Time to Challenge Myself...Design-Wise Week Two

Hello everyone.  If you missed my post from last week describing my foray into kit design, you can check it out HERE.  I am really pleased with the feedback I received.  There is even one person interested in purchasing the kit when it is done!  Woo hoo!  Not sure how I'll accomplish that yet, but it is nice to know that you guys are confident enough in my work to want to purchase it.  That really means more than you will ever know!

Well, it is my second week into designing this kit and as always, I want you guys to know what I've been up to.  The second week, like the first, was all about papers: 

• words
• stripes 
• geometric
• floral/damask/ornamental
• multiple patterns
• grunge/distressed
• floral/damask/ornamental

As a reminder, here is the colour palette I am working with available over at Design Seeds:

Finally, here is the sneak peek of all the papers I've created this past week for the Naturally Cool kit:

Now since it is difficult to get a true idea of what the second last paper in the set, the words paper looks like, here is a better preview of that one:

One of the comments I received over in the forum was that someone felt I was thinking outside the box when it came to designing my papers.  That is a seriously huge complement since this is the first time I've put a structured set together.  So now I want to know what you guys think of the latest designs?  Do you think I have a future in design?  As always, I'd love to know what you think.

Over the course of the next week I'll be working on the third set of prompts which are all about creating elements.  I'm a bit freaked out because I've never really created much in the way of elements.  I was also telling a good friend that I really should have planned out my ideas as what sort of theme the kit was going to take on because I have no idea what elements to include.  Since the kit is called "Naturally Cool", I went with the concept of nature's beauty with the word paper and will continue this theme but it still doesn't tell me the direction to take in my elements.  I also have to create an alphabet and my version of Photoshop Elements doesn't allow for layer styles or for batching so I may have to create each letter one at a time.  If that is the case I'm obviously not going to be finished in a week.  More like six months from now!

Big hugs to you all and thanks for your continued support and feedback.

Until next time,

 

Credits:
I used a frame template from Marisa Lerin in my words paper, I also used a geometric template for my geometric paper,  a grunge template in the damask,  a distressed overlay in my leaves paper, a different one for my grunge paper.  I used a cardboard template from Brooke Gazarek for my stripes and geometric paper, and a canvas one for my word paper. Both these artists and their templates are from Pixel Scrapper.  I've used a really pretty pattern from Trine over at Nothing But Freebies for my damask paper and a beleveled template for my mixed elements paper.  Finally I have used elements from Karen's Scrap and Graphics.  I used a silver leaf in my leaves paper and a bird in my mixed patterns paper.  Please pay these wonderful ladies a visit.  I couldn't have created anything without their amazing talent and generosity.  

Time to Challenge Myself...Design-Wise

Apparently I am not busy enough.  Cough, cough, CHOKE.  So, to add even more pressure to myself, I have decided to undertake a Designer's Challenge over at Pixel Scrapper.  The goal is create one item a day with prompts from our fearless leader, Marisa Lerner, and create elements for a kit that will have a total of 30 of them, by the time we are done.

I've never really participated in a forum--well a designer forum anyways.  I did participate in a few forums back when I was working for a living to keep current on what was going on in the field of learning disabilities, but I digress...

Anyhoo, since you guys are my inspiration to keep on creating, I thought I'd share with you all, a snippet of what I have created so far.  The first week was all about papers: 

• floral/damask/ornamental
• stripes 
• plaid
• grunge/distressed
• polka dots
• geometric
• fun shape

Here is the colour palette I chose to work with:

I found this really awesome blog where the owner, Jessica, produces the most incredible palettes.  The bog is called Design Seeds and some of you may be familiar with Jessica's work already.  To get this palette, just click on the image and it will take you right to the originating post

So this is what I came up with:

While it is hard to tell, there is some texture woven into each paper.

Now the last paper in the set, the fun shapes, isn't all dragonflies.  So here is what that one looks like:

Now most of you know that I am a beginner at all forms of digital design.  As such, I often use templates from the ever fabulous Pixel Scrapper when creating many of my papers and other designs.  This time around I've made three by scratch, three using paper templates and one shape template (see credits below). Their licensing is so awesome because you can choose whether to spend your daily credits for personal use or commercial use.  The commercial use costs more but it allows me the opportunity to offer you guys freebies which is really important.  Additionally, it gives me the opportunity to actually make some money if I ever decide to establish a store front or sell through an existing store (which would be my preferred choice).  However, I think I'm a long ways from being good enough to actually sell me stuff yet.  That will come in time--hopefully.  Given that I spend so much time working on these things, time I should be spending with my hubs, it would be nice to actually make a little money again and feel like I'm a contributing member of this household.  But as I said, that will come in time.  Even then, I know how difficult it is for the majority of digital artists to make ANY money selling their wares so I am going in with my eyes open. 

I'd love to hear what you think of the papers I've created so far.  Over the course of the next week I'll be working on the second set of prompts which are some more papers but with different patterns.

Not sure what I'll be doing with this kit or its various parts.  I have been thinking it would be nice to jump in and sponsor a challenge or two; so, maybe I'll start caching some sets for this purpose so that winners will have something to choose from.  What do you think?  Is this a good idea?

Big hugs to you all and thanks for your continued support and feedback.

Until next time,

 

Credits:
I used paper templates from Marisa Lerin for the floral and plaid papers. I also used her cool dragonfly image template to make the fun shapes paper. I used a grunge template from Brooke Gazarek. Both these artists and their templates are from Pixel Scrapper.