My friend Sara Horton with DesignerDigitals has posted a video tutorial in their continuing series on creating custom shapes in Photoshop/Elements - this one is on creating Trendy Squares with 2 Rounded and 2 Squared Corners. Her directions make it seem like a piece of (digital) cake!
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My pastor sends out a daily email newsletter that usually includes some thought to keep in mind throughout the day. A thought he included in a newsletter last fall really struck home for me, and I knew immediately I wanted to preserve it on a canvas. Since they were his words, I thought he should get a canvas too. And because I was going to make multiples, I thought I would do each one a little differently.
I wanted to give him a "traditional" scrapbook canvas - that is to say, scrapbooking paper adhered to a 6x8 canvas - because I wanted the texture of *real* paper. I thought that would look nice sitting on his desk or shelf (or wherever it ends up).
I figured I would take this opportunity to try getting a canvas printed at Artscow (referral link), and when I went to order, they were having a special on canvases, so I ended up ordering two different images (with free shipping! Nice!) For these two "digi" canvases, I created two different images in Photoshop Elements.
I am very pleased with how the Artscow canvases turned out, and plan to order others in the future. The colors were very true to what I saw on my monitor, with nice crisp images.
Here are my three versions.
^^ Traditional paper ^^
^^ Digital printed on canvas #1 ^^
Digi credits:
Background: Cherry Cheesecake kit by A Work in Progress (Vicki Parker)
Pattern paper "under" quote: Digital Scrapbook Day kit by Corina Nielsen
Grunge Photo Mask by Jessica Sprague
photo taken during my husband & son's hiking trip at Philmont
^^ Digital printed on canvas #2 ^^
Digi credits:
Background: Cherry Cheesecake kit by A Work in Progress (Vicki Parker)
Pattern paper: Evoking Damask kit by Joyful Heart Designs (Jennifer Howland), and Digital Scrapbook Day kit by Corina Nielsen
Clipping Mask from Crumpled Old Cardstock AddOn by Debra Tope
A couple of notes on the canvases - the canvas face is 5x7, but they do wrap the edges around. To compensate for that when creating my digital image, I made my Photoshop canvas/image 6.5x8. That left enough room for wrap, and put the image right in the middle of the canvas.
Part of the quote/wordart on the sunflower canvas was VERY small, which was my misjudgment, in creating the image. Just something to keep in mind - if something looks too small to read in your order preview, it probably will be too small once it's printed. Fortunately I'm keeping that one for myself, and I already know what the quote says. ;) I may also "alter" it, and cover up the part that is too small with some embellishement like ribbon, then print out that bit and adhere it at the top, like I did with the traditional canvas.
In case the quote is too small for you to read...
"Look for those good things that do not scream for our attention, but quietly proclaim God is with us."
~ Pastor Gary Blakeman
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One of the top digital
scrapbooking sites on the web is celebrating their Super Sensational Sixth Birthday...and you're invited!! This is one of the biggest events Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc hosts each year. The week long event is filled with games, chatting, prizes, freebies, sales, challenges and lots of F-U-N! The party starts March 27th with the traditional 24-hour chat and the partying continues through out the week.
To kick things off The Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc has generously offered up some goodies for me to give away. I have free digital scrapbooking kits to give away to three of you lucky blog readers. Check out the Shop at Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc to pick out your favorite kit!
Just leave a comment below and tell me which kit you would choose - On March 26th (tomorrow!) I'll randomly choose three winners from the commenters to win one free kit coupon (value US$3.99/each). It could be YOU! :)
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I gave one of my girlfriends an impromptu digital scrapbooking crash course last night, so I wanted to get her started on her digi stash. Since I was compiling a list of site for freebie downloads for her, I thought I would share the list here too.
Some beginner resources:
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I'm at a scrapbooking/crafting retreat with girlfriends this weekend, and one of my friends made this fruit salad for breakfast today. It was so tasty - the lemonade gives it just the right zing, and the pudding mix makes the "dressing" kind of glazy. Everyone really liked it! So I 'whipped up' this recipe card in Photoshop Elements so we can all have a copy of the recipe.
Click on the image for a full-size high-res image suitable for printing. ;)
Digital Credits:
Template: Chrissy W Mini Me bragbook #09; www.chrissywdigital.blogspot.com
Papers: May Flowers kit by Scrapbubba Designs
String Stitches by Grunhild Storeide
Journaling tag & strip: April Showers Bring May Flowers kit by TMA Designs
Fonts: CK Fable & Berlin Sans FB
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I took some time to actually do a layout this weekend - for no 'good' reason other than I felt like it. What a novel idea!
I recently made a challenge to myself to 'delete' the time-consuming behaviors I often associate with scrapbooking, and just scrap. I took my own advice - I found a digital scrapbooking quickpage I liked, chose an appropriate photo, slapped together a few elements, journaled, and was DONE.
I'm pretty pleased with myself - sometimes just doing something all it takes. Forward motion. The easier you make it on yourself, the more likely you are to do something. Take out the guesswork and the time-sucking nature of a chore, and suddenly it's not so much of a chore. And each successful completion of the task encourages you to get more done.
That said, here's the layout.
DIGI CREDITS
Comics & Bubbles QuickPage by Pouyou Designs
Comics & Bubbles add-on by Cardamome
Collage Edge Layer Style by Debra Tope
Serious Wordart by Elegant WordArt
Font: SF Wonder Comic
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F+W Marketing Manager Ginger Rohlfs recently sent me Courtney Walsh's new book, The Busy Scrapper, to review. And the book has me thinking.
While I'm only on page 36 (of 128) so I can't offer a real review at this point, I wanted to comment on what I've read so far.
Courtney's tips encouraged me to consider why I don't scrapbook often. Sure, one reason is *probably* being disorganized and not being able to see the worktable surface in my scraproom/office. Another reason is undoubtedly time - a full-time job, two kids, a husband, and a horse of a dog do eat up most of my waking hours. But another reason, I'll freely admit, is self-paralysis. I know many people suffer from this, in various forms, and not just related to scrapbooking.
The self-paralysis has to do with expectations and assumptions, I think. Assuming that you have to do something a certain way, and all at one sitting. Assuming that your results should turn out as well as someone else's. Expecting those results to be just-so. Expecting everything to go smoothly in each step of the process. And honey, that's just not the way Real Life is. Whether we're talking about scrapbooking, or knitting, or organizing your closet, or dealing with co-workers.
OK - end Life Lesson. Paging through Courtney's book has me excited about scrapbooking again. Has me thinking, "I can *do* this!" Because her tips and comments are empowering, yes, but also reminders that have the ability to slap you upside the head, even in their simplicity.
Like this tip from the Making Art Faster chapter...
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Announcing/reminding you that Digital Scrapbooking Day is coming up fast - it is held the first Saturday of November, which falls on November 1st this year.
Digital Scrapbooking Day was first established by Triscape, Inc. in 2007 to create awareness for digital scrapbooking – not only as a creative way to document and display memories, but also as a means to archive photos and memorabilia safely digitally. Digital Scrapbooking Day (DSD) is intended to act as a catalyst to set aside some time at least annually to digitally documenting your personal history.
Susan White, of Triscape and the Scrappin' without Scraps blog, has been very busy this week updating the DSD blog, and linking to all sorts of goings-on in the digital community. Be sure to check out her posts on DSD Facebook Flair, and where to find a list of DSD Events, Activities, & SALES.
Digital Scrapbooking Magazine Editor Jennafer Martin has also been busy - she's created a DSD "festival" page on Facebook. DSM is also co-hosting a holiday card contest in honor of Digital Scrapbooking Day, along with Scrapblog and Creating Keepsakes: Scrapblog Challenge
It's exciting to see so much buzz about Digital Scrapbooking Day - over 19,000 hits on Google, and 273 hits on Technorati for "DSD", and events specifically created for Facebook.
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Photojojo has created a no-nonsense, jargon-free guide to sharpening your photos using Unsharp Mask. It walks you through why digital photos need sharpening, some basic sharpening rules, and what all the sliders mean. They also provide "a good set of starting points for different kinds of pictures", as well as a link to a site with tutorials on smart sharpening, high pass sharpening, and sharpening masks. Sweet.
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I spent National Scrapbooking Day cropping with girlfriends at a store crop - had a lovely time. I think it's so important to have that time with other women, not only because we're doing something creative that we enjoy, but also to share general life experiences - those "this worked for me", and "what should I do about this" kind of experiences. Love that.
But on to the fruits of my digital labors. I went digi for this crop - makes it so much easier to pack and prep! Just throw the laptop in the bag! :)
Digi Credits:
Trish H/Templates N More #93
August Designs Scalloped Notepaper
Fonts - Rubber Stamp & Scrap Casual
Foam Stamp Photoshop Action by Atomic Cupcake
Digi Credits:
Chris Greiser 20080229 template
mgl Studio Vividly kit (scraphead.com)
2Ps Proud to be Digi Journaling Circle
Font: free bradbury & Scrap Casual
Atomic Cupcake chipboard action
Digi Credits:
paper, frames, journaling tag, word art from Cinzia Loosemore's That's Amore kit
Digi Credits
TemplateTuesday415 -DigiShopTalk
Papers from 33008 Web Challenge Kit by Jesse Edwards, www.designerdigitals.com
Fonts: Arriere Garde, BlackJack, & Dymo
Foam Stamp Photoshop Action from Atomic Cupcake
Digi Credits:
BrackityTemplate by Beth Long
KMill Lovin Life papers
font: Egg Cream
Chipboard Photoshop Action from Atomic Cupcake
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