Morrighans Designs

Rumors of my demise have been grossly exaggerated.

2010-10-23T12:30:00.005-04:00

Yep, it's been a while. The reasons for that are ten fold. I also don't do much designing anymore. Again, the reasons for that are vast and myriad.

After my beloved arrived in the states we had to spend a lot of time trying to make up for lost time. We still haven't managed to do that but we certainly have fun trying! 4 days shy of him being here 2 years, we went to our final INS meeting and walked out of it with him having his Permanent Resident status!!! Talk about tears of joy! Though it wasn't the most joyful moment we'd had, it was very close though.

On September 9th, 2009 our family grew by one. Meet our little Lily. Sadly I've had NO time to get much scrapping done with any of her more current pictures :(

So when I'm not wrapped up in family things there's pretty much only one other thing I do on a regular basis...I bellydance!

I took it up in March and fell instantly in love. It has consumed most of my free time since then. In Sept. my troupe had it's first hafla which was AMAZING! I then spent an entire weekend immersed in TribOriginal. Which is an amazing Bellydance camp weekend hosted by Onca O'Leary, who truly IS the hardest working woman in show business!

In the VERY near future, we have another hafla coming up with a sister troupe on Nov. 6th. We're also performing in the local holiday parade. Both events have us all SUPER stoked. Then it's on to the next adventure. I'm helping Onca with the planning, promotion and Sunday Brunch for The Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, ABSFest for short. Finally, in May the troupe I'm part of will be putting on a Larger scale production.

Not only do I have all of this going on, but I'm in the thick of planning a Gothic/Horror/Halloween wedding for a dear friend of mine via my event planning business, Nocturnal Nuptials. Next October is going to be absolute madness for me. We'll all be going to TribOriginal, then Belly Horror up in the VA/D.C area, finally on Oct 25th my friends tie the knot! I can only imagine what's going to come up between now and then.

Hopefully by May I'll be back in school getting my degree in massage therapy. Never a dull moment around here. PLUS if my dance instructor can get enough interest she'll be hosting her instructor in a weekend doula training workshop, which I'm DYING to do.

So to say I'm busy is the understatement of the century, I'm afraid!

I do hope that everyone is well and Happy.

Bright Blessings,
Morgana
The Deranged Dolly

CU Freebie, New CU and Webdesign

2008-10-07T13:49:00.003-04:00

We've added a new set of grungy commercial use overlays to the shop. I LOVE these overlays. You can find them in our shop at Magickal Scraps

I've done a fabric overlay freebie that's fine for commercial use. The terms are in the zip file.

You can download the overlay here

And because times are tough, for the month of October we've lowered the pricing on our zencart installation service. Through October 31st we'll install zencart and customize it using your graphics for $120!!!! That's a steal considering it's a $200 service normally. Times are tough for all of us and this is our way of helping the scrappers community out :)

Win Noir Halloween + another new embellishment set!

2008-10-04T18:55:00.003-04:00

Man there is just so much that we need to do and only so many hours in a day! Just when I think I might get caught up I find other things that slipped my mind to do LOL.

Morien has actually put together a small pack of tubes and placed them over at Magickal Scraps. This is a rare treat as he tends to be helping me to render up the things I need for kits. He has a Quad core so it takes him much, much less time to render those things up. However, last night he took advantage of my working on other things. We all have pics of our kids, in their innocence, holding animals in a not so proper way.

Best Friends is perfect for those pictures. On sale right now for $1.88.

Next up, in celebration of the opening of Magickal Scraps I have decided to give away a copy of Noir Halloween. All you have to do is go to this link at DigishopTalk and say hi. I'll choose a winner tomorrow afternoon at 5 pm EST.

Oh! And the lovely Miss Edna has created an adorable Quickpage using my Browniecap embellishments. You can swing by her blog here and pick it up.

I know there's more I need to blog about but I can't think what it is, so I'll blog about that when I remember ;)

New Freebie, layout + Site CT Call

2008-10-02T21:10:00.005-04:00

Things are finally starting to settle down a bit so I was able to do a layout and a freebie for you guys! First up, the layout. This is for the BoS Challenge I'm running at Magickal Scraps. I thought it turned out quite well. The Witchy is from the Noir Halloween kit, available at Magickal Scraps and Scraphead.

Next up, I've done a set of Gumdrop Pirate tubes for you all. 6 tubes plus one of his Pirate ship, the HMS Jawbreaker! These are the exact same quality as the tubes that are available in the Noir Halloween kit. No jaggies, no blurries, just nice, clear tubes for your use.

You can pick them up here

Last but not least, there is a site CT call at Magickal Scraps.

Please if you download my freebies, take the time to say two simple words. It would mean a lot to me because at this point I'm not sure what to think as I only got 1 thank you for the last freebie.

Alright, I'm off to work on some other things.

Blessings,
Morgana

All is finally revealed!

2008-10-01T09:26:00.005-04:00

So are you curious what Snowraven and I have been up to? Well here it is!

Magickal Scraps a partnership between myself, Snowraven and Carol Burns. A scrap shop that's a little bit different, a little bit quirky and a whole lot of fun! If you're looking for the unusual you'll find it there! My Noir Halloween kit is now live too. You can find it by going to this link. For the first week everything is 25% off. New stuff is bound to appear in that time as well!

Whole you're there, swing by the forum too. We have lots of fun challenges, a Daily download and good company! And check out the site CT call, we're in need of the daring to scrap our designs! Oh did I forget to mention there will be some "adult" content soon. Well as soon as we can breathe a bit. I was up until almost midnight making sure things were all set up right after starting work at 7:30 yesterday morning! In the end though I'm so proud of what we have achieved!

Hope to see you there!

Morgana

Nearly there! And a freebie

2008-09-30T11:31:00.003-04:00

Ok the last couple of weeks have been just madness! I can't reveal why just yet mind you but soon (like less than 24 hours) My new halloween kit is nearly done then it'll be a mad dash to get it all previewed in time. I took some time last night and made the banner you see above. Yes, that's parts of my Halloween kit. I went overboard, again. Not that anyone's surprised I'm sure.

I also took some time this morning to do this little Spooky Hanger/Swag. No commercial use on this one, sorry guys.

You can grab it here

Enjoy and come back tomorrow for the huge announcement!!

Morgana

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Now playing: 01 Slit My Wrist
via FoxyTunes

I'm officially a designer and a coupon!

2008-09-17T17:36:00.005-04:00

Yes it's official, I'm now a scraphead! At the moment My GirlNation/Diva Nation tubes are up and the Wizard of Oz sets are there. And to celebrate, there's a coupon. Buy 3 of the packs and get the 4th free! Coupon is good today through September 30th! The coupon code is WWTinman You can peek at them here at my scraphead store

Raven has also got kits to coordinate with these so be sure to check those out too!

Lots more is coming too! Morien and I have so many ideas that we gotta get together on LOL.

I've also got other tasks to finish up. Keep an eye on this space ;)

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Now playing: Disturbed - Stupify
via FoxyTunes

A Day of Rememberence 7 years on

2008-09-11T09:27:00.002-04:00

I remember clearly what I was doing at this moment 7 years ago. Watching horror unfold on my television. It wasn't a movie though as much as we all wished it was. All of our lives were changing, whether you were in the states of 5000 miles away. I won't go into what *I* went through because thousands of families went through, and are still going through, much more. I had a job to do then and I did it with pride. Goddess (or God) puts no more on us than we can bear. I sit here this morning, the man I love by my side and I can't help but blink away tears at those memories. Two mighty giants came crashing down and our world will never be the same.

Part of my time was spent helping others cope. As a Priestess it was part of my duty as one of the Goddess' own. Below is just one of the many pieces I used to help others and myself get through.

Where were the Gods

First of all, Odin was trying to discourage anyone from taking this flight. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard.

Tyr was on 4 commerical flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who was called by a loved one on one of the hijacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights he was giving strength to passengers to try to overpower the hijackers.

Loki was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all, only 20,000 were at the Towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings hold over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employeed at the WTC told the media they were late for work or they had traffic delays?

Thor was holding holding up the two 110-story buildings so that the 2/3 of the workers who were there could get out.

The Gods were busy......

I'll never forget I don't think any of us can.

Love and Light,
Morgana & Morien

It's Madness! And a little freebie ;)

2008-09-06T12:02:00.002-04:00

Why is it, when you need the net to behave it never does? Our connection's been flaky for weeks now and even the tech they sent out couldn't figure it out. I think I may have sorted out what the issue is, but until I go out I can't get the one thing needed for repair. So I gotta deal with flakiness until then.

What this means is that while my project with Raven is going well, it's up and down on my end right now to get things done. That's OK though, while I'm fighting the net and unable to work on that project I'm stock piling! Clues to what we're up to can be found on her blog ;)

It's getting close to Spooks night and as many of you know that night to me is something much deeper. That doesn't mean that I'm gonna let go of the silly side of things. I have some mind-blowing scrap stuff in store for ALL of you. All I can say is that I'm VERY proud of how it's all turning out!

Before I sign off, I have a small freebie for you. Some cowgirl stickers for you layouts. These are just too adorable I think. Enjoy them!!

You can download them here

CT Call, Free QP & Burtonesque Love sampler

2008-08-29T13:42:00.006-04:00

Afternoon everyone! It's already been a crazy day here and about to get crazier! That's OK I don't mind crazy ;)

I've got a lot to cover in this post first up, the CT call is open. I already have one of my members (Edna, your email is coming, it's been insane here thus far) I'm looking for at least 3 more people for my CT. You can find the details below. So that I don't miss any of the emails, I'm asking that you send your layouts to an alternate addy Morganawynter (at) gmail (dot) com with CT call in the subject line. You can use any of my freebies here on the blog including the Burtonesque Love Sampler. If you find links down let me know in the shoutbox! You must use my designs, the only exception is if you choose to use my Halloweenies or Patches you can use Raven's coordinating packs with them.

Next up, The sampler. I have to say this kit is my pride and joy. I absolutely LOVE it! Raven has done a layout with it already and I think it turned out fantastic!

You can grab the sampler by downloading it from here

And last but certainly not least is a quick page that Raven did using the Burtonesque love kit.

Isn't it awesome? To download it you can pick it up here

Alright, that's it from me for now, I have work to do!!

Blessings,
Morgana

An insane couple of days + layout

2008-08-28T13:53:00.003-04:00

Times they are a-changin ;) Raven and I have been in discussions about a few things since yesterday and yes big things are coming! Now she and I both are teases :P Keep an eye on this space as I'm gonna be putting out a CT call soon.

The weather has been horrible here. Fay dumped 5.5+ inches on us so it's a nasty, muddy mess outside. We needed the rain but geez this was a deluge! Thankfully we sit on a hill but I know all too well that hills and mountains slide out. So it was a bit tense during it all. Now we have to watch Gustav to see if he's gonna dump rain on us too. From one extreme to the other.

I was playing earlier and did just a simple layout with my "chambermaid" piece and Snowraven's Dark Passion Play kit.

Now I have to get down to some serious work to get things pulled together here. Back later with more!

Blessings,
Morgana

New Life direction and news on my tubes and such

2008-08-24T13:04:00.002-04:00

It was an absolutely crazy week for us. But there's good news on the horizon for me. Well both of us really. We've discussed me going back to school, I just feel something's missing. On Wednesday I finally landed on what I want to do with my life. I opened the paper to look at the want ads and the first one my eyes landed on was for a teacher's assistant at a Child Development Center. For children 6 weeks - 5 years old. I went Thursday and put in an application then returned Friday for an interview. It's not a done deal but I have a really good feeling about this. So I'm preparing myself to return to school in the spring for Early Childhood Education. Everyone keep your fingers crossed. I'd really like to return to doing my artwork for me and not a paycheck.

I'd also like to thank those of you who've let me know you do appreciate my freebies to the community. For now, I'm not going to licensing. What may happen, is I may go to some of the shoppes and see if they'd want to sell my girls/guys as clipart for tags and such. Right now I'm not too concerned about it LOL.

Snowraven has done a couple of layouts using my girls. You can check em out on her blog here. She and I are also talking about doing some more things together. I have some things I've been dying to do but I just have no time to do a full kit. And Raven, a fetish kit? We're both SO there ;)

I'm still trying to recover from the nastiest migraine in history, once I do there'll be more from me.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Morgana

Another Freebie + a blog award

2008-08-18T12:21:00.007-04:00

I dunno what's gotten into the me last few days but I'm on a creating streak. I guess my muse has had her weekly allotment of Absinthe ;) I was watching Morien finish his Blood Countess piece yesterday (go to his blog and have a peek, it's awesome, though there is nudity) and when I opened up Poser, the green faerie demanded I let her out. So while I did a completed artwork with her, I'm also giving her to you as a tube. I've obviously done some postwork on her to add a green tint but she turned out well in the original form too.

The Green Faerie - Madness Awaits

Don't distribute the tube, send your friends here to get it, please. Also, don't take the artwork, tube the fae and use it for anything. I'm giving you the unaltered version for a reason ;) I do need you ladies to let me know if these are useful to you. If not I'll begin tucking the pieces away for licensing in the future. Sadly, I can't take requests, my muse would go on strike...again. Last time she ended up in New Orleans smelling a hell of a lot like Absinthe :P

You can download the tube here

Also, because I'm in a haze most of the time (who wouldn't be after their soulmate arriving after such a long wait?) A HUGE thank you to Raven for the award. Sadly, I don't visit any blogs but hers regularly but I will revisit this in a few weeks to give out my 7 :)

School starts back here tomorrow so it's gonna be madness for a few days. Come to think of it...maybe that was the underlying meaning to the piece above LOL.

Back later with more :)

Morgana

Sunday Freebie + a Layout

2008-08-17T13:58:00.009-04:00

It's a rather lazy Sunday here. I'm watching my Beloved postwork an image that he's been fighting to get composed and rendered for weeks now. I absolutely LOVE watching him work.

You may have noticed I've turned on the "adult" filter. Apparently a CG model in panties is offensive or somethin. Please don't go to the beach then, they wear less :P As a fantasy artist who's now delved into the realm of fetish it's just best for me to turn that filter on. Since I fully intend to post the fetish pieces here that I simply love. Plus some are offended by cursing and due to the music I listen to, there's lots of that ;)

I decided today to use Lucretia (last nights freebie) in a page for Morien. The elements are a mixture of My Samhain kit and my goth love kit. The Alpha is one that was drawn for me, by the sister of my heart, Bethany Lerie, specifically for the kit.

The Lyrics read:

Black on Black we merge together, your eyes burn into me
And everything you've ever wanted, is all I want to be
You're here with me, My Desire.
And I'll wait for you, I'll wait to hear your call
and I'll come back for you, just wait until Nightfall
And we'll go far from here, far from the opressive light
and we'll go far from here and fade, into night.
Rise angel, your wings have turned to black. Never again
can you leave, never again can you go back. You're here with me
My Desire.
And no fucking mortal lover will take you from my waiting arms
free from pain, free from sin, free from harm.
I'll stop the hands of time and hold them out to you.
There is nothing I won't do...For You.

These are from my all time favorite Immaculate Black song. Thanks to Bethany I have a copy of the CD which you can't find ANYWHERE now. Trust me I looked for 3 years :P

I've also got a couple of adorable artworks for sale at My Etsy shoppe. I'll have 4x6 and 5x7 prints in soon. First up is Diva Nation.

And next is Girl Nation.

Cute huh? These are my finished artworks, do not take them and use them for anything please. I'm in the process of finding someone to license my images for tag use. So grab any free tubes I do while you can.

And now for a quick freebie. Cartography is one of my vast hobbies so I thought I'd do a few cards for altered art cards and such.

You can grab them here

I'm off to work. Enjoy the rest of your sunday!

Morgana

Freebie, Re-upped links and more

2008-08-16T22:50:00.003-04:00

It's been a LONG few months. We're still waiting on the INS to get their ass in gear. I figure at this rate they'll do so about Yule! We're so swamped with work at this point though that even finding time to breathe is difficult. Not that it's a bad thing mind you ;)

If you're looking for the Samhain kit links, I have reupped the papers. You can find them here, here, and here. At the end of this post will be a brand new freebie. Which I'm hoping a few of you will like ;)

If you scroll down the page to my playlist you'll find I've updated it with a ton of Emilie Autumn tracks. If you haven't yet heard Emilie then scroll down now and give her a listen. Listening now? Good! Emilie has become my new favorite musician. If the name sounds familiar, she was the electric violinist for Courtney Love. Now she's out on her own and I think she's awesome, taking the Indie world by storm!

When we discovered her back in February (myself and 2 of my dear friends) we went on a search for ANYTHING we could find about her. What we found has led us to an addiction like no other. Yes, I'm about to get all girly. Emilie spoke of the only cosmetics she'll use on her face. A small company called Aromaleigh which is a mineral makeup company. I haunted the forums, read all the reviews and then took the plunge. What I found was nothing short of a miracle.

From the time I was 13 I've suffered from acne. Nothing horrible but enough to make me not go out of the house without makeup. I've been using AL for 6 months and guess what? My acne is all but gone! If I have to run out of the house at a moments notice I don't feel like crawling under a rock. This has become such an addiction I'm up to 50 full size shadows and a binder with baseball card protector sheets for samples that numbers over 200 shadows! If you can think of a color it's 99% certain there's a shadow in that exact shade.

The foundation and finishing powders rival, and many times are better than, the big names. I Love that there's no bismuth in the foundations, which is often times what causes breakouts and allergic reactions. I can finally get rid of the tiny bit of redness I have without spending a fortune! She's beginning International shipping once the site's programmed for it too :)

Add to all this that I've lost 50,yes FIFTY, pounds since February and it's like a huge transformation has taken place. A few weeks back, Morien looked at me as I was bending over and said "My baby's shrinking!" Well I'm all of 5'3.25" and I thought he meant height-wise LOL. The beauty of it, is I'm not actively trying, so make of that what you will ;)

Morien and I are doing really well. He's taken his studies back up again which I'm thrilled about. As I type he's in there reading a book of Astral Projection, waiting for me to come join him. We've also begun doing the Book of Shadows that I've always wanted to. Which is ultimately what brought me back to scrappin'. I've spent a couple of days looking through freebies and while I'm impressed I'm also disheartened. As an artist some things just irk me, but I'm not gonna rant...yet :P

OK so I can get to bed before dawn, here's a freebie for all of you. Just a tube of one of my girls.

Don't pass this tube around to groups. Send your friends here to get it. No claiming as your own. You may use it for tags and layouts. Though it's rather small for scrappers to use. If you need a larger size for scrapping just let me know :)

You can pick it up here. It's ONLY the girl, the elements are from my Goth Love Kit available in my Etsy shoppe.

And with that I'm off to bed. Good Night!

I'm back!!

2008-08-16T17:38:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know I disappeared again. I'll be back tonight with somethin for you guys (as well as the Samhain kit reupped). We're headed out to dinner so look for more soon ;)

Raven, I JUST saw your message, I'll address that when I get back too. In the meantime, thank you sweetie!

Hugs,
Morgana

Still Alive!

2008-05-13T17:00:00.004-04:00

The last 3 months have been just CRAZY!! The first 6 weeks after Morien arrived he was sick. Motion sickness, travel sickness, bronchitis, flu, travel sickness again and then an allergic reaction. I finally got him better and the last 6 weeks have been wonderful!

4 weeks ago we got a new puppy. My best girlfriend bought us a Pomeranian for our wedding present, who is proudly named Arcas (little bear) and he definitely looks like one!

Isn't he just the cutest? ;)

And yes, on the 29th of April we went and got married and now we're in the midst of the INS paperwork. Talk about a nightmare! But he's here with me and that's what matters.

We're also in the process of putting together a paranormal investigation group! If anyone's in the Western NC area and is interested in joining the team drop me a line! We've got 3 investigations lined up already which we'll be starting on next week.

Deb, if you would email me with a link to that kit morrighanwynter (at) gmail.com

I hope everyone's doing well!!

Morgana

Wynterworks is live!

2008-03-17T16:36:00.003-04:00

Wynterworks is now live! More will be added over the next few days. First up is the Wizard of Oz characters. If you intend to buy all 4 packs, wait just a bit as we're going to do a bundle on them which will be a bit cheaper. These do have limited commercial licenses attached to them. So for $5 each they're an absolute steal! Some freebies will be coming in a day or so as well :)

You can find them at Wynterworks

Morgana & Morien

Wynterworks blog store coming soon!

2008-03-10T21:03:00.003-04:00

Well a bit over a month has passed and finally we're to the point we can work. I got the Burtonesque Love kit upped last night finally. Now we're working on some 2d clipart which is gonna take the night to get prepared for upload.

I got a lot of requests to do the Wizard of Oz. I've taken it one step further. Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow at this point. I've also done Alice and Jill. Toto and a few others will be put together as of tomorrow. These are huge tubes (without his PC I might have the cowardly lion and the tinman done LOL) and with limited commercial licenses. Which will be posted on the other blog. Freebies are coming too :)

If you want to go ahead and bookmark the store: Wynterworks I'll post here when all is ready to go!

Morgana & Morien

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Listening to: 01 Gingerbread Coffin
via FoxyTunes

Burtonesque Love Preview

2008-02-15T20:05:00.004-05:00

There is so much in this kit, the preview doesn't come close to showing all the work that has gone into it. However, trying to get everything in there was going to be a chore in and of itself.

There are 18 papers, 2 Alphas one all caps and one caps and lowercase, 3 photo corners, 10 doodles, 48 various embellishments including corset stitching, brads, bows, paperclips, a bunch of different vector hearts, 5 or 6 different sets of wings 2 of them being winged hearts, fabric overlays, a cute drawing overlay, 9 frames + 1 photomat, 3 journal blocks, and 30 tags in various sizes.

I didn't do a ton of colors of bows, brads and things like that. You can recolor them using hue/saturation in your paint programs. This has been a true learning experience even for me being a CG artist.

As of now, this is going to go up on my blog. Paypal will be set up hopefully tomorrow. Lots going on with us and sitting at the pc at times is rather difficult. Yes, I know this kit is late but I have been dealing with much the last several weeks.

I'm including a preview and tomorrow after we get back from picking up more memory we'll be setting this live :)

This kit comes in at a whopping 247mb. I didn't know when to stop! And yes some things didn't make it in but I'll get to them.

It's about time!! ;)

2008-02-12T15:27:00.000-05:00

Did you think I dropped off the face of the planet again? Nope I'm actually on some other planet! ;) Morien arrived home on Thursday and between trying to get him settled and just being so happy over everything, the pc was the last place I wanted to be for a while!

This is definitely a memory that needs to be written down and saved forever. I will never be able to get the first vision of him out of my mind. And his smile! I absolutely love his smile. We're all doing well and trying to catch up on 7 and 1/2 years, I don't think we ever will but that's OK!

We've just spent the day working together and that was really an awesome feeling. Though I'd rather of focused on him than work ;) Hopefully in a few more days he'll be settled completely in and we'll have the voltage converter's so we can take pictures! I can't wait to scrap the first one for our scrapbook.

We have finished the Goth Love kit and I'll be posting a preview of it in a little while. I wasn't thinking and closed out my programs before doing that. My mind seems to be gone, I haven't a clue why :P

I hope everyone is well and that you're all having a good week!

Blessings,
Morgana & Morien

My week + Gothic Love Wordart Freebie

2008-01-26T11:06:00.000-05:00

What an insane week!! Mercury goes Retrograde on Monday and man am I feeling it!! For those that don't know, Mercury in retrograde tends to mess with EVERYTHING electronic. Several years back it took out 4 PC parts in one fell swoop so yes, I always dread it. Earlier in the week I went to boot up my pc and I had a corrupt services.exe. Lucky me huh? After 4 hours and a complete scan disk the 3rd time it righted itself. An hour later, my monitor went on the blink. It's dying a slow death LOL. It's a 10 year old CRT and it's time for a new one, but geez gimme a bit of breathing room here!

The week was filled with good things too though ;) I got a late Yule pressie from one of my witchy sisters! She'd introduced me a few years back to Immaculate Black. Sadly, it had been quite some time since they'd broken up and finding CDs was impossible to say the least. I had mentioned wanting to hear more than the 4 tracks that I had. I was expecting her to get permission from Michael to send me the other mp3s. She did me one better! She got a CD from Michael and sent it to me!! Along with homemade candies and cookies. I'm absolutely over the moon about it. I can't seem to take it off repeat! He's got such a distinct voice and the lyrics are just incredible. Some of which will make their way to wordart for this kit I'm doing!

Speaking of the kit, I've done 2 more frames, an overlay and some journal blocks in the same style as the frame. Lots more is coming too!! I'm hoping to have it finished by Wednesday. The original goal was by tomorrow, but with the monitor on the blink I have to be careful! I'll probably spend today embellishing the alpha with wicked cool gothic hearts and bows. There was another idea I had for it, but I just don't think it's gonna happen, but we'll see ;)

My son has his first formal high school dance tonight and I dunno who's more excited. His girlfriend is borrowing one of my black dresses, my favorite one I might add ;) Plus I get to do her hair and makeup! I should've been a make-up artist LOL.

Anyway, I sat down this morning and did a couple of freebie wordarts. The heart I did a couple of days ago and didn't get it upped thanks to my pc issues. I hope you enjoy them :) I just checked downloads on the Samhain Kit and was shocked to see 624 downloads! For a Niche Kit, I'm really pleased with that!!! :)

You can download them here: Gothic Love Wordart

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!!

Morgana

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Listening to: Immaculate Black - Desire
via FoxyTunes

Truth & Nonsense + preview of my new kit!

2008-01-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

I ran across a forum post today that really shocked me. It shouldn't have because I know the kind of closed minded views that are out there, but it did.

One of the drawbacks of having a mind like I do, you want to educate everyone. I've spent almost 17 years on the path I'm on. I researched a lot of other "religions" out there. I was raised Southern Baptist (yes I hear the groans) and by the time I was 12 I was questioning already. My grandmother practiced what I now know was granny magick. Sadly, she passed on 2 years before I began my studies on Paganism. She was a proud, strong woman and I miss her terribly.

Back to the task at hand.

I won't quote the forum post and I won't even say where it is. But there are a lot of falsehoods being bandied about all over the net. Let's get this first one out of the way as it has little to do with the rest of the message. "The swastika is an old celtic symbol." No, just no. The Swastika was a Hindu symbol for good luck. It was at one point, prior to Nazi Germany, a symbol of the Finnish Air Force (thanks to Morien for that bit of information as I had no clue on that). Throughout history, prior to the adoption of it by the Nazi's, it had always been a good luck charm.

The rest of this has to do with celtic knots and the like. "They're mostly just decorative Christian Crosses." No, they aren't. The Celts were around a long time before Christianity. Original or early Celtic knotwork was all about the intricacies of life. Pre-Kell's knotwork is pretty much non-existent.

"Or symbols of the trinity." Not of any Christian trinity, originally. Maiden, mother and crone certainly. Later these were...adopted by Christianity. For lack of a better way to put it.

"They have associations with satanism and druidry and are very Un-Christian." First Satanism doesn't even come into play here. Satanism, in and of itself, is a Christian religion. Pagan's don't believe in the Christian devil. Druidry is a Pagan religion, so of course it's Un-Christian. But please don't put Satanists and Druids in the same category. They aren't even arms of the same spirituality. Just because something isn't Christian doesn't make it bad, evil, dirty or wrong.

My favorite one. "There's even a celtic symbol that's a stylized 666 for the number of the beast." Come again? How can a religion that had and still has no devil and predates Christianity have a symbol that means the number of the beast? Really folks have you done no research of your own? The closest thing we have is Pan and he's not evil by any means. Pan was, in fact, the likeness that was taken and turned into the Christian Devil. He's a God of hunting, shepherds and flocks. Hardly sounds evil to me.

Anyone can tell you that there is power in symbols. But a symbol in and of itself, just for being a symbol has no power. You as a person must make it so. I have a half dozen crosses I've purchased from places like Alchemy Gothic (AG is like my Gucci I swear). But they are just pretty to me. So to those of you that wish to use Celtic knots in your layouts, DO!

Everyone has a right to the spirituality that is right for them. But just because someone uses a symbol or doesn't use a symbol doesn't mean it carries the same meaning to them as it does to me. And that's OK. Educating people to what something might mean is OK too. But please make sure you have your facts straight. And if they choose to use it anyway, don't jump to conclusions as to why. There's enough intolerance in the world, we really don't need more!

My thoughts are this. All paths lead to the divine. Even if that path is to believe only in ones self.

And now, for something completely different!!

I've been working hard on many things. What you see in this promo isn't even CLOSE to what's gonna be in this kit. But it is a start. Everything in this particular image is included and so much more! I have to get it finished up though!!

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a fabulous Monday!! Or Tuesday depending on where you are in the world. Things are good here. Except for the fall I took Saturday on some icy steps. It looks like my shin got in a fight with a cheese grater...and the cheese grater won :P I'll learn to wear my boots one of these days LOL.

Blessings,
Morgana

Thank you and another layout - Pisces

2008-01-14T18:11:00.000-05:00

First, my heart felt thanks to those who went a long way to making me feel better! And the important thing, I DO feel better! I deal with the prejudices every day when I walk out my door and I'm usually really tough skinned in regards to this. Couple that with my passion though and it affects me quite negatively. But you ladies...you proved to me there are people out there that DO get it. We're on this big dirt ball together and in order to live peaceful lives we must accept everyone for who and what they are. I'm just sorry for some of you that your first glimpse of me was in a rant fueled by emotion. Out of all the comments, only one was negative, and it made me giggle just now ;) So, FlorenceF, thank you for proving my point better than I EVER could!

So after reading those comments, after much soul searching and speaking with Morien; Morgana is here to stay. Oh and she's gonna pursue that which she wants to do. If I didn't, my patron Goddess might give me a good smack or two! ;) Ah the trials and tribulations of having a War Goddess as ones patron.

In all this I was able to sit down and do the first page of a series I want to do. The Zodiac. First up, Pisces. So many pieces went into this, let me see if I can remember them all (Hey I never said I was organized!!)

Paper and book - Alchemy Page Kit - Irene V. Alexeeva at DSP
Vintage Astrology Element pack 1 - Marcee Duggar at DSP
Romancetters embellishment pack - Irene V. Alexeeva at DSP
Assemble Your Own: Button Babies - Brandy Murry at Scrapgirls
My Precious One - Clohie Watkins
Flourish Overlay - Midnight Magic - Kerri Erickson at DSP
Pisces fishies - Fluffy Zodiac - -dp-
Circle embellishment - Samhain Megakit - Myself

Now to go and get some work done! Have a wonderful Monday evening everyone!!

Blessings,
Morgana

A rant and a freebie

2008-01-13T19:31:00.000-05:00

Since it seems I have no readers left due to life getting in the way, I'm gonna use my blog to vent. So if you don't wanna read it, skip down to the freebie :)

Morgana, as a rule, doesn't stick her neck out. It tends to get chopped off rather swiftly. You'd think I would learn my lesson, right? Wrong! I never do and I end up feeling as I do right now.

I've been doing commission work as most of you know. It ends up that I have to work 12-18 hour days. 18 hour days are stressful, they make me cranky! So I'm thinking to myself "Ok maybe, just maybe I should look at other options so that I can cut down on my workload." (Ok that's not the only reason but it is one of them.) So I start looking around and I think to myself "Maybe I could supplement things by turning some of my other hobbies into a side gig." THAT is where the problem comes in.

I don't hide who and what I am. I'm PROUD of who I am. What I am not proud of is the way people perceive people like me to be. If you don't like me, FINE! But base that dislike on who I am as a person, not what I believe in. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." The very core of my beliefs are simple. Respect. Some people, if they took the time to get to know me, would find that I am no different than them. The only difference is I worship a God AND a Goddess. I honor the earth, the elements. I don't judge people and I don't preach. My faith is mine and mine alone. The prejudices are rather sickening to me.

So rather than have my neck chopped off again, I'll just continue things as they are. It begs the question though, am I the only one that's looking for darker elements to scrap with? Am I the only one that sees beauty in darkness? There can not be light without dark and anyone that thinks otherwise is living in a big world of delusion. Dark doesn't mean evil anymore than light means good.

On to the freebie. I have some CDs of vintage imagery I've purchased that will most likely see nothing done with them. So I thought I'd use some of the Childrens images and do some cards. Enjoy!

Grab em here: Vintage Children Cards

Sorry for the rant, but sometimes you just have to get it out. I don't feel any better, but that's OK!

Blessings,
Morgana

I'm back!! + a layout

2008-01-11T18:02:00.001-05:00

First things first, I'm fine! :) Well except for the flu that's been making me miserable for the last 2 weeks! Just life caught up with me is all. It's STILL quite busy here, but that's OK! A VERY late Happy Holidays to everyone. I do very much hope everyone enjoyed themselves and the new year has been awesome for you as well!

I have been so swamped with things but I'm finally getting out from under them. In the process I'm starting another kit and it's about time I say! ;) Just finding the right commercial use items has been a rather daunting task at this point. If anyone has any suggestions on "must have" element creation kits or packs, feel free to link me to them!

I did manage a layout that I am SO proud of. I'm getting into altered art and vintage imagery and when I found this series of images I just had to scrap one of them. Isn't she just adorable? The page was done using Blushbutter's Victorian Wedding Kit, Teri's World Traveler and Cari Lopez's Home Companion.

I promise I'll not disappear again for that long. I didn't think anyone would actually miss me ;)

Morgana

Samhain Mega Kit Freebie!!

2007-10-31T14:41:00.001-04:00

To call this a labor of love may be understating things a bit. There was so, SO much more I wanted to do (and I will, the frames MUST be done!!) however, rendering some of these pieces took an age! Morien even stepped in to render pieces that's just how crazy the sizes and render times were! The rune rocks got rendered but, no I didn't have time to complete them.

For those who don't understand what Samhain is, I'll give a brief explanation.

Samhain night is considered the most sacred sabbat by Pagans around the world. This, is our new year and so much more. The veil, between this world and the next is at its thinnest. Allowing those we have loved and lost to return to this plane. To join us for a few hours and guide us along our path. To us our ancestors are respected and revered. So a chance to sit with them in circle is treasured. It is a night of reflection upon the past yearand to set goals for the coming year. Many practice divination, tarot, runes, ouija to help them make important decisions or to catch a glimpse of what they hope is a prosperous new year. So you can probably see why doing this kit and doing it as a dedication to my Patron Goddess was very important to me.

For me, my reflection will begin with a dumb supper. Extra plates are set and those who've gone before me invited to join us. Then the meal is eaten in silence. It progresses from there and is quite private. Having the abilities I do, the night can be quite interesting!

The preview just doesn't do this kit justice. There's 17 papers, a Raven to symbolize The Morrighan, a half dozen candles, censers, books of shadows, blank parchment (both photo and digital rendered), one parchment with spell, tags, brads, ribbons, zippers, feather quills, inkwells, book of shadows covers, chalices, cauldrons, pentacles, god and goddess symbols, pouches, several bottles, fae dust jar, 2 other jars, photo corners, staffs, wand, tarot cards (3), ouija board, mortar and pestles, 2 altars, lacing. Yes it's a big kit and I still didn't do all I wanted to. However, I will! ;)

Be advised, I left the elements at rendered size. I did that so YOU can do the layouts you want at the size you want! Papers are at 3600x3600. All are at 300dpi :) Some of the elements are rendered at 2 different angles as well. Not all are shown or I'd never get this to you!

Special thanks to Morien for his help with some of the elements. And to Snowraven for actually encouraging me to do this!!

Download:
Embellishments 1
Embellishments 2
Papers 1
Papers 2
Papers 3

Snowraven has also done a Samhain kit which is gorgeous! If you haven't picked it up go over and get it!! Snowraven's Cave

In other news! I have taken on a position at Gothic Blend as a music reviewer! I am so stoked about this as it allows me to help promote bands who are absolutely incredible and get very little exposure for one reason or another. There's forums that they hope to turn into a true Goth gathering place. If the intro forum isn't up yet, it will be shortly! Come on over and check us out Gothic Blend. Morien will also be doing guest reviews! As he's in the heart of the European Metal music scene, you won't wanna miss his reviews and news!!

Blessed Samhain Everyone!!!!

Morgana Wynter (and Morien by proxy!)

My Art, Life, Research + a new freebie!!

2007-10-20T21:26:00.000-04:00

Man another maddening week here!! The Samhain kit is started (yes it's taking an age because of everything ELSE I have to do :P) However, I had to just relax a bit and do something else besides work. There's a freebie at the end of this post ;)

I just wanted to mention a few things first. I've had some questions about how I (and now Morien) do our artwork. He was blessed with the ability to draw. I, on the other hand, was born with 10 thumbs ;) Other than music, I have no real talent. However, 4 and 1/2 years ago I found a program called Poser. Originally a posing app the community took it and turned it into a full on art application. Contrary to what seems to be a common misconception, it is NOT point and click art. Yes I can set up a scene in under an hour, but I tweak for EVER! Getting my lighting just right, expressions just right, posing just right. I could spend DAYS on an image (which I have on my halloween piece already LOL) but clients don't like to wait that long :P What I do is art, plain and simple. Would you tell a 2d portrait artist their work wasn't art because they use Photoshop or Painter? I thought not ;)

Anyway, for those of you wanting to give it a try there is a free application put out by the biggest content provider, Daz3d. The reason I'm bringing them up in this blog isn't to sell you anything. It's to give those that may want, the ability to create their own artwork. There is nothing more satisfying than to see ones own visions spring to life. If you'd like to check it out go here.

The second reason for mentioning them. 4 wonderful merchants have teamed up and done a digital russian egg for breast cancer research. In lieu of payment, they're asking that people go to ANY of the research funds and donate something to the cause. The egg itself can be seen here Having walked out the other side of this terrible disease (not breast cancer however) I can tell you we need all the help we can get.

If you can't afford to donate money, then please consider donating your PC's idle time. Boinc at home has several programs that need our help. I set up Rosetta@home yesterday as my screensaver. Every minute these programs can run on PC's all across the globe is a step closer to finding cures for cancers, HIV, Alzheimer's and Malaria. You can read more about it here All these programs do is crunch numbers for research purposes.

Now to the freebie! I have pulled Patches out of the moth balls, given him some lovely tole materials, rendered him and his playset up and he's ready to come home with you guys :) You get 4 PNGs of Patches in various poses and 1 of his playset! These are rather large, from about 1950 pixels to 2050 pixels on the longest side. The playset is 2500x1950. All at 300dpi. Commercial and Non-commercial use is fine. Make tags, frames, papers, whatever you'd like :)

OK Blogger's having issues with images SO Go see Patches here

After you do that, you can go pick him up here

And with that I'm off to work some more!

Blessings,
Morgana

Samhain kit's coming + Morien's first artwork!

2007-10-14T11:21:00.000-04:00

So today I'm finally getting things together to work on the Samhain kit. I've spent most of the morning doing my research to get appropriate elements into the kit. This particular one is VERY significant to me as it's the first time I'll be calling on my new patron Goddess (we all have several though some to lesser degrees). About 4 months ago I noticed a...change in myself. The last year has been quite difficult for me, for reasons I won't discuss. Just before the dark clouds parted, I began to notice Ravens and crows EVERYWHERE. Shortly thereafter, in meditation one evening, The Morrighan appeared to me. Once I recognized her as my patron Goddess, things changed for the better. SO I wanted to do something to truly honor her as Samhain is her Sabbat. So let's see what I can come up with ;)

To read more about her go here

And I must say I'm SO proud of Morien. Yesterday he did his first scene without my help! She turned out just lovely! Go over and take a peek Morien's Blog He's gonna have to change the name though. There isn't a single pokethrough :P

Alright, off to do a QP and then to this kit!

Blessings,
Morgana

Commission complete...I hope.

2007-10-09T22:33:00.000-04:00

Gah! Today has been nuts. I had intended to get 2 commissions done. I only managed one! I went back and looked, saw some issues, fixed them and now I wait to see what changes are needed. And you guys get a peek. Sorry for the watermarks all over it but I have no choice really.

Now to go start on the Male Vampire Witch.

Raven, I may well take you up on that offer. I just have to see what I wanna do for this Samhain kit. And so many have asked for more of the little character embellishments. I seriously need more hours in the day LOL. Far too many commissions backed up and not nearly enough time to get them to complete.

ANYWAY, I hope everyone's having a fabulous week!!

Blessings,
Morgana

Work, Life, Bleh! :P

2007-10-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet, just literally covered up in work! I'm hoping to knock out 2 commissions tonight and finally get some breathing room! I want to put together a kit for Samhain and I'm just not finding the time to do it with all the work I have going on!

In between all that work, I've taken on a pretty big task. Not one that I mind at all as I've been hoping for 4 and 1/2 years it'd happen. My Beloved, who has taken the name Morien, has stepped into the CG arena. So now I'm teaching him my program of choice and he's becoming a pretty big junkie too!! So he decided to set up a blog to showcase his works when he gets past the "Oooh what does *this* button do?" stage. You can go say hi to him here: Morien's Pokethroughs Don't ask ;)

I'll be back soon with some freebies! just gotta catch up on work!!

Blessings,
Morgana

What can I say except Thank You!

2007-09-30T20:08:00.000-04:00

When I found digiscrapping, I really wasn't sure if I'd be "accepted" for lack of a better word. I am so beyond the norms of society that I sometimes expect to not be accepted. However, I have been proven terribly wrong! The community has accepted me with open arms and I can't tell you how elated I am! I wish I had the time to reply to each of your comments but I'd never get anything done! (I'm already up against several deadlines due to unforeseen circumstances) But I want each and every one of you to know your comments are very much appreciated! I promise you guys have not seen the last of these type things from me. I have a mermaid, the entire cast of wizard of oz, Jack, Jill, Alice in wonderland, Hansel, Gretel, plus the Christmas Elf that Jynx and Cala are based on. Then I can move on to Ball-joined dollies and I can even do plushie animals (I can hear the other half groaning right now "So. Much. Cute!" Don't tell anyone but he has them on his PC too :P)

For anyone that hasn't seen, Snowraven has done an adorable set of papers for Cala and Jynx. Head on over to her blog and pick them up! Start of another week and back to the grind for me. December could hurry up and get here so I could take a much needed vacation!

Have an awesome week everyone :)

Blessings,
Morgana

----------------
Listening to: Nightwish - Whoever Brings the Night
via FoxyTunes

Jynx and Calamity Halloweenie tubes

2007-09-28T16:38:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you all just how much your comments meant to me. I am and fully admit I'm one of those enigmatic artistic types. I don't socialize much, really the only person I talk to regularly is my other half. I do my work and pretty much let the world happen around me. Big things are coming for he and I in the near future, Which means a lot of dreams will FINALLY come true. However, your comments kept me smiling more than usual! I very much appreciate them all!

I have to send out a VERY special thank you to Snowraven. I never in a thousand years expected the blog she posted yesterday. It was one of the sweetest things ever and I can't find the words to express my gratitude.

I got a lot of requests for Calamity so I went and rendered up 3 more pieces for you guys. The idea for the textures on these started with Jynx. I won't go into the technical aspect of this. But she was originally a Christmas elf! If you've seen "The Invisibles", the original figures remind me a LOT of them, minus the hair. Well I goth absolutely everything up. I have tried to do cute and I just CAN'T LOL. Once I had a base to work from on the textures I went to work on Jynx. Who was quickly followed by Calamity. I have ideas for more (Dark alice, anyone?) but time hasn't been on my side.

There is a TOU in the file so please be sure to read it over. Any questions just ask! I wanted to do sitting but these two outfits done work for that unfortunately. The preview really doesn't do them justice. They're saved quite large between 1100 and 1500 pixels tall at 300dpi!

They can be downloaded from here

I'm sure there's more I should've put here, but I'm suddenly drawing a blank so, enough from me for one day!

Blessings,
Morgana

Fright Night Alpha Freebie

2007-09-27T07:48:00.001-04:00

So last night, I got myself all inspired and decided to create an alpha. With the witching season nigh I knew I had to do something appropriate for Halloween/Samhain. But I wanted it usable for other times of the year as well. What you see here is the result of that effort. The font itself I set to 400pt so it's quite huge. Done in gorgeous black & Purple metal, saved as .png. Caps, Lowercase, numbers and some symbols. Enjoy!! And that would be Calamity Jane standing in front of the tombstone/skulls. If anyone would like some tubes featuring her, just let me know and I can render a few out for you! Also if you'd like me to share the skulls/cross tombstone elements I'll gladly do so!

You can download the alpha here: http://www.4shared.com/file/25166598/f94222e6/Fright_Night_Alpha.html

Blessings,
Morgana

New Nightwish!!!!

2007-09-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

OK this isn't about scrap booking but I'm just so incredibly happy to not only have the new Nightwish, but to see it's gone more than platinum in a day!!! Anette really was the best choice and I'm SO pleased this seems to have worked for them! Yeah, people are gonna whine because "She's not Tarja". No she's not, she's Anette and she's got an incredible voice. Nightwish always has been and always will be Tuomas. If you can't accept that these guys went through years of proverbial hell, that the decision was the best for them and their fans. Then I don't think you were much of a fan to begin with, sorry but that's the truth. Even Tarja appears to not be doing operatic vocals on her solo cd. I can't wait to see what'll be said about that ;)

For those who haven't heard the latest single, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jNHvsFNhXc go check it out!! I said this wasn't gonna be a scrap blog, I fibbed just a wee little bit. There's a line in "Bye bye beautiful" that I just love. So, I decided to do a simple word art of it ;)

The full wordart is, of course, bigger than this. No dropshadow either. And can be downloaded here:
http://www.4shared.com/file/25136751/e74f8e50/BBBwordart.html

I just wanna send out props to ToxicAngel for the amazing artwork he did for this CD. Janne you're awesome! And Gina, I hope you get well soon!! Anyone who loves beautiful art should support these two! Just do a search for ToxicAngel and/or Ravnheart ;)

And go out and support the band! Show them their true fans did not desert them!!

Later!

Morgana

Who I am

2007-09-22T14:20:00.001-04:00

I feel there may be some confusion in regards to me, so hopefully by the end of this post, it'll be cleared up :)

Welcome to my little corner of the net. I'm Morrighan (known around the various sites as Lady Morgana) mother to an almost 15 year old son and engaged to the most wonderful man on the planet!! I'm a musician (death, black, epic, melodic vocalist), a writer and a CG artist. I've been a practicing Pagan for nearly 16 years now and an ordained High Priestess.

I've been creating CG art for 4 and 1/2 years now and I wanted to showcase some of my art. That brought me to scrapbooking. Now to be clear the kits I use I always credit. However, the content I use to create my artworks I don't. All of it is purchased content and I do not use pre-rendered tubes, EVER. The Eula's for the content I use free me from any need to credit. Many times it's been a piece that's months in the making and I can't remember what all I used anyway! Does that mean I won't ever credit the content creator of the original meshes? No, it just means I'm forgetful at times ;)

With my brilliant other half we intend to create a very unique line of books/quick pages over the coming weeks so stay tuned for that. I'll also be releasing some freebies that are darker in nature. My Designs may not appeal to most of you, but it's due to not finding usable elements to adorn layouts of my own artwork that I'm releasing them. Some of you may want them and they will all be 100% free to use. Even commercially! I AM available for commissions as well :)

Anyway, here's a layout I did..about a week ago. I rather like how it turned out!

Credits:
framed artwork Mine
Dark Bride: Mine
Frame and paper: Blushbutter
Ribbon: J3 Paris kit (recolored)
Bordering frame: Mine

Blessings,
Morgana

I have a blog!

2007-09-17T18:43:00.000-04:00

I'm in the midst of about a thousand things at this point. But I wanted to go ahead and get this set up as I've begun doing scrapbook layouts, finally! I'm covered up in work but I will be posting some of my work soon-ish!