Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Tuesday July 15th, 2025
Greatest Hits: Abstract Meets Graphic Art
For this month’s Perfectly Paired Challenge, Dani wants to see your artsy side. That made me think of this tutorial from 2017. I think I might do exactly this as the basis for my Challenge layout. Then, of course, I’ll have to combine bits from two kits to fulfill the rest of the Challenge requirements. I’m sure I have some kits in my stash that have brushes, overlays, paint and other artsy elements in them that I can massage into a cohesive layout. Wanna give it a try? (If you’re impatient, by all means scroll down to the end to see the finished product. 😉 )
To begin, you’ll need a great photo with a relatively plain background, because the image will be extracted. This photo of a skateboarder from Pixabay was a great choice for my example since my inspiration for the tutorial came from an image of a skateboarder. I dropped it on a white paper for the initial steps to make extraction easier.
I used the Magic Wand tool to extract my image. This tutorial will provide a refresher for you if you’re still getting the hang of extracting images. You can duplicate your photo now, or wait until you’ve got your extraction complete or the line of marching ants in place. But you will need to duplicate your photo. Make your duplicate layer invisible.
Working on the extracted photo, I clicked on the Filter menu, selected Stylize and Find Edges as shown. Remember when I showed you how to do this?
Once the image has been filtered, some of the colour from the image is still visible. Right now, I don’t want that. It looks a bit odd.
So to remove that hint of colour, I chose Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation (CTRL/CMD>U) and pulled the Saturation slider all the way to the left. That leaves only the sketch.
We didn’t do this in the Sketchy tutorial, but for this one it’s a vital step. Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels will take you to the menu shown. What this step does is dramatically darken the lines in the sketched image.
The histogram shown below is part of the adjustment menu. You can adjust both sections simply by pulling the sliders. Make sure you can see your image so you know when you’ve gone far enough. If you need to move the dialog box, click and hold the gray bar at the top of the box then drag it up, down or to one side so you can see what’s underneath it. I wanted my background area to stay bright white and my sketch to be darker and more detailed. The changes I made are shown in the dialog box.
Now I have what looks like a charcoal drawing of the skateboarder. I want to have some of the colour from the original image in there, so I selected the topmost layer and added an adjustment layer mask by ALT>clicking on the Layer Mask icon (the divided circle icon above the Layers panel). The image disappeared but was really still there. I just had to reveal it.
I used a medium-sized soft round brush from the default brushes PSE comes with to paint back the colour, working on the Layer Mask. By using a low opacity (20%) I was able to build up colour where it naturally would appear darker and keep other areas much lighter. When you hold down your mouse button as you paint, you can overlap your brush strokes and have no visible overlap. Once you release the mouse button, the tool resets and areas of overlap will be darker. You want to brush over the whole area in one step to avoid those overlap spots. Keep that in mind as you go so you don’t end up with streaks.
Once I had the colour the way I wanted it, I Simplified the layer. (Right-click on the layer in the Layers panel and select Simplify Layer.) That step merges the mask with the image and prevents me from messing it up.
Now for the really fun stuff! I added a new blank layer underneath the sketch layer then used a watercolour brush at 100% Opacity from my collection of free brushes. I had an idea what colours I wanted to use so I just played around with both colour and brush selection until I liked what it looked like. By putting each brush on its own layer I can resize it, reposition it, decrease the opacity of it, increase the opacity by duplicating the layer, position it above or below my sketch and photo layers and whatever whim enters my head.
I experimented with lots of different watercolour and grunge brushes, deleting the layers that just didn’t work.
If you look closely you’ll see I’ve made a lot of changes by adding and subtracting, shifting and overlaying layers. You might also notice that the original photo colours are darker in this image. I duplicated the topmost simplified colour layer from the Layer Mask step then adjusted the opacity of that duplicate layer until I liked it.
To add a little more grunge and graphic feel I chose a gray colour and used a free graph paper brush that I duplicated and rotated. One layer is above the sketch and one is below it.
For the finishing touch I added some tiny gray splatters on top of all the layers and some below.  The process is one of playing with your stash and experimenting with things you never thought you could do.
I saved the finished image as a .png file for even more versatility. This is what it looks like with no paper behind it.
Now to find a good photo, decide on a theme and get to work!
Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Monday July 14th, 2025
Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Sunday July 13th, 2025
Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Saturday July 12th, 2025
Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Friday July 11th, 2025
Happy July 4th for those of you who celebrate. You will find several patriotic kits in this weeks releases.
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you get this great kit for free. I love these colors!
Let’s see what fun kits are new in the store this week.
Have you gotten started on your challeges? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab (or a variety of other choices from previous challenge collabs) as a reward! I love this one so much. Baseball is probably my favorite sport.
Follow Lisa on her Facebook Fan Page and her blog.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Thursday July 10th, 2025
Designs by Lisa Minor
How is it even July already?? This month’s Designer in the Spotlight is Lisa Minor. Today, I’m going to share the tea Lisa and I spilt earlier. She’s recovering from a total knee replacement right now, so let’s make sure she feels the love!
J: Lisa, you must be so uncomfortable with that big surgery you just had. I hope you have someone who’s taking care of you, and a comfy chair to sit in between therapy appointments. Do you have a favorite comfort food that always makes you feel better?
L: Chicken and Dumplings. I have so many fond memories of eating it.
J: Ooh, I love that too! Last night I caught a few minutes of a cooking show where the guy was making chicken and dumplings noodles… without the dumplings. So of course I had to go online and find a recipe! I’d serve it with apple pie for dessert, unless it’s too hot, then I might go with ice cream. If you could BE ice cream, what flavour would you be?
L: Vanilla of course! Plain, simple and delicious!
J: Oh, and versatile too! Don’t tell anybody but I have a pint of Chapman’s Butter Tart ice cream hiding deep in the bottom of the freezer. If the guys don’t know about it, I don’t have to share. 😉 Like our Prime Minister, I like a good wink. 😉 What’s your most used emoji?
L: Anything with a “thumbs up”, LOL. I’m just not that “text” savvy.
J: Let’s talk business for a minute. What’s your favourite part of seeing others use your designs for their layouts?
L: I think it’s how they put it all together. It’s such a personal thing to share photos of yourself and your family and the love shows through.
J: That’s something that always appeals to me, the individual style that Scrappers have and how they can take an identical collection of papers and elements then turn them into something beautiful, unique and intensely personal. Can you share any sneak peeks of coming attractions?
L: Yep! Arriving mid-July, Enjoy the Waves.
J: That’s going to sell like hotcakes! We’re a long way from the ocean but our lake gets some pretty decent waves on windy days. I always snicker a little when I see someone asking on Reddit about how choppy it is. Interesting way of staying informed, I guess. The teasing is usually gentle, especially for Reddit, if you know what I mean. Have you ever done anything embarrassing in public?
L: When I was 8 months pregnant with our first, it was the “year of the cicada” in Ohio. One flew down my shirt and I just literally ripped the shirt off in the parking lot. Those things are “buggly ugly”.
J: Oof!! We don’t have cicadas this far north, but we do have junebugs. When my husband and I were dating we were zipping down the highway on his motorcycle when a junebug flew into him. He said it felt like he’d been shot. And there were guts everywhere. It was gross. Another time, again on his bike, a wasp ended up flying into my bra. Stings in that area really hurt! I’m actually having phantom pain there right now… Good thing I wasn’t allergic, but it could have been kinda funny. What’s the funniest thing you believed when you were a kid?
L: I believed I had an “extra” front tooth because my teeth were so crooked. Hey, my cousin told me so, and I totally fell for it.
J: That’s kids for you. I was catfished, before catfishing was a thing. I still hate that girl with the heat of a thousand suns. And she knows it. Same girl who bit me on my thirteenth birthday. The school principal came into the girls’ bathroom to check it out and disinfect the bite before he suspended her for the rest of the week. Oy. I wanted to be anywhere but there. If you could teleport to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
L: Ireland! It’s on my bucket list.
J: Great choice! I’ve been there twice and hope to get back one more time before I get too old to travel by myself. It’s truly a magical place. Last time I was there, the strap on my purse broke and wasn’t fixable, so I went to a discount store near my hotel and bought a new one. I bet the hotel cleaning crew wondered about all the weird things I threw away when I switched them out. What’s the most unusual thing you carry in your bag or pocket?
L: I actually carry a small bag full of things like single use toothbrushes, Tylenol, antibacterial wipes, band aids, eyeglass wipes, etc. You can NEVER be too prepared.
J: I like the way you think! I do the same. Well, maybe not the toothbrushes, but I have some flossers! And a screwdriver. Like you say, be prepared for ANYTHING. One last question, then I’ll let you get some rest. Do you have a guilty pleasure? I mean, one that you can share with our readers? 😉
L: True Crime. I’m obsessed.
J: ME TOO!! Particularly the ones that use forensic genetic genealogy. The things real people do are so much more twisted than any fiction writer could dream up. So fascinating! Well, I promised to keep this short so you’re not wiped out. Go put your feet up and have a nice cup of tea while I finish up here.
In addition to her usual monthly Pinterest Challenge, Lisa is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge. And she’s providing our July Daily Download kit here on the Blog. It’s called Listen to the Music and I can’t wait to see the whole collection. But that’s not all… she has a coupon code 7sdlm20off …ON TOP of the already 50% off discount this month you can take an ADDITIONAL 20% off a single purchase of $5 or more. What a deal!! (It’s a single-use code, so make sure you fill your cart with ALL the goodies before you use it.) See you all next week for another Tutorial Tuesday.
Happy Canada Day Eh!
Okay, so technically, this isn’t a tutorial. But it does show the power of using a search bar when you’re in the Shop… I just typed “Canada” into the box and got 9 pages of results.
Today is the 158th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, and we Canucks are very proud of our country. But we don’t typically express it with over-the-top celebrations and rah-rah patriotism. That doesn’t mean we’re not patriotic, we’re just quieter and more intentional about it. The events of the last 6 months have brought out a fierce, determined pride in us and we’re growing into our love of country in a way we’re starting to become very comfortable with. We still won’t be throwing monster family picnics or parading down every small-town main street on July 1st, but we’ll definitely celebrating. If you’re a Canadian and you’re celebrating today, here are some GingerScraps collections to help you commemorate us.
What I love about this kit from Kristmess is that it recognizes our First Nations history and culture, which has never been more intrinsic to Canada’s identity. You can find it here.
Adrienne Skelton has included word art all the provinces, but I don’t see the three Territories, Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories. (Sometimes I think they’re like Puerto Rico, Guam and USVI, out of sight and mind.) Anyway, she’s also named some of our major cities, got the hockey skates, stick and puck in there and lots of maple leaves. It’s here.
My son-in-law is a Mountie so I love that Scrappy Kat has them and their Stetson in her kit. I spy some maple syrup too. For a closer look: here.
Well, it definitely looks like Canada has a colour palette… Robyn‘s got the cutest moose so far! Find it here.
Heather Z has a bunch of little Canucks in her kit.
Magical Scraps Galore has also given a little nod to our Indigenous peoples with the snowshoes and totem pole in her kit. I think this is the first one with a snowflake in it. 🙂
Wetfish Designs has some lovely frame clusters that you can see here.
Connie Prince is the first to mention fireworks… Yes, Canadians celebrate their birthday with fireworks; the display over Parliament Hill in Ottawa is usually televised and is quite spectacular. Here in Kelowna, our fireworks are launched out over the lake to minimize our ever-present fire risk. We can see them from our deck, so we can avoid those crowds that I hate so much. 😉 Find it here.
Connie additionally has this older kit, part of her Travelogue series. I like the flairs she created with some map sections; they make the kit truly Canadian. Her Travelogue series also includes kits for three of the ten provinces, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
Most of the collections I’ve shown you here have add-on packs of papers, word art or clusters too. If you want to see them, just do the “Canada” search. 😉 Elbows up!!