I'm selling simple journal skins for only 100 points for a limited time. This layout is pretty much what I'm selling, only with images and colours of your choice. Nothing advanced but for 100 points I'm not spending hours on a commission, that's just how it is.

Still, even though this is a simple layout it would be your own personal skin. With images and colours you've chosen yourself. Not available for anyone but you. You could get a skin featuring your art for example.

This is a limited time offer so order a skin now.

I'm on a roll with the journal skin designs this weekend. I made two versions of the same skin. One who tells you to keep calm and kill zombies and another one which tells you to keep calm and be creative. Which do you prefer?

I really like these skin designs. They're not as "pretty pretty" as my usual rather ornate vintage looking skins. I think the simplicity and font makes these feel more bold. Like a huge billboard rather than a pretty sign. Or something like that. Get what I mean?

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So I'm in big need of points to be able to keep the super group status for one of my group.

Any donations are welcome but if you want to get something for your donation, buy a journal skin from me!  

Depending on how advanced the skin is I charge 500-900 points. That may sound like a lot but before thinking that, remember that web design is an art form and like with any kind of art it takes a few attempts at getting good at it. I'm good at it so buy a skin from me.

So I made yet another journal skin. As always, feel free to use it.

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So I reworked an old skin a bit. I made it available in six different themes rather than one, plus added some CSS. I really like this skin. Even though it's never been all that popular it's one of my favourites.

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In my groups I often have to deal with people who's art was declined who are upset about that.

If I decline something based on the quality people get upset because they think all art should be accepted. Like they have the right to tell me what to accept into my group.

If I decline something because I feel that the theme doesn't fit the group people get upset about that too. Because they think that I interpreted their artwork wrong and that their own interpretation is the correct one. Like everyone views art in the same way. Different people see different things in art. If I don't see "it", whatever it is needed for the artwork to fit into my group, then it won't go into my group.

I've been through this so many times with different people and it annoys me. Yes, there are groups which accepts every single artwork no matter the quality or theme. Some of my groups doesn't do that though so people have to deal with it or submit their art to another group. Or better yet, start their own groups which they can accept whatever art they like into.

lol I whine so much about people misbehaving in my groups in this journal. But seriously, when you have as many groups as I have and deal with so many submissions and so many comments and so many people, your bound to be annoyed at one time or another. Most of my groups members are wonderful though. They read the rules, submit stuff to the correct folder and don't take a decline as a personal insult.

I'm the queen of gothic journal skins, or so it appears. If you search for "gothic" in the installable skins category, there's a lot of skins by me there.

It's my niche. My artistic style. I'm well aware of that. I like having a niche and style when it comes to web design because I haven't got that when it comes to the art I make. Looking at different artworks I've made, most of them are extremely different from each other. My journal skins and the rest of my web design though, definitely has a common theme. I think you can look at several of my web designs and see that it's typically CherieNoir. Or am I wrong?

I made another blog in which I'll blog in Swedish, about things going on in Sweden. Stuff I don't think my international blog readers would find interesting. So it's a secondary blog. Whirlwind is still my main blog.

While the layouts for Whirlwind usually are quite ornate I kept the layout for this new blog minimalistic. No ornate fonts, banners or graphics. Just simplicity. The blog is named after a song, which the layout also is based on. The song Lollipopocoasterland by Swedish indie pop band Cirkus Miramar is about an abandoned tivoli which isn't an actual physical place but appears to be located in some kind of surreal dream/fantasy realm where time stands still. I wanted a merry go round or roller coaster in the header but couldn't find any good enough amusement park stock.

Have a look at the layout or even read the blog, if you understand Swedish.

When the option to charge people points for your resources became available I considered it. I considered it because my journal skins have been installed close to 24 000 times. I have some pretty popular stock photos and brushes as well. I thought that if I charged say 10 points for just a few of my skins and resources I'd make a few points which would go to maintaining one of my groups super group status.

Then I thought about how I when I was a teenager never could buy anything online because my parents would never have connected their credit card to a site like DA or even PayPal for that matter. I had to pay for the things I bought from E-bay in cash sent with the mail. If I had used DA when I was a teenager I would never have been able to buy a journal skin or stock image.

For that reason, for all the teenagers of today who can't buy stuff online either, my resources will remain free. However, I greatly appreciate all donations from those who have money and can donate points. I don't have a lot of money myself and have to rely on donations to keep my most important group The Horror Club super. So if you've used something I made and have a few points to spare, I'd be forever grateful for any donations.

I looked through my journal archive here on DA to see what themes I often blog about. Not surprisingly it's creativity. I find myself writing about art here instead of in my real blog because you, my DA audience, are all artists too. Those who follow my regular blog are not all artists. Some are but not all of them. I also write about things typical to DA here because that wouldn't interest anyone who's not a member of DA, which once again, not all my blog readers are.

Sometimes I write about my life in general in this journal but not often. I already have a blog for that. A blog and site, which always comes first. It's the thing I give most of my attention, the thing I enjoy the most out of all the online activities I do. If I had to choose between my site and DA I'd choose my site. It doesn't mean DA isn't meaningful and fulfilling to me, just that the my site is more meaningful. Not strange perhaps considering I've had a personal website since 2000. It's my online baby.

In case you ever wondered why I don't update this journal as often as many others on DA do. In case you wondered why I don't write a lot about my life here. In case you wondered why I often take the time to update my blog but not the time to log onto DA.

I see a lot of My Little Pony fan art on DA these days. And it's all wrong! At least it seems that way to me who played with the original MLPs of the 80s and even collected them as a nostalgic teenager. These new ponies looks all different. Skinnier with longer legs. I call them anorexipoines. They new MLP TV-series also seems to not be drawn as pretty as the original series of the 80s. To me the only MLPs acceptable are the generation 1 ones. You may now call me The-Old-Lady-Who-Thinks-Things-Were-Better-When-She-Was-Young.

Do you prefer the old or new MLPs?

I'm working on a web design project for a friend. I'm currently working on the boring part of the project. Setting up the structure.

Imagine the structure of a site as a house with concrete walls, concrete floors, a roof and nothing more. It doesn't become interesting until you add wallpapers, wooden floors and furniture. Its' the same with a site.

The basic structure is nothing but a bunch of boxes with text, until you add graphics, decide what colour different parts of the text should have and so on. That's my favourite part of designing a site layout.

The part I'm doing right now, not too much fun, but necessary. You can't build a house out of nothing but pictures and colours. Just as you can't build a house out of nothing but wallpapers, wooden floors and furniture.

In case you thought I always look as fancy as on my Dev IDs, you're wrong. On workdays this is the look I sport. Always. Why? Because I prefer twenty extra minutes in bed over getting up twenty minutes earlier just to do a fancy make-up. I actually look even less fancy than on this photo most workdays. In this photo I'm actually wearing eyeshadow when in fact the real work make-up is mascara and nothing more. I probably wouldn't even wear mascara on workdays if my eyelashes weren't light blonde and pretty much invisible without it.



Do you get up earlier than you need to just to do your make-up on workdays? Why? Is it really that important?

This digital drawing is still the best thing I've ever made artistically. Sure I've made amazing web layouts but web design isn't as much of a challenge as digital drawing is to me. The reason I haven't made a real digital drawing since I made this Gerard Way fan art piece is that I don't know how to top this. Or rather, I know how much it will take to top this. I know how many hours I spent working on this. So many hours. Days actually. And if I'm going to make a new digital drawing it of course needs to be even better than this. I can't really take a step back and do something less impressive. That's not how I work. So I've been kind of scared of taking on another digital drawing since I know how much time I would have to invest in it. I have other more important projects to invest my time in right now. I still miss drawing with my Wacom tablet though. It was fun. Some day I'll get back to it.

I get many questions about journal skin commissions but no one buys one these days. I guess they think I'm too expensive. That's ok. I'm expensive because I'm good at what I do and really am too busy for commissions anyway. I spend much less time on DA than I used to and make far less skins than I used to as well. So if I'm going to put in time to do a commission, it has to be worth it. Otherwise there's always the option to use one of my free journal skins. There's a lot of them. Is 500 to 900 points all that much anyway? I don't think it is. The 900 points deal contains special features and I do all the work. The 500 deal is a basic skin where I use graphics you provide. I think those are fair deals. Anyway, I'm always open for journal skin commissions. The prices are however, not negotiable.