Merry Belated Christmas!

I had a WONDERFUL Christmas. I got a wacom intuos3 4x5 tablet!! I also got some cool paper scrapping stuff, a photography/scrapbooking book, a tripod, and some other nifty stuff. I've been playing with my tablet nonstop ever since I unwrapped it and let me tell you, it is one amazing toy.

I finished my second kit, Powdered Snow. No, I still haven't put up either this one or the first one for download anywhere, but I will soon, I swear! I'm not entirely happy with the paperclips. I realized when I was making the preview that I made the distance of the drop shadow WAY too large and as a result it's really difficult to make them look realistic when they're attached to paper. Of course, I didn't save them individually, but as one large block of paperclips all on one layer, so I can't go back and fix the drop shadows without redoing every single paperclip. Sigh. Well, this is my second kit and I'm sticking to it.

Blinkie, Take 2

It works!

Home!

I am HOME! Well, not quite, but I will be by the end of the day. My parents will be picking me up ANYTIME and then we'll be heading back to my house.

The flight yesterday was pretty uneventful except for having a migraine for about five hours of it. Thankfully, I was not on the list of people whose lives customs were going to make miserable by searching their bags yesterday. We went through without a hitch and got in the limo to go back to my friend's house. I felt badly about going to bed an hour after I got there, but a migraine makes it really difficult to socialize. But no worries, I feel so much better now, and I'm going HOME!!

Blinkie

I made a blinkie this morning to use in my sig line at the various scrapping sites I go to. Isn't it cute? Simple, but cute.





so apparently the blinkie doesn't blink. sorry. it's much cuter if you can actually see the entire thing. i'll have to work on that.

My First Kit!

I finished the preview for my first kit. It's not available anywhere yet, but I'll probably be posting it somewhere soon. I'll put up a link as soon as it's available for download. Comments are welcome, as it is my first attempt at designing.

Sick Days and Paper Clips

I stayed home sick from school today. I was only supposed to have two classes, one of which was a party since we took our final exam on Monday, so it wasn't that big of a deal. This means that I'm done with class for the semester!! I am currently studying abroad in Paris, and I fly back to the States on Sunday. I cannot wait!! This past week has gone by soooo quickly. Today has sort of dragged, but I guess that's to be expected when you feel crummy.

On the upside, however, I was able to spend just about the whole day, when I wasn't sleeping, playing in photoshop elements and designing my own digital stuff. I made a monumental discovery (those of you who are even remotely familiar with photoshop will laugh about this). I have been spending the past week trying to figure out how to draw a paperclip by hand (or touchpad, as the case may be). It is impossible for me. I tried everything...making circles and trying to trace around half of it, attempting it freehand, and so many other things that flat out didn't work and resulted in stunted, mutated little paperclips that looked like they had spent some time in an oven. I had all but given up hope when I was scrolling through the custom shapes and I found...a paperclip! Wow. Let me tell you, that is a LOT easier. So here's my advice: make sure you've looked at ALL the shapes before you laboriously try to draw one pixel by pixel. They're a smart bunch at Adobe, they are.

So following that amazing discovery, I flew into action and made a grand total of two paperclips before my attention wandered and I decided to write this blog entry. I decided it would be good to have a blog because it's a good way to chronicle my progress as a designer and a way for my family to stay up to date on what I'm doing. I have been very, very bad about returning emails this semester, I admit it. I'm quite sure that I can commit to regular blog entries more easily than to sending out group emails regularly. This is much easier because although it is meant for other people to read, I write for myself. If someone isn't interested, that's fine, skip to the next post or what have you. But this is my space and I can do whatever I want with it! So there!

Anyway, that's enough for now. I hope you all like my banner and that you can actually see it as there seemed to be some problems with that yesterday. And just for the record....à la mode does NOT refer to ice cream. Yes, that's what it generally means in the states, but in this case it means "in fashion." I just chose the name because it's French (which seems appropriate since I am in Paris, for the time being) and it sounds cool...say it a few times, don't you agree?

Scrap à la mode.

Welcome.