Happy Halloween!

Hello, fellow travellers of the web, and welcome to Blue Nile Graphic Designs! I haven't posted in a bit, due to a number of other commitments, such as doctors appointments, working on new alphas, and getting involved in a  new business, LegalShield, prepaid legal and identity theft services that I am convinced that no one should be without! However, I am not going to try to sell you on the services today. What I want to do is offer a little holiday signature tag that I am selling on behalf of a couple of charities I have gotten interested in due to some of the activities I have participated in as a part of Team Parent, the group established by my LegalShield sponsors, Michelle and Robin, plus one I have been interested in for a while.

The first charity is the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation. This is one of the causes I have espoused for some time now, along with other projects whose goals are to help cure cancer of all kinds. Having lost my 33 year old niece, Laura Beth, to colon cancer back in 2011, I have become extremely interested in see a cure for every kind of cancer. NO ONE should have to suffer through the kind of pain cancer causes, not only to the person with it, but to everyone around them.

The other charities I am interested in supporting are the Special Needs Network, which offers resources, programs and advocacy to families of individuals with autism, and their families; and the National Alliance for Mental Illness - NAMI, which offers support , advocacy and education about mental Illness.

If you would like to lend your support to any of these organizations, you can do so by purchasing one of my Halloween signature tags... they will be personalized with any name you wish, at a cost of $1.00 for each tag. To order, please send an email to penneyn@gmail.com with the subject line 'Halloween Tags with the name or names you wish to have on the tags. When they are complete, I will contact you to arrange payment. Tags will be sent out via email when payment for them has cleared. A sample of the tag is below. Thanks for helping those who need it!

New Alpha, 'Independent'

Greetings, travelers, and welcome to the blog! Today, I am sharing an alpha that I had intended to go with a Independence Day scrap, but other obligations came between me and that plan, and all I was able to complete was the alpha I had envisioned for the scrap. And, as is usual for me, I am weeks behind the holiday! So, at any rate, previews of the alpha and the MBT are below, as is the link for the zip file at 4shared. If you share the alpha, please be sure to include the URL for the blog so that others can stop by to see what I have to offer. Cheers!

      

'Independent' Zip File

New Alpha 'X Marks the Spot'

Greetings, travelers! I have another new font to share with you today. It's called 'X Marks the Spot. When I was thinking of making it, I wanted to use the 'Pieces of Eight font by Steve Ferrera that was used for 'Pirates of the Caribbean; however, the font has no lower case, and I try to avoid those as much as possible. Of course, there are times when I fall madly in love with a lower caseless font and must use it regardless. *laughs*

So, I found a font called 'Freebooter' by Graham Moore at Gem Fonts. It's not quite as piratey as 'Pieces', but it works with the alpha nonetheless.

The usual blah, blah, blah with my TOS applies, but feel free to use the alpha any way you would like within those restrictions. As always, a link back to this blog is appreciated, as is a mention of it when you share the alpha in groups.

'Nuff said! The previews and 4shared link to the zip file for the alpha are below. Enjoy!

   

X Marks the Spot zip file

Two New Alphas!

Well, dear friends, since the last time I posted, I have had the wonderful experience of being admitted to the hospital for an emergency gallbladder removal… what a marvelous way to spend a holiday weekend! LOL!

Needless to say, for the past couple of weeks, working on my alphas was not at the top of my priorities list. However, as I began to mend from the surgery, and started feeling better, I was able to complete two alphas, and I have them available for you here.

The first of the two is called ‘Glitterama’. It is my first foray into simple animation. I hope to learn more advanced uses in the future, but for now, I hope this alpha will please some of you. The font I used for the alpha is ‘Dusty Rose’ by Nick Curtis of Nick’s Fonts. Previews of the alpha and the link to the zip at 4shared are below.

Blue Nile Graphic Designs Alpha ‘Glitterama’

The second alpha I have for you is called ‘Pixel Rose’. I have long wanted to learn to do pixel art, so I decided that I would start with a simple project, the little rose that I used to make the fill for this alpha. It took me around an hour and most of my already bad eyesight to do it, but I felt the results were worthwhile. The font for this one is MiltonBurlesque, another Nick Curtis font.

Blue Nile Graphic Designs Alpha ‘Pixel Rose’

I hope that some of my visitors will find one or both of these alphas worth having. Enjoy!

Namaste!

Easter Is Lingering

Yes, here it is, the day after Easter, and naturally, I have something else to offer. The Easter bunny just happened to leave me a batch of eggs that I thought I would share with all of my visitors. Several of them are in the usual pastels we are all familiar with, but then, there are several in bright jewel tones that we are not so used to seeing in Easter eggs. There is also a plain white egg, for those who like to decorate their eggs with plaids and polka dots, tartans and florals. You are limited only by your imagination, so let your inner bunny run wild and enjoy!

The file is in png format with a number of different layers; to use, just click on the layer you want, and copy and paste as a new image in your graphics program, and you're off!

The preview and the 4share file are below. Hope your Easter was a 'Hoppy' one!

Easter Egg PNG

New Easter Alpha Chocolate Easter Egg Bunny

Pre-Easter greetings, visitor! I am happy to say that for once, I have finally managed to get a holiday project done before the holiday itself! *laughs* I am delighted to present you with my Easter alpha, Chocolate Easter Egg Bunny. I got the idea for the little chocolate bunny/egg, or egg/bunny, as the case may be, from a newsletter that I got in an email. I thought, 'Well, that's really cute! Maybe I can do something similar..." And thus, was the egg shaped bunny born! I am particularly fond of it, so I will likely will be doing a scrap based on it as well, though the chances of that getting done before Easter are slim to none!

At any rate, for those who are interested, the preview and the 4shared link for the alpha are below. Please be so kind as to abide by my TOS and provide a link back here to the blog if you use it for an Easter page, for a sig tag or something similar or if you chose to share in an alpha collection group. Happy Easter!

Chocolate Easter Egg Bunny Zip

It's Time to Read!

One of my greatest passions is reading. I started reading well fairly early as I remember... by nine, I was reading 'adult' novels, such as 'Hound of the Baskervilles' by Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and many other other such classics. At fifteen, I took on a daunting task for someone of that age by reading Margaret Mitchell's masterpiece, 'Gone with the Wind'. It took me a week to finish at that time; nowadays, I can do it in three.

Yes, I am a rapid, or should I say a rabid reader! I dont just read books, I devour them. I am so devoted to reading that if I don't have anything else at hand, I have been known to read phone books to get my fix! I freely admit that I am a word junkie and I firmly believe that there is no such thing as too many books.

Imagine my great delight in finding the free Kindle app for the PC on Amazon.com, and the massive number of books one could acquire for it for free. I think I lost consciousness for about a month while I snagged all the free books I could get my hands on! My Kindle reader now has 1,281 books on it, and there are 1,592 books on my Kindle book wish list there. Believe me, I am overjoyed!

Sometimes, however, I have the need to have an old fashioned hardcover or paperback book in my hands, and Goodreads is a favorite of mine. Not only can I share all the books I have read with others, make lists of books that I am currently reading, or want to read in the future, but the site features numerous book giveaways which I am always eager to take advantage of. I have won several books for them, some even autographed by the authors. This is totally AWESOME!

If any of my visitors are readers of any speed, and have not discovered Goodreads yet, I encourage you to go by the site and check it out. I am sure that you will find it as exciting as I do.

Check it out at Goodreads!

Nifty 50's Diner Scrap

Finally! At long last, after many delays, I have finished the first of the Sweet Shop Collection scraps, Nifty 50's Diner! So many things kept coming between me and getting it done, but I finally did it!

The kit contains the two alphas, Burger Joint and Nifty 50's Diner, six papers -- three each of 1200 x 1200 and three of 3600 x 3600, and 15 elements, all hand drawn by me with my little mouse!

At any rate, feel free to use if for a scrap page, or sig tags, or whatever. I have no objection to the elements being resized in order to fit into whatever format you may choose, including using any of the elements for creating alphas of your own. But please, no ripping the kit apart for any other purpose, claiming my work as your own, or any of that other TOU type stuff. And I would appreciate it if you would leave the colors as I have done them... they were chosen specifically for for the theme, and their association with the actual diners of the fifties. I remember them well, as my great aunt owned one called the 67 Grill (because it was located at the intersection of two state highways in my hometown, one of which was Highway 67.); my grandmother was the short order cook there, and my mom was a waitress, so my sister Peggy and I spent a lot of time there. The Grill was decorated in those selfsame colors, and I find them very nostalgic.

Whatever you use the kit for, I would really appreciate a link back to this blog. Word of mouth is what brings other visitors here to see what I have to offer.

Next up on the menu is the Daily Scoop Ice Cream Parlor. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to get this one done as I already have some of the elements I need to finish it. Okay... so the preview and the link to the zip at 4shared are below. I hope you will enjoy the kit, so happy scrapping!

Get the zip here