Challenging colours...

I came across another colour challenge at Stone Accents run by Boo (of Booland Designs) and the palette looked lovely so I thought I'd have a play. And this is the result:

I find the challenges are a real incentive to get me to try different things. I struggled with the colours initially because although they looked lovely, they're really not 'me' if ya know what I mean, but I was pretty pleased with the final results for the papers.

Still not overly happy with the elements, but I used Atomic Cupcake's cutout action which worked like a dream for the stickers. After months subscribing to Atomic Cupcake I'm so pleased that I can finally use the actions now that I've got CS3 (couldn't used them before coz my version of PSE was so old it was made out of chipboard and wood glue lol!) ...so that's a whole other list of things I have to play with in addition to all the presets in the program itself!

Anywho, here are the links, and be sure to let me know what y'all think...
Belanna's Classical Reverie - Papers
Belanna's Classical Reverie - Elements

Fancy three dozen eggs?

Or even three dozen fancy eggs? I've been playing with CS3 and trying to get the hang of shapes and depth and this is what I came up with...


When I tried to do the preview, I started with a little basket, realised they weren't going to fit and ended up with a wicker trunk lol! The egg shape isn't perfect because it's extracted from a photo of an egg that wasn't perfect either, so I thought it might be better to leave as is (i.e. I got lazy!). Anyway, I used some of the liquid metal papers to decorate them, and I kinda like how they turned out so I thought I'd share them with you. There's three dozen so far...well, eggs normally come by the dozen don't they? Actually I've always wanted to handpaint eggs and never had the chance, so this is my 'virtual' equivalent...less messy too lol!

Thanks for missing me Carol! And I haven't forgotten that you tagged me, but I'm not sure that I even know seven other people with blogs that I could tag, so I'm racking my brain trying to think of any!

I'm still working on some more Celtic stuff and I came up with a lovely alpha yesterday (at least I think it's lovely!), but I want to play with some different elements before I release the next kit...so it might be next weekend, still in plenty of time before St Patrick's Day though.

Ooops! Nearly forgot the links for the eggs...
Belanna's Basket of Eggs - First Dozen
Belanna's Basket of Eggs - Second Dozen
Belanna's Basket of Eggs - Third Dozen Plus Eggstras

Hope they come in useful!

Miss me?

Probably never even noticed I was gone lol! Never mind, just popping in to add a new blinkie and say that I'm working on some new stuff, but it's slow going coz I've got a steep learning curve to get to grips with CS3.

Valentine's Day was lovely, and it took us two days to find all the cards hidden around the house lol! My other half (who does most of the cooking anyway) cooked me a lovely dinner and we consumed a lot of bubbly to wash it down and had a warm cosy evening watching silly movies and scoffing chocs. So no complaints from me on that score!

So enjoy the music while I get back to the grindstone...and once again thanks for all the lovely comments on 4shared, they're really appreciated!!!!

A little lace for Valentines...

I have long had a penchant for lace...and recently discovered somewhere to feed my addiction, so I wanted to share it with you all...

So let me start by saying a big old 'Hi! to Karen at Wood Sweater Street who designs (amongst other things!) the most intricate digital lace I've ever seen. And she very kindly allowed me to use some of her fabulous lace and embroidered goodies to create these quick pages for Valentine's Day.

Click on the preview or the link above to go to Karen's site to download them, and take some time to browse through Karen's fabulous designs (including lots of freebies lol!). Hope you like them...and don't forget to leave a little love for Karen on her blog.

An early bit o' green...

Firstly, a wave to Catriona MacGregor of the Digital Celt...many thanks for stopping by, you really made my day!

Next, as promised, I've made another version of Claddagh Love, this time in greens and golds, and with a little bit of shamrock added for good luck. It also contains, as promised, some Claddagh frames...I hope these are what you had in mind...but let me know if not. Still have to do some to match the earlier Claddagh Love kits, so let me know if you're looking for something different.

Actually, I remember seeing some St Patrick's Day kits last year and cringing, neon greens and plastic shamrocks are just too over-the-top for me lol! I like my greens muted, dark, rich reflecting the greens in nature, which is after all what Ireland's famous for...with just a touch of gold or silver for contrast...so I hope you like this...

The frames have made the kit size somewhat larger, so I've had to zip it in two files, so here they are:
Belanna's Claddagh Love (Green Elements)
Belanna's Claddagh Love (Green Papers)

If you've got your speakers on, you may have noticed by now that I've been playing with the blog a little! If you scroll right to the end of the page you'll find the music playlist, together with a couple of slideshows...one of freebies and one of layouts. I've also added some blinkies to the side-bar, and some links to places I can't do without...more of those as I get time....and of course my avatar...so it's finally beginning to feel a bit more lived in around here lol! Hope you like the music, it's a pretty eclectic mix, but that's me all over.

Slainte!

A word of thanks!

Just a quick post to say thanks to all of you leaving comments both at 4shared and here, it's really very much appreciated! I was absolutely delighted that I even recognised some owners of blogs I've haunted for the last few months...thanks for dropping in!!!

Now, in response to a couple of questions...

For Cheri and others...well, I'm surprised you had to ask lol! Of course there'll be a green-hued version of Claddagh Love before St Patrick's Day...and hopefully more besides...I'm currently looking at some great celtic patterns to work with and for greens I'm thinking soft and mossy, and rich & dark. Keeping my fingers-crossed that you'll like the results!

For Blueberry Kitty...there will definitely be some Claddagh frames! (Actually if I have time over the weekend, I'll try to get some done to match the two existing Claddagh Love kits before I start working in green.) And if anyone wants to suggest anything else for me to try to include...especially for the St Patrick's Day version...feel free! I say 'try to include' because I don't know how successful I'll be, but I'll give it a go!

For Ephemere... can't wait to see your page...don't forget to send me a link! And the sames goes for anyone who uses anything I've created (it doesn't have to be all mine lol!) I would really love to see it!

I think that's about it for now...I just got eliminated from the Last Scrapper Standing competition at Divine Digital so I'm off to drown my sorrows...

Paddington Bear is 50!

And that's a very great age for a little bear, even one who's travelled all the way from Peru. Don't believe me? See for yourself...Paddington Bear's 50th Anniversary

I grew up with Paddington, so this makes me feel rather old to say the least! Anyway, to commemorate his big five-oh, they've released some special edition Paddington Bears, one of which comes inside his very own suitcase, you know, the one he used to carry his marmalade sandwiches in (when they wouldn't fit under his hat!) - though obviously they've made it a little bigger so he can fit inside lol!

So in honour of the 'year of the bear', I came up with my very own little 'Bag of Bears' or to be more precise...two! One full of adorable little pink bears to match Cutie Pie, and one full of equally adorable little blue bears to match Lil Boy Blue. Of course they're not Paddington, and they haven't travelled from deepest darkest Peru, but I hope you'll find it in your hearts to give them good homes just the same.

Belanna's Bag of Bears (Cutie Pie)
Belanna's Bag of Bears (Lil Boy Blue)

Some are bears and some are bear stickers ...both of which are a first for me, so I hope the quality is okay, but you'll have to be the judge of that! And here's another first for me...just recently I learned how to add a blinkie to my signature in forums, and then today I learned how to create my own! I still have to learn how to put it in the sidebar of my blog...but for now I'm gonna post it here just to show the world I did it!!! (Yes, I know that's sad, but humour me lol!)