Every sidewalk crack is unique. And there are so many old bricks here that just scream with history. I hope you all will find these photos as intriguing as I did and use them to create your own works of art!

As part of my Grand Opening celebration, everything in my store is 50% off during the month of February! Head over to take advantage of this amazing deal!

I will be adding my kits Winter Wonders and Love Bites to the store in the next few days:

I am currently seeking CT members! If you would like to get my kits for free, please email me at callalunacreations@mail.com, or message me via the Callaluna Creations Facebook page.

Vote for ME!!! ;)

Asking you to vote for me to be Designer Darling makes me giggle... I am imagining myself being offered a crown and a sash, my mascara (which I don't even wear...) smearing as I cry tears of joy. "Designer Darling" REALLY sounds like a beauty pageant. And I guess it kind of is, in a way, but its the beauty of the designs that is being eyeballed instead of my... well, you get what I am saying! :P

Anyway, VOTE FOR ME!!! You have to register for the forum, but its relatively painless, and besides, its a great community! My submission is called "Callaluna Creations/ Duck... Duck... Bath!" It looks like this:

Links to the download thread can be found in my previous post.

Thank you, and again, I appreciate the support!

Designer Darling Competition FREEBIES!!!!

You know how when you have people who really believe in you, you can sometimes get swept up in their enthusiasm and push yourself farther than you ever have before? That happened to me this week. I have two wonderful cheerleaders, my best friend Sarah (of Sairi Designs) and my friend Raquel (of Build a Memory), who believe in me and encouraged me to enter the Designer Darling Competition at Stuff to Scrap. I am terrified, because I feel like I am way out of my league (there are people in this contest I have BOUGHT things from before!!!). Furthermore, I am SLOW. I get a little better at designing every day, but I don't get much faster. I am slow and deliberate and NOT in the tortoise-winning-the-race sort of way!

But I've survived Round 1. No need to applaud, I haven't even heard from the judges yet. But there are no cuts in Round 1, so the fact that I managed to finish my kit means I get to advance. Woot! This is my submission. I call it Duck... Duck... BATH! It was inspired by my vast collection of rubber duckies.

You can find the links to download my mini and all of the other fantastic submissions HERE. Please PLEASE go and download it, and encourage your friends to do the same? I need all the cheerleaders I can get to carry me though this competition!

Here is a layout I made with it:

Furthermore, my lucky little readers... I have an add-on in the works! Keep an eye out here, I will post it in the next day or two!

Also, please head over to Sarah's blog to get a peek at her submission, as well!

Thank you to all of you for the support! Your comments and emails and messages have kept me motivated these past few months, and all of my improvements are thanks to you guys!!