Happy Friday friends. How did we get to the end of June already? Summer is in full swing in my area. I’m already wishing for fall temperatures.
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.
Let’s see what the designers have for us this week.
Only a few more days to get your challenges done and submitted. Complete any 10 challenges and get this kit as a reward.
Quick Trick: Distressing Elements
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3zNdf1K
I’m still processing last night’s Game 7 Stanley Cup final. What a game!! I’m sad that the Oilers didn’t win, but I know they’ll be back in the fall, this time stronger and more determined. Congratulations Panthers on a great series.
This Quick Trick might be of particular interest to the former paper scrappers in our midst. Remember using an emery board to rough up the edges of your cardstock or to “age” a tag, label, frame or other element? I’m going to show a digital technique that has the same effect. I’m demo-ing it on some text, but you can apply the technique to almost anything. And it only takes a couple of easy steps. I’ve used Amastery Script and the paper behind it is from Aprilisa‘s Evolving.
If you’re trying this Trick on text, make sure you’ve Simplified it so it can be manipulated.
Click on the sheet-of-paper icon at the top of the Layers Panel to open up a new blank layer on top of your text layer.
Now go to the Brush Tool and look for the Faux Finish Brushes set. It’s one of the standard brush sets that comes with the Elements software. You’re looking for the Rolled Rag – Terry Brush; it’s about halfway down the palette. If you hover the cursor over the thumbnails, their names will appear on the screen. (I can’t catch them with a screenshot or I’d show you!) No need to adjust any of the settings, other than the size.
Next, with the blank layer active, CTRL/CMD>click on the text layer’s thumbnail to Select the edges of the text. This will ensure that the Brush is only applied to the text, not the whole thing. More about this in a minute.*
Now, look at which layer is active before proceeding. It must be the blank layer! Adjust the size of the Brush (you can use the slider or the [ and ] keys) so it covers roughly half the height of the text. You’ll see the image of the Brush on your canvas so you can judge your adjustment. Don’t fuss about the colour you’ve got selected in the foreground. I’ve used white, but it’s going to be removed so it’s not a factor. Then randomly click the Brush over your text. I went a little overboard, just so you could have a good look at what it does. Whatever you do, don’t DRAG the Brush – it’ll be ugly and you’ll be CTRL/CMD>Z-ing it away.
Next, Select the edges of the blotches you’ve created with the Brush by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the Brush Layer’s thumbnail. You can kinda see that I’ve outlined the marching ants with red in my screenshot.
To remove the Brush‘s blotchies, click CTRL/CMD>X and they’re gone. All that’s left is to Merge the layers. Activate the Text and Brush Layers then CTRL/CMD>E and it’s done!
* So, the tutorial I based this one on said to Lock the Pixels on the Text Layer and then use the Brush. Well, I tried that – the Brush wouldn’t work. So I created a workaround.
Next week, we’ll be into the second half of the year. I know! Gah!!
Hey there fellow scrappers! I hope you have all had a great scrapping week!
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.
Let’s see what is new in the store this week.
Have you grabbed the June Monthly Mix? I love the muted colors in this.
How are your challenges going? Complete any two challenges and you will get this great kit as a reward.
Challenge Spotlight: Template
The third Tuesday is the day of each month when I take a moment to shine the spotlight on YOU, the GingerScrappers, and your individual styles. I spent some time browsing the Gallery and chose Scrapbookcrazy Creations by Robyn‘s Template Challenge for today’s Spotlight. Template challenges are perfect vehicles for this kind of spotlight because every participant starts with the exact same blueprint and can interpret it in their own way. And templates are great kickstarters for GScrappers whose mojo is nojo. As of this morning there were 29 layouts posted to the Challenge Gallery! No, I’m not going to make you scroll through 29 separate entries; I instead will show you every second layout, in the order they were posted. If you’ve participated and your layout isn’t here, it’s not because it isn’t worthy, it’s because it ended up being an even numbered entry, that’s all. I’ll offer some gentle analysis of each layout and link it to the Gallery so you can get a closer look, and maybe leave your own comment – just click on the GScrapper‘s user name and you’ll be whisked right to it.
But first, let’s look at the template Robyn has provided to each of us, at zero cost. It’s relatively simple, but with a great deal of potential.
You’ll notice that most of the layouts to follow are oriented exactly as the original template is – there’s nothing wrong with that – but look very different! In fact, there are only 3 layouts in the Gallery ATM that have switched up the orientation. Let’s go…
This layout by alexandergirl68 stays very faithful to the original template. Her colour palette is drawn from her photos, with the houndstooth paper mimicking the brick in the larger photo.
For her layout, domino44 chose to make her floral clusters larger and to keep the layout monochromatic. (Remember colour theory? 😵)
I like that dj_w has used a slightly larger, distressed paper behind her wildlife photos. She too used a colour palette inspired by her photos; keeping her clusters smallish and subdued allowed her photos to be the stars of her layout. That tree is a great addition!
Windswept has created a beautiful monochromatic composition that is perfectly colour-matched to the blues in her photos. The addition of a third cluster and the much larger title add a personal touch.
Alasandra’s layout is the first real departure from the basics. The mat behind her main image is more prominent compared to the template, and she’s created a floral border rather than a paper one around her smaller image – the one I didn’t even see until just now! The two watercolours seem to blend into each other. Lovely!
For her layout, larkd chose to rotate the template 90° to the left. She enlarged and shifted one of her clusters so it’s a bit more central and added some extra flowers. Her pastel palette puts the focus on her photos.
Did you all know Michi likes to travel? 😉 She kept the template in its original orientation, but that’s really it; she’s added some arrows to draw the eye to the map, expanded the lower cluster down into the corner with travel-related elements and added a subtitle.
O.M.G!! I love this layout by greenfiend27. It has so much depth and texture with those frames. Clusters are perfection! She simply rotated the template 90° left and ran with it.
Here, jenniferl75 has kept things simple, letting her photos tell their story – the first things I see are those smiles. The nautical colour scheme supports the subject matter.
Here’s a departure from the basic! I like that fontaine has added two more photos that echo the template’s photo blanks, and that she scaled down the clusters to keep the layout from being too busy. The paint behind the photos and the wordstrip set her layout apart.
Pixel Palette has moved a few things around – the title and subtitle are replacing the clusters, which have moved underneath the photos.
I’m so drawn to that large photo! Using coral as a foil for the desert colours in the plaid paper ties the layout together for trinanne. The addition of the dolies to the clusters gives them an elegance.
Perfect picks on the patterned papers, Got2Scrap! They both mimic the dimples on the dome in the large photo. I also like how she’s chosen elements in the same colours as Stitch – the two blues, the soft purple and the pink really work.
Who doesn’t love photos with cute kids getting Grandpa to make funny faces? RobynC has kept the masculine aspect of her layout with her choice of elements.
And last, we have this soft and lovely layout by andastra. Her upper cluster forms a perfect photo corner, and rather than creating a cluster in the lower left area of the layout, she’s shifted it to the centre. The little happy face flair is so sweet!
Great work, ladies! See you next week when I’ll have a Quick Trick for you.
Welcome to Friday! I hope you have had a enjoyable and productive week. We have an awesome designer announcement below!
Let’s look at the Fresh Baked goodies first.
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.
We are excited to announce that Buzzbee Scraps will be joining the GingerScraps family permanently.
Are you getting those challenges done? Complete any two challenges and you will get this great kit as a reward.
One-Step Photo Editing with Blend Modes
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3zjWdYy
I stumbled over this brilliant concept and just had to play with it. Because of course I did. 😉 Photos make our memories tangible and are a significant contributor to preserving those memories. But let’s face it… the photos that tend to mean the most are the candid ones, the ones that happened on the fly, and that sometimes means they’re not as true to the snapshots we carry in our hearts as we’d like. Sometimes there really is a quick fix though!
This is a photo I found on Pixabay. It’s tack sharp but has an obvious colour cast and looks underexposed to me. I like the photo, but think it could be better. I could run a whole bunch of edits on it and spend a lot of time trying to make it fit the way I envision it. But… first I’ll run some Blend Modes on it, just to see. [Editor’s note: Blend Modes are the same in Photoshop, but have extra tweakability.]
Before we start experimenting, make a Copy of your photo layer. Why? So the original isn’t altered. Also, because of how Blend Modes work. More about that in a minute. Right-click on your photo layer and choose Duplicate Layer… from the options.
Then click OK. If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, CTRL/CMD>J will do both steps in one move.
We’ve talked about Blend Modes a LOT in previous tutorials. But we haven’t really talked about how they work. You may have noticed that they’re grouped in the drop-down menu found in that button bar at the top left of the Layers Panel. The first grouping is the NORMAL Modes. That means the layers don’t interact with each other when at full Opacity. Next is the Darken Modes; these DO allow the layers to interact with those underneath them, and produce different effects as you’ll see. The third grouping is the Lighten Modes. Self-explanatory, sort of. Following that is the Contrast Grouping, which is also essentially self-explanatory. If you’re interested in learning more about the science of Blend Modes, check out this video from PiXimperfect. It’s about 42 minutes and is based on Photoshop so there are some differences, but it’s fascinating! Now, let’s play!
Click on the Blend Mode button bar and open up the dropdown menu. We’ll skip the Normal Modes and start right with Darken.
Just so we can remember what the original looks like before I change it… each Mode is named under the image.
Darken: It hides every pixel that is darker than the base brightness. The only change here is that the snow looks more gray to me.
Multiply: Only the purest black is unchanged.
Color Burn: Will change pure black and pure white, darkens and adds colour. This effect is more evident if a solid Fill Layer is applied to above the photo. But this photo is just the photo. It’s a hot mess.
Linear Burn: Basically the same as Color Burn, but it does NOT keep pure white pure white.
Darker Color: You’ll probably never use this one – it’s not really any different than the Darker Mode. The others are more interesting.
Let’s get the original back up so you don’t have to scroll so much to see the changes.
Lighten: The polar opposite of Darken; the snow is a bit whiter, her skin tones are a bit more visible and there’s a hint of purple in her jacket.
Screen: Huge difference! It’s the opposite of Multiply, so it lightens the whole image. This is the easiest fix for underexposed but otherwise perfect photos there is. If it’s too bright, tone down the Opacity until you’re happy.
Color Dodge: Everything is brightened and a lot of the highlights are blown. But it’s an intriguing look.
Linear Dodge: More highlights are blown, the overall image is a bit brighter. More colour variation is noted.
Lighter Color: Again, you’ll probably never use this one because there’s not any obvious difference.
Back to the original before we move on to the Contrast Group, which will lighten lights and darken darks.
Overlay: Yep. Sure did increase the contrast.
Soft Light: This is similar to Overlay, but more gentle.
Hard Light: It sounds contradictory, but this one adds a faded contrast rather than harsh.
Vivid Light: The image looks sharper, with a harsher contrast again. It keeps the white white and the black black.
Linear Light: Lots of contrast but not a ton of detail…
Pin Light: This one is a combo of Lighten and Darken. They seem to cancel each other out.
Hard Mix: Hard is right! The contrast is almost eye-boggling!!
Individually, these Blend Modes are useful and interesting. But the real magic happens when they’re stacked. Check out this image:
I made 4 Copies, so 5 layers in all. The top layer is Screen at 100%. Second layer is Color Burn at 35%, Third layer is Linear Light at 70%. Fourth layer is Hard Mix at 10% and the bottom layer is the original.
Same four layers. But I changed the Linear Light to Linear Dodge at 50% and increased the Hard Mix to 20%. I could play with this photo for days!!
Happy Friday! We’ve got a something special for you today. It’s our Summer Dreamin’ Flash Sale. 55% off select products for 4 days only. Take a look below our Fresh Baked items to see a sampling of items in the sale.
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.
Here are some of the new items in the store this week.
Are you ready to see a sampling of items that are in the sale?
How are your challenges going? Complete any 10 challenges to get this kit as a reward.
Celebrating Grads and Dads Again
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3yYDDVH
Are y’all getting tired of font-based posts? Lately I’ve been looking at fonts from a bit of a different perspective, searching for those that would be suitable for cutting with my Cricut for cards. When I was making my Father’s Day cards this year, I ended up using an old standby, Lumberjack Regular – the very font I use to create the text on my tutorial screenshots. I think it worked fairly well, considering the text I cut was only about 1/2 an inch tall…
While I was browsing at dafont.com, I noticed a few [100% free, no-pennies!!] fonts that I could easily use to create titles for graduation and Father’s Day layouts too. I’m going to share some of them with you today. As with past font posts, each is linked directly to the download to make it easier for me to enable your font hoarding. Just click on the font name, in red.
I think this grungy font Nexa Rust Slab would work for both grads and dads. It might look fabulous with one of the gradient techniques we’ve played with recently.
College Boy has a varsity vibe and could be used for both titling and text.
Reach has several variations included in the download.
Stitch’n School has a letterman’s jacket look to it. I wish I could have put my letter on my varsity curling sweater.
Athletica already has a gradient applied!! I would probably find a way to make it metallic using Styles.
Now for the dads… Hot Winner Team might actually be suitable for both. I like the condensed form and the funky angle on the horizontal aspects of the letters.
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This one, Hand Shop Typography A20 is sort of similar, but still different enough. Be advised, the only numerals in the download are the 2 and the 0.
I like the vintage look to Rumble Brave. It’s a bit of a fairytale-hero font, don’t you think?
I love the texture I see with Inlander. It could be zhuzhed up with some Styles for a unique title. Chipboard or felt would be perfect.
Kingston Roman makes me think of gladiators. Who doesn’t love a good toga? 😉
Speaking of superheroes… Smallville actually included the curved title! You can find it by using the tilde [ ~ ] key.
Catastrophic Consequences is perfect for journaling. Clean, upright, legible – exactly what good journaling needs.
Here’s one for the gamer dads. Darks Skyrim has so much potential. I could see it with a shiny shades-of-blue gradient. Yeah!!
And one more journaling font, Philosopher. It’s a little fancier but still clean and clear.
I’ll confess, I’m really struggling with scrapping inspiration and even more with tutorial topics. After almost 350 tuts, it’s really hard to come up with fresh stuff. I may have to make some changes. Stay tuned.
It is the 1st of the month and you know what that means; a huge, exciting newsletter! We have a New Buffet, New Monthly Mix, New Free With Purchase Collab, New Challenge Reward, a New Daily Download on the GingerScraps Blog, and exciting designer announcements!
Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.
I love the purples in this. Perfect colors for my birthday month.
Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab.
Embrace the charm of each new day with the Feel The Freshness Digital Scrapbooking Kit, created by the GingerBread Ladies! Featuring delightful peach and green color tones, this whimsical collection is perfect for capturing the beauty of fresh starts and everyday moments. Adorn your scrapbook pages with adorable elements and playful designs that bring a sense of joy and renewal. Whether you’re documenting a morning routine or a special occasion, Feel The Freshness adds a touch of enchantment to every memory. Start your creative journey and let your scrapbooks bloom with this delightful kit!
This Free With Purchase was created by Adrienne Skelton, Cutie Pie Scraps, Magical Scraps Galore, and ScrapChat Designs.
This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 52 Papers, and 89 Elements.
Celebrate timeless romance with the Antique Love Digital Scrapbooking Collab by The GingerBread Ladies. Perfect for wedding photos, this elegant collection features everything you need to preserve your special day. Adorn your pages with exquisite wedding cakes, a charming cake topper, classic tuxedo, beautiful dresses, and an abundance of flowers. With its soft, romantic tones, Antique Love brings a touch of vintage elegance to every memory. Capture the essence of your love story and create stunning, heartfelt scrapbooks with this enchanting kit.
This Monthly Mix was created by ADB Designs, Alexis Design Studio, Karen Schulz, Tami Miller Designs, The Scrappy Kat, and Tinci Designs.
This kit includes: 7 Alphas {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 64 Papers, 114 Elements, and 4 12×12 Template {page, png, psd, tif file formats}.
Now to the June Daily Download Sneak Peek. This month’s Daily Download is from Carol W Designs! Make sure you are checking the blog every day to get all the pieces of this kit!
We are happy to announce that Let Me Scrapbook is staying on permantly to become part of the GingerScraps family.
We have a new guest designer for June.
Bio:
Hi!!! I am Dasha aka Angelle, 41 yo, I live in a small town in the East of Russia. I am married and have 3 sons, 17, 11 and 6 yo. Sometimes they drive me really crazy, but they are all I wished for in this life) Love them to the moon and back and even more!
As for my designing career – I started designing back in 2010 and since then I’ve changed 4 or 5 stores, cause they had been closing, it’s so sad that all of them are gone now… But returning to Ginger Scraps makes me incredibly happy! I love this place so much and can’t wait to share my new creations with all of you!
Take a look at the new challenge reward kit. If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward!
Take your memories to new heights with the Airplane Mode Collab by the GingerBread Ladies! This vibrant collection features an array of travel-themed elements, including playful airplanes, passports, and captivating word art. Perfect for documenting your adventures, this kit bursts with bright colors that will make your scrapbook pages soar. Whether you’re capturing a family vacation or your globetrotting escapades, Airplane Mode has everything you need to create stunning, high-flying designs. Elevate your scrapbooking experience and let your creativity take flight with Airplane Mode!
This Challenge Reward was created by Connie Prince, Heather Z Scraps, Key Lime Digi Design, Memory Mosaic, and Scraps N Pieces.
This kit includes: 9 Alphas {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 58 Papers, 104 Elements.
Below are some beautiful sample layouts from our wonderful store creative team using the Buffet kits.
