Blog — Page 28

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

Jun

2023

Are They Scribbles? Doodles?

How was your week? Mine was ridiculously busy! We had a bit of a disaster-in-the-making when the top window frame molding in our family room just… came off. There’s a drapery rod attached to it, and it was hanging on to the wall just by a bead of caulk. <horrified> Turns out it was only secured to the wall with pin nails. Now it’s firmly screwed into the studs and everything is back in place. <whispers… my husband is NOT handy… pass me the drill and the screwdriver then step away from the ladder!> Anyway.

I was looking at my private messages and saw another one from Glee asking about using doodles. In May one of the Challenges required the use of either doodles or scribbles. They can be amazing additions to a layout, but how? And is there a difference? What follows is how I use them – and it’s all ONLY MY OPINION so consider what I say accordingly.

Doodles and scribbles are essentially the same thing, with doodles often taking some identifiable form. Some designers create doodles then colour inside the lines to make what looks more like a sticker. I’m not going to say anything much about those; I see them as simply another element to add to clusters. But scribbles? They can add such a cool touch. Scribble/doodle implies the result is sitting right on the paper, so my inclination is to put them in the background, on my (neutral) background paper. I pulled a bunch of scribbles from my GingerScraps stash and will show you what I mean. Keep in mind that you can recolour, change the Blend Mode and/or Opacity or add Layer Styles to all of them to change up the way they work with your layouts.

Scribbles and doodles are casual things, typically something we do with our hands while we’re required to pay attention to something else. When set into the background of a layout, they’re an anchor for everything that touches them and add a nice whimsy. That’s not to say they aren’t useful in a more formal setting. Ultimately, your layouts are YOUR layouts and you can do whatever you want.

Because I’m very visual, I tend to look at the scribble and think about the most appropriate use for it. With this one, oriented horizontally as shown, it almost looks like a scrawled signature. I might put it behind a ribbon or narrow strip of paper. It could also anchor a photo to the background.

I see this one in my mind’s eye tying together a list, a series of word strips or even several small photos.

Look at all that fury! The dark, heavy lines speak ANGER to me, making it perfect for art journaling.

Anybody like a #2 pencil? I have several boxes of them in my craft room. Maybe that’s why I like this scribble so much.

This is the actual size for this scribble when I dragged-and-dropped! I just had to play with it.

When I changed the Blend Mode to Overlay I loved the result. I might decide to Duplicate the layer though to give it just a touch more presence.

I like how sinuous this one is. I could see having several smaller photos overlapping the sides of it but letting most of the visual impact remain.

This aggressive scribble makes me think of people who sign documents with a great big flourish.

I instantly felt happy when I saw this. It’s so bubbly! It could make a sweet anchor for a cluster.

Sorta like this!

I would frame a face in a photo with this one. But my OCD would make me use it in such a way as to get the entire scribble inside the boundaries of that photo. Unless… I went down the realism rabbit hole… Maybe I’d turn it into a sticker by adding a white stroke around it. Then it would be a doodle. 😀

I might use this to underline a title or as a divider between title and journaling. Or. A border!

With a little Rotating, Flipping, Solid Fill Layering and decreasing Opacity I came up with this. It would be equally appropriate as a background paper border or a photo border.

I loved this one so much the second I saw it.

What say you?

This is definitely a background anchor.

It took me a minute to think about what I’d use this with. I think it could overlap the edge of a photo or even give it a don’t-like-this vibe.

But then… how about a very simple siggy?

Or a variation?

I’m going to use at least one scribble/doodle on a layout later today. See if you can pick out what I’ve done when it shows in the Gallery.

Next week is our monthly Challenge Spotlight, when YOU take centre-stage. See you then!

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

June 9, 2023: Fresh Baked and SUMMER DREAMIN’ SALE

Jun

2023

We have a great sale for you starting today. It’s our Summer Dreamin’ Flash Sale. Select items in the store are 55% off today (June 9) through June 12.

Remember if you spend $10 in the store you will get this great kit for free.

Let’s see some of the new items in the shop.

And now let’s see a sampling of what our designers have picked for the Summer Dreamin’ Flash Sale.

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies, sales Tagged With: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies, sales

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Jun

2023

3D Title – Paper Letters

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3N838aO

Today’s tutorial is in response to a request from Glee. She’d seen a layout in a gallery created by biche57 that had a paper-letter title with the letters stitched to the background. The letters appeared to be lifted away from the background, sort of like butterfly wings. “How’d she do that??” Well, this is how JAN would do it…

I’m using the June Font Challenge font for my layout, and then Clipping papers to each individual letters. You can absolutely use an alpha to get it done faster and with fewer steps. The papers I’m using are from the GingerBread Ladies‘ collab Outdoorsy.

Here’s a little Quick Trick I just discovered. You can BATCH-SIMPLIFY all the text layers! To activate them all, click>shift click on the first and last text layers. Then right-click and choose Simplify Layer.

Here you can see that I’ve Clipped papers to each letter layer. Right-click>Create Clipping Mask or CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>G for Elements versions 15 and newer. For older versions the shortcut is just CTRL/CMD>G. To make each letter easier to manage, the paper and letter layers should be Merged. Activate the two layers then right-click>Merge or CTRL/CMD>E.

There! Now I have my paper title. Let’s stitch them down.

My granddaughter’s backpack is lavender, so I thought, why not use lavender stitches? You can put those stitches wherever you like; they’ll be your anchor for lifting the paper, so I felt it was best if I ran the stitches through the centre of the Bs.

We’re creating the illusion that those letters are lifted away from the background, and the easiest way to do that is to use custom shadows. For a lot of you this will be a review so feel free to skip ahead. I won’t mind! (I also won’t know. 😉 ) For those who haven’t seen the previous custom-shadow tuts, we start with Selecting the outline of the object we’re shadowing. To do that, CTRL/CMD>click on the letter’s thumbnail – that little picture of what’s on that layer – in the Layers Panel. That engages the marching ants and gets them doing their drill around the contours of the letter.

Now add a new blank layer UNDERNEATH the layer you’ve just selected. CTRL/CMD>click on the sheet-of-paper icon at the top left of the Layers Panel.

Over at the Color Picker, choose your shadow colour by clicking on the Foreground Color as shown. I’m using black [#000000] but a lot of people like a browner colour like #2c2801. It’s up to you. Then grab the Paint Bucket Tool and dump it into the outline.

Before Elements will let you do anything else, you’ll have to Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D to stop the ants from marching.

The quickest, most effective way to simulate lifting the paper away is to use the Image>Transform>Distort Tool. This lets us change both the size and shape of the image in all directions. The only real limit is how far you take it. Remember to have your shadows all falling in the same direction; decide where your light source is so you can be consistent.

Click-drag one corner of the Bounding Box at a time until you get the shape you want. See how my Bounding Box isn’t symmetrical any more?

To hone the shadow and add realism to it, the shadow needs to be very narrow where the stitches are holding the letter down. I use the Smudge Tool for that. I push the shadow toward the letter at the stitches, and pull the shadow away where I want the paper lifting. The Smudge Tool also adds a slight Blur, but not usually enough to look real.

So… we’ll add a Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur… to the shadow.

To be able to see a Preview of the Filter, click your cursor on the edge of your shadow. Then you can see up close how moving the slider softens the edges of your shadow. Remember, shadows are softer the more light is allowed to leak underneath an object – the farther away from the surface it’s sitting on it is, the softer the shadow. Hot Tip: you don’t have to go through all the Filter steps if you’re going to use the same settings for each layer. Just click CTRL/CMD>F and Elements will do the rest.

To be realistic, the background colour shows through the shadow. To achieve that requires changing the Blend Mode from Normal to Linear Burn.

To make it look less stark and harsh, decrease the Opacity of that shadow layer. Move the slider until you’re happy with what you see. I like 35% – for now – and it’ll be adjustable if I decide it’s too light or dark.

After each letter is shadowed, the stitches need shadows too. I just went with the same steps, but without the Distort and Smudge. I also used a much lighter touch with the Blur because the stitches are literally IN the paper so the shadows will be sharper.

Last thing is to make any tweaks you think will make your title really POP. I just use the Smudge Tool!

I know this method of creating shadows sounds complicated and labour-intensive. At first, it really is. But the more you do it, the easier and more intuitive it becomes. I don’t even really think about the steps now, they’re so familiar. It’s the shadows that really elevate a layout, so it’s worth practicing. Don’t forget to have fun! Next week we’re going to play with doodles.

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Fantastic Fonts, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Designer Spotlight: June 2023

Jun

2023

Designs by Lisa Minor

Time has gotten away from me lately. I have so many things on the go right now… so it took some finagling to arrange a chat with this month’s Spotlight designer, Lisa Minor. Finally it all came together, so read on for a transcript of our visit. As usual, we’ll get the formalities out of the way right off the top.

J: Lisa, thanks for taking time to chat! Let’s get down to business so the community at GingerScraps can get to know you better. How long have you been designing?

L: Over 20 years. Can it be that long, really?

J: That IS a long time! What brought you to designing?

L: First, the discovery of digital! Instead of making 5 books every year for family, I could just make ONE and print them all! Second,
the design process can be LONG and TEDIOUS at times, but it’s oh so rewarding as well. To look at the things you’ve created from
everyday inspirations in your life is such a JOY to me. When I first began to “try it out” it quickly became a “what else can I do”
situation. Which is probably why my kits are so big.

J: I was pretty late to the party. I didn’t find digital scrapbooking until 2008, and didn’t get my feet wet until 2010. Funny where life takes us. It never occurred to me that I’d ever have skills, especially skills enough to be invited to teach them to others. Do you have other passions?

L: Yes, I love to do advocacy work with families who are having difficulty partnering with their schools for children with ADD/ADHD.
I also love working in children’s ministries at my church. My target group is grades 4,5,6.

J: Wow! That’s such valuable work. My entire nursing career was in pediatrics, so we have a love of special children in common. What is your favorite recent memory?

L: The birth of my 2 grandchildren this year. Arthur, born March 1, 2023 and AJ born May 7, 2023.

J: Grandchildren are such a blessing! I have three; Jonathan is going to be 9 in a few weeks, Aaron was 7 in January and Miriam will be 5 two days before J’s birthday. They have a cousin whose birthday is in between theirs, so they have one big joint party for the three of them. Aaron is all by his lonesome, and I think he’s happy with that! If time travel was possible, would you go back in time or ahead? Why?
L: Back of course, and I would invest in Google, ha!

J: Wouldn’t that be something? You’d make a killing! I’d be all over the place. I used to say I’d want to spend time with my Swedish great-grandmother because I knew very little about her. But thanks to a random act of genealogical kindness, I’ve learned all kinds of information about her and her parents. My new wish is to visit my very British great-great-grandmother and ask her why she wasn’t able to stick it out in Canada with her husband; she tried 3 times and returned to England 3 times. Anyway…….. What is your most prized possession?

L: A jewelry box given to me by my stepfather when I was 10. I will NEVER get rid of it.

J: I have a jewelry box that belonged to my aunt that I treasure. I also have the gold-rimmed champagne glasses my British great-grandparents used to toast their golden anniversary. Which meal is your favorite?

L: ALL of them, but I love breakfast the most. My go to is a slice of bacon and some vanilla yogurt.

J: Mmm… yogurt! I like vanilla Greek yogurt with stewed rhubarb. I tried it for the first time in Ireland and was hooked. Are you a reader? What was the last book you read?

L: The Boys by Ron and Clint Howard. It’s a fabulous read.

J: I bet! I see both of them on METV… watch it on weekends with my son, who loves the old Western shows. What is the most essential thing you do every day?

L: COFFEE, COFFEE, and did I mention, COFFEE!

J: Shall I pour you some more? 😉 While I’m up, think about this. What is something an outsider most likely would not know about your industry?

L: The time spent on advertising on social media and promoting your products is just as consuming as the actual design process.
It takes an inordinate amount of time and MASSIVE organizational skills to keep up with it all.

J: I’m happy to make my small contribution to helping share your business. Ladies, Lisa is providing the Daily Download [links here on the Blog, every day] and hosting this month’s Designer Spotlight Challenge, of course. But did you know she also hosts the Pinterest Challenge? This month she’s also offering a coupon to her store! Be sure to check it all out.

See you all in July!!

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Daily Download, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Feature Designer Tagged With: Designer Spotlight

June 2, 2023: Fresh Baked

Jun

2023

Happy Friday everyone! My week has been all messed up with the holiday on Monday so I’m not sure if its really Friday or not. (Good news – it is!)

Remember with $10 spend in the store, you get this beautful kit for free.

Let’s see what our deisgners have for us this week!

Don’t forget to work on those challenges. This kit is yours as a reward if you complete any 10 challenges. I just love these colors.

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies Tagged With: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies

GingerScraps: New FREE with Purchase Collab, New Monthly Mix, NEW Guest Designer & More!!

Jun

2023

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, New Daily Download on the GingerScraps Blog, & a New Guest Designer!

Let’s start out with the June Buffet. Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.

Aren’t the buffet colors gorgeous? And with the buffet kits, you can mix and match to get the perfect kit for you.

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab. Are you ready for some {summer lovin’}?

This Free With Purchase was created by Cutie Pie Scraps, Lindsay Jane, Magical Scraps Galore, and Scraps N Pieces.

This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 43 Papers, and 81 Elements.

I love this month’s Monthly Mix. It’s a {joyful june}.

This Monthly Mix was created by ADB Designs, Alexis Design Studio, Karen Schulz, Tami Miller Designs, and The Scrappy Kat.

This collab includes: 3 Alphas {2 Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation & 1 Lowercase Only}, 65 Papers, 99 Elements.

Now to the June Daily Download Sneak Peek. This month’s Daily Download is from Designs by Lisa Minor! Make sure you are checking the blog every day to get all the pieces of this kit!

We have a new guest designer for June. For those of you that have been around awhile, she will be familliar.

Twin Mom Scraps

BIO:
Behind the name Twin Mom Scraps, I am Rebecca, married, and the mom to twin girls. My girls are now 18 years old and just graduated High School! I started designing back in 2008 (I think), when my girls were only 3 years old. After an almost 10 year hiatus from designing…I’m Back!! I never stopped scrapping and, one of my biggest accomplishments is that, I have scrapped EVERY year of their life, including a printed scrapbook for EACH year (actually 2 albums for each year, so they can each have one).

In my free time, my hobbies include chicken keeping my flock of 20+ chickens (I’ve lost count), hanging with our German Shorthair Pointers, and hunting/fishing with the family.

Are you ready for the June challenges? Remember any 10 completed challenges gets you this great kit.

This Challenge Reward was created by Connie Prince, Heather Z Scraps, Memory Mosaic, Tinci Designs, and Trixie Scraps.

This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 48 Papers, 86 Elements, 4 12×12 Template {page, png, psd, tif file formats}.

Here are a few layouts from our talented store CT using the June Monthly Mix.

Filed Under: Buffet, Daily Download, Digital Scrapbooking, GingerBread Ladies, Guest Designer Tagged With: buffet, Daily Download, Digital Scrapbooking, GingerBread Ladies, guest designer

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

May

2023

Quick Trick: Dropping Things Where You Want Them

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3oLcNMb

And that’s a wrap on May… Time for our Quick Trick of the month. This handy little tip may just blow your mind!

Back in the earlier versions of Photoshop Elements, dragging and dropping objects onto our templates was simple. You activated the layer where you wanted your (flower) and when you dragged it up onto the template it landed on the layer where it was intended to be. Then somewhere around Elements 14, that all changed. Suddenly it didn’t matter what layer was active, it seemed Elements put the (flower) wherever it wanted. Randomly. It’s incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to constantly have to move things up and down the template’s layers stack and I know it was a MAJOR pet peeve for me. Why mess with something that worked?? Well, let me show you how to get around Elements‘ penchant for doing its own thing.

I’ve got the May Template Challenge template from Tinci Designs open on my workspace. I also have a daisy-like flower element from Cindy Ritter‘s Real Moments-Metamorphosis open and plan to put it where the large dark pink place holders are.

If I just drag-and-drop… um NO! That’s not where I want it. It seems random but it really isn’t, as you’ll see in a second.

By taking an extra nanosecond to be precise and intentional, I dragged the flower up and positioned the Move Tool cursor – looks like a pointing finger as shown (enlarged for visibility) – over the exact place holder I want to swap out, THEN drop it.

And there’s the flower… right on the layer where I want it! (Of course, it still drops in the centre of the canvas, but at least it only needs to be shifted into place, not moved up or down the stack.) Now, this isn’t 100% perfect. For example, if you’re working with a particularly small object on the template, it may be difficult to get the cursor on the exact layer. I’ve found that if I Zoom in on the template I have better success in those situations. Going just a smidge slower actually speeds up my workflow!

Give this a try if you’re working with Elements 14 or later and let me know how you like it.

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

May 26, 2023: Fresh Baked

May

2023

We’ve made it to another Friday. It’s a holiday weekend in the US (Memorial Day). Do you have special plans for the weekend?

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab, perfect for all your outdoorsy photos!

Let’s see what the designers have for us this week.

Have you grabbed the May Monthtly Mix? Only a few more days to get it at this price.

And you only have a few more days to get your challenges done and posted. Remember, complete any 10 challenges to get this kit as a reward.

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies Tagged With: Digital Scrapbooking, Fresh Baked, GingerBread Ladies

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

May

2023

Challenge Spotlight: Jumpstart Your Layouts

It seems we’ve come full-circle! The first Challenge Spotlight appeared on September 21, 2021 with Jumpstart Your Layouts. Since then we’ve looked at how scrappers’ individual style is demonstrated by how they meet the challenge of using a specific kit, brush, mask, template, theme or set of instructions. The Challenges we haven’t examined are too broad to meet the criteria. <winks>

Now we’re back at the beginning. Sheri, the creative mind and hands known as Jumpstart Designs, has had some rough personal crises to deal with lately, but she still managed to bring us a super-cute mini to Jumpstart Our Layouts. It’s SO super-cute in fact that I’ve had to use the very egalitarian method of selecting every second layout to showcase today… otherwise this post would go on for a lo-o-o-ng time. As usual, I’m going to link each layout to its spot in the Gallery so you can see it in greater detail, and hopefully leave some words of praise for the scrapper. Just click on the scrapper’s name and you’re there. But first, let’s look at the mini itself. [Sheri always makes a bundled kit to go with it, so if you like it*, grab it!]

I’ve downloaded the mini but haven’t yet done anything with it. Lucky for you, we’re going to look at a BUNCH of ways to use it!

The very first scrapper to post to the Challenge Gallery was KAPOH. She always creates these 5×7 masterpieces. She’s turned the floral paper into a rounded, wrapped frame. I love how the little girl’s feet (from the add-on kit) are hanging over the edge. So simple, and so sweet!

Next up is makeyesup. Her photos of a child sleeping in a swing are framed with the included frame element, sandwiching a cluster both simple and sweet. I like how she’s used the coral-dotted paper as ribbon dividers.

Alasandra has also used some of the papers in small strips. Her diagonal design draws the eye to her photo (how do kids and cats sleep with their heads up like that?). The circular cut in her background paper backed by the yellow striped paper looks like a crescent moon. Strong work!

There’s so much to see in this layout from lulutoo. She’s used the ombré paper as her background, and applied a sketch filter to a photo of the sleeping child over the blue side. The mini’s papers are in narrow strips, anchoring her photo and look how she’s got the bears’ heads together in slumber. A+!

Here, demma_b13 has used more than just the mini, although it’s very well-represented. Her clusters are divine!!

I love everything about zotova‘s layout. I struggle with using patterned papers as backgrounds, but she clearly doesn’t! Her nearly-identical but casually NOT-identical clusters frame her photo and add visual interest.

The way dhariana has sliced her photo and plaid paper swatch is intriguing. Her layout is one of those clean-and-simple ones I can’t manage to emulate.

This layout from lulumoon doesn’t use any part of the (free) mini – she went for the whole enchilada! I think she may be trying for the prize* Sheri promised. 😉 Her arrangement of elements on the diagonal give the impression they’re holding up the hammock. Genius!

Is there anything more heart-warming than a baby and a daddy napping together? I’m pretty sure linweb knew she’d melt hearts with her simple layout focused on those photos.

What do you do when you have a photo you want to use but it doesn’t really work with the colour palette of your chosen kit? You do what loonyhiker did… turn it into a black-and-white! Then you can do whatever you like.

For this layout, Pups_r_Paps has bent the rules a little. She’s used some of the elements from the mini and added some elements from an unrelated other of Sheri‘s kits.

Every parent knows this feeling! The simplicity of andastra‘s layout represents that bone-deep fatigue exceedingly well.

NHSoxGirl has created a digital spiral-bound memory book with her layout. The repeating circles tie the layout together beautifully.

For her layout, granny5pics has added quite a few interesting touches. She elongated the paper frame into an ellipse, clipped the blue-starred paper to it and cut a scalloped border on the ombré paper. Oh, and she put her date into the word art using a very similar font so it looks like it has always been there. Well done, Kathi!

Last, but not least, there’s this beaut from willow. That babe is communicating very clearly – DON’T BUG ME! I like that the large-and-in-charge photo is subtly blended into the blue-starred paper and the cluster is positioned perfectly.

* Here’s the scoop on the prize I mentioned earlier, in Sheri‘s own word… “WIN WIN WIN! I have also decided to add another reward for those who purchased the Limited Edition KIT from my shop during the month. After the month is over I will do a random drawing from the list of challenge customers who bought the KIT and THREE people will WIN the next month’s Limited Edition KIT FREE! Be sure to check your PM’s here at Gingerscraps so see if you were one of April’s winners!”

What do you think? Will you be in the running? I’m ver-r-r-r-y tempted!