Designer Spotlight October 2024

October 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Cheré Kaye Designs

It’s still October, right? I can’t be the only one finding that time is compressing, am I? Before any more of this month disappears on me, let’s get to know Cheré Kaye!

We had a chance to chat last week. I’ll paraphrase our get-acquainted session for you.

J: Thanks for being willing to let me pick your brain for awhile. I think this is your first Designer Spotlight, so most of our GingerScrappers won’t know you. Why don’t we do the obligatory “why did you decide to start designing” thing and get it out of the way.

C: I was a card maker and paper scrapbooker for a long time. When my daughter came home, I wanted different products that I could not find in my local store, and I discovered digital scrapbooking. THEN, I wanted to make things that fit what I was doing even more specifically, so I started designing so I could have exactly what I wanted. It snowballed from there, and I never looked back.

J: I hear something along those lines a lot. Necessity (or simple desire) is the mother of invention. “Nobody’s doing it: somebody’s gotta do it, and maybe I’m the somebody.” But not everybody will share their creations, so thank you! Now, what tools do you use to create your designs?

C: Everything always ends up in Photoshop eventually, but my favorite program to start in is Procreate on my iPad. It just gives me so much freedom and it feels like ‘real’ art supplies without the mess. I love it.

J: I’m not an Apple person, so I know almost nothing about Procreate. It’s great that you’re able to move your work between platforms. One of the best things I learned was about hex codes, so I could coordinate colours. Do you have any favourite colours, or ones that you really hate?

C: I love jewel tones, like teal and coral and navy. I love the LOOK of yellow, but I have a difficult time with it, because it always ends up looking muddy if I’m not careful.

J: I like jewel tones myself. But yellow always makes me think of isolation gowns and that’s not a pleasant connotation! Had I known I’d spend so much time wearing them, I might have changed my mind about having a nursing career. <winks> What did you want to be when you grew up?

C:  I wanted to be a musician and an artist. I’ve had the opportunity to be both, so I know I’m really lucky.

J: Ooh, can you play a musical instrument?

C: I can play several, although I’m probably most proficient at the piano. I can also fiddle around with guitar, trombone, flute, and a few others. I also love to sing.

J: Wow! That’s awesome! My oldest grandson is learning to play the cello. I like to sing, but only for my own consumption. I do sound pretty decent when I sing in the garage – I’m refinishing some furniture to a 60s and 70s soundtrack. I seem to bite off more than I can chew, and wish I didn’t. Is there anything about yourself you’d like to change?

C: People pleasing. I worry so much about what other people think that it drags me down and I seldom do what *I* want to do. I would love to be able to still be kind to everyone else but have my spine firmly in place.

J: Mmm. Saying no can be really hard when that’s not how you’re wired. I know there are more than a few things I’d never do if I had the chance to go back and undo them. If you could time travel, would you go ahead, or back?

C: I’d go back just a few months and meet my granddaughter a little sooner. 🙂

J: <big smile> I hear you! I’d love to spend more time with my own three, but international travel is so expensive and unpredictable. What would you do if money was no object – a lottery win paid off all your bills and you can do anything?

C: Honestly, pretty much the same things I do now, but without the worry about our day to day needs. I’d pay all our bills, get us some reliable things that we need, give to people and organizations we know that need, and bank the rest.

J: There’s that people-pleaser again. So that opens the door for this: Aside from necessities, what’s the one thing you could never live without?

C: Probably my iPad. I use it for everything. My business, watching movies, exploring new ways to be creative, playing games, all sorts of stuff. I love that thing.

J: Technology. Our double-edged sword. It’s made our world so much smaller. I use it for so many things, but one constant is looking up recipes for foods I’d like to try. One of these days I’m going to make some runzas, after seeing Tim Walz talk about how good they are. Is there one food above all others that you could eat everyday?

C: For sure, sushi. I love it.

J: I’m more of a katsu/donburi fan if we’re having Japanese. Now I’m hungry. And I just realized I didn’t take anything out for supper. So I’ll have to run!! Thank you again for chatting with me!

Before I jet, I want to make sure I’ve done Cheré justice with this post. Make sure you check out her Daily Download, AND her Designer Spotlight Challenge. Cheré is generously offering a 40% off coupon for the whole month, with the coupon code Spot40CKD. And don’t forget she also hosts the monthly Word Art Challenge. I know there’s a lot going on right now in the store and the Forum, so I’ve linked stuff up for you. Wherever you see some bold, underlined text, that’s your link. Make sure you give it all a look!

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Daily Download, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Feature Designer, GingerBread Ladies, Inside the Artists Studio Tagged With:

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

October 1, 2024 by 3 Comments

Paper-to-Digi Tone-on-Tone “Heat Embossing”

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3Y74JUO

Faithful readers, I have to thank you once again for your tolerance! So much has happened in the last 6 weeks, my head is still spinning. But I’m ready to get back to normal now.

Where are my paper-scrappers? I’m always looking for ways to bring paper techniques to digital scrapbooking, with the goal of creating realistic dupes. When I was watching a video tutorial with the über-creative Gina K, it never even occurred to me that this particular technique would translate as well as it did, so hang on! I’m talking about tone-on-tone heat embossing, of course! For those who were never paper-creators, let’s explore. Heat embossing is a technique that uses slow-drying watermark or pigment ink, stamps and embossing powders to create slightly raised, slightly (or brilliantly – depending on the powder) shiny embossed looks on paper. The ink is applied to the paper with the stamp, then powder is poured over the ink. Yes… it’s messy! Then the embossing powder is carefully melted using a heat gun. Yes, fingers get singed… unless like Gina, one holds their paper in a clothespin. The look is beautiful, which is why people do it. But how does it work in the digi world, you ask? Let’s check it out.

Gina demonstrated with gold and silver paper, as well as a solid colour so let’s do just that. We’ll start with gold. The cardstock she used had a slight shimmer and this one doesn’t but it doesn’t matter.

The digital version of stamps are Brushes. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, please get in the habit of putting your Brushes on their own layers. First, and most important, by doing this, when you make changes to the Brush, you only change THE BRUSH. For example, I’ll be using Styles to dupe the ink-embossing powder combo; if the Brush is right on the paper layer, when I apply the Style, Elements is going to change the whole shebang, not just the Brush… and you’ll be mad. In addition, by isolating the Brush this way, you can Resize, Rotate and Flip your Brushes for the best effect.

Are you familiar with brusheezy.com? They have millions of FREE, no-pennies Brushes. The one I used comes in THIS set (which isn’t free any more, sorry!). As the screenshot says, you’ll get best results with a Brush with some solid areas and sharp details. THESE ones would be great, too, and it IS free.

There are 3 ways to find your Styles. The long way is to click Window>Styles. The keyboard shortcut is F6, and the quickest way is just to click on the Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel.

To see all the Styles that have been Loaded in Elements, click on the bar shown at the top of the Layers Panel. Scroll down the list and find the set you want. Or if the set you want isn’t there, Load it. [If you’re shaky on how to do that, The Style File: Where is It? can help.]

I tried this particular version with several different gold Styles and settled on this one. It came from a non-GS source, so I won’t link it here. I wasn’t able to find anything suitable in the GS shop, but maybe we could ask for one!

Wut?! Look at that! I think it’s just a bit too thick – the paper method would need several coats of ink and embossing powder and nobody’s got time for that! But it definitely is pretty!

Shaving some of that Bevel is super-easy in Elements. Just double-click on the fx icon on the Brush layer and the Style dialog box will open. First thing I like to do is make sure the Lighting Angle is the same as the rest of my layout so it doesn’t make the brain scramble. Then I slide the Bevel slider to the left until I like the result. I went from the default 20 pixels to 6 and it’s a lot less in your face.

I followed all the same steps for this silver version, only this time I was able to use a GS product! It’s a Karen Schulz Style set. The result could use a little deflation… kinda chunky.

This time I did something a little different. I went literally tone-on-tone. You can see the red Brush against the red paper, and it’s a nice look. Changing Blend Modes might make it really spectacular, but that’s not what we’re doing today.

The closest to a heat-embossed look for this example was to apply another Karen Schulz Style set, this time Glass. [We’ve used that set before.]

Just for kicks, I tried the gold Style on the red.

And the silver one too! I think I like it better than the gold.

Really, the possibilities here are endless.

 

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Let's Get Crafty, Tutorials Tagged With:

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

September 24, 2024 by 4 Comments

Challenge Spotlight: Real Moments

Yes, it’s me. I’m back. Dad’s celebration of life was on Saturday and life can go back to normal. Thank you all so much for you condolences and words of support. They really meant everything. So it’s quite fitting that today I shine the spotlight on you and your talents! (Must be the universe talking…)

This month’s Spotlight Challenge is Buzzbee Scraps‘s Real Moments. Here’s how she worded her Challenge: “This month I would love you to think about music. How does music feature in your day to day life? Do you listen daily? What motivates you musically? Or, is there a particular piece of music that always takes you back to a moment in time?” Music is as personal as fingerprints, so I think you’ll find these layouts, tied together by a theme, are revealing and moving. This month, rather than go to the Gallery and Save all the layouts there, I decided to instead pull only the ones that have also been added to the Forum thread. As alwaus, each layout will be linked to the Gallery so you can take a closer look and leave a comment, if you’re so inclined. Just click on the GingerScrapper‘s user name and you”ll be whisked right to it!

First up is this pretty, nostalgic layout by demma13. It’s clear that music soothes her, and the AI image she’s used, with that little flock of doves, certainly reflects that. How perfectly placed is that old-time radio!

Next up is zippyoh. She’s chosen to share her favourite Spotify playlist for 2023. I zoomed in to read it and it’s an eclectic mix of genres, tempos, topics and moods. The iPhone element and the speedwalking gnome are just right to accompany the list.

For her layout, lawyerlyn chose to journal the lyrics of Let the River Run, an incredibly beautiful Carly Simon song – one I have on my own playlist. The photos appear to be sharing her favourite river scenes with us in support of her theme.

CathyS is all of us! Who doesn’t listen to their favourite music while they’re driving their car? Yesterday when I was driving back from Kamloops, I had my SiriusXM set to The Highway and I was belting out all the tunes. Like Cathy said, music takes my mind off the traffic and the winding mountain road, without distracting enough to be dangerous. She listens to praise music, I listen to country. 😉

It looks to me like fontaine and her granddaughter use music as a falling-asleep routine away from home. (I can’t do that because the lyrics will run through my brain all night!) There’s that iPhone element again!

Ooh, do I relate to this photo!! Windswept must be in the same demographic as I am; not too many people listen to music on vinyl any more. Her comment about good and bad is an astute one. I know you know what we mean, that some songs evoke very strong reactions based on memories and the emotions they elicit.

I love this layout so hard!! Margaritaville is part of the soundtrack of my teenage years and gadawg83 has really captured the whole vibe.

For linweb, music is like a touchstone she uses to inspire, to comfort and to praise God.

5grand hears the music of nature. Birds have songs that are identifiable to those who take the time to listen. I hear red-winged blackbirds and quail everyday. At night I hear a screech owl calling to his mate, crickets chirping and frogs croaking. Sometimes I hear coyotes yipping to each other. Soon the crickets and frogs will be replaced by ducks and geese as they make their way south. And indeed, that is the music of life.

Here, kabrak1207 is simply celebrating music. The fellow in the top hat seated at the piano gives a sense of a sweeping crescendo of notes.

Tbear and her grandchildren play the same game I play with my son. He LOVES made-up lyrics and sometimes forgets they’re made up. Don’t you adore the little girl, standing on the staff of music, smiling enthusiastically?

MarilynZ‘s playlist is filled with oldies from the 50s and 60s. Did you know that the music popular when you were 14 to 17 is the music that will always be the music you love most? For me, that’s 1972-1975. And it’s 100% accurate! What’s your heartsong playlist?

DiDi’s Mom‘s layout showcases her favourite hymn. It confuses me a bit, with its somber colour palette, when the lyrics are quite optimistic and joyful. That makes me want to know more…

This layout from granny5pics made me laugh out loud. Acoustics are everything when it comes to music and my singing voice always sounds a LOT better in the shower.

Musical theatre is another one of my loves. I related so strongly to the journaling Pups_r_Paps included here. I’ve been that person! Her focal photo really sets the mood, don’t you think?

Music often tells a story, as Pixel Palette does with her layout. Her simple background and minimal embellishment allows her journaling to be the focus.

I quite enjoy the tongue-in-cheek comment echoes77 made here, then expands in her journaling. I too am grateful for headphones.

Music is a great motivator when engaged in fitness activities. The right playlist can make a workout just fly, and pacing is automatic. Daydreamer is on the right track by incorporating music into her fitness goals.

Here, mdusell has hit on yet another truth about music. Our brains process various stimuli in different areas and in different ways. The music centre is incredibly durable, remaining active and intact for a long time after some other functions have faded. My son is a survivor of multiple childhood strokes that severely damaged the area of the brain in charge of speech. It took him a long time to learn how to communicate verbally again. But the part that’s in charge of music was left alone, so he has the ability to memorize lyrics after only a couple of listens. Music is a key to memory!

GrannyNKy has demonstrated that music can be the message.

And last, beccasue has created this mostly monochromatic layout that really brings all the foregoing bits together in one place. Music is powerful.

This little stroll through the Real Moments Challenge music theme has given me some inspiration but I haven’t figured out how I’ll execute yet. Stay tuned!

 

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, GingerBread Ladies, Tutorials Tagged With:

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

August 20, 2024 by 2 Comments

Challenge Spotlight: Use It All

Time for another Challenge Spotlight, where YOU are the stars of the show! I’ve been keeping track – in a haphazard sort of way – of which Challenges I’ve showcased so far; today I decided I’d go back over all of them and add dates to my list so I can try not to be too repetitive. Y’all. This is Challenge Spotlight #36!! Not all Challenges lend themselves to a head-to-head comparison; some have too many variables to work well in this type of post, so some repetition is a given. If you’re wondering, the last time I focused on Use It All was in October 2021… so it’s time!

The Use It All Challenge is hosted by the very talented Karen Schulz. She provides a FREE mini-kit – part of a larger collection – and the Challenge is to USE IT ALL. That means every item in the mini MUST be on your layout somewhere. Karen also allows us to use any or all of the rest of the collection. This month’s mini looks like this:

The rest of the collection can be found HERE. Let’s take a look at some of the layouts posted to the Use It All Challenge Gallery. There were a LOT of entries there for this month, so rather than show them all here, I’ve instead chosen to go with every fourth layout, beginning with the very first layout posted. Otherwise this post would be so long, no one would want to look at it. As usual, each layout is linked to the Gallery so you can take a closer look, and leave some praise, if you’re so inclined. Just click on the Scrapper’s user name and through the magic of technology, you’ll be whisked right to it.

Our first entry is from Windswept. I can see all the bits from the mini, and a couple of additions from the collection. I like how she’s blended two of the papers.

Next is a layout from pbhill. It’s the first time she’s been part of the Spotlight! Hers is an interesting take;, she’s desaturated the colours of the papers. But I don’t see the pink flower……..

I’m not seeing any flowers on this one from jenasz. The doodles appear to be floating over the page.

Looks like makeyesup understood the assignment. All the items from the mini are there and she’s added some gesso too.

I can see dj_w has added some elements from the larger collection to her layout. The blended papers in the background are lovely. Do people just not like the journal blank, though? Seems like everybody wants to use just the border…

Macsandy has added a bunch of elements from the collection. The warm palette she chose really works well with her photos.

I see mdusell employs the KISS principle. Her layout keeps things simple, and she’s included all the required elements.

I LOVE this photo; it reminds me of my youngest two grandchildren. Her creative use of papers is another thing  I like about photocrazy‘s layout.

Aha! Our first furbaby layout! I think that cat actually IS laughing, amirite, larkd? Don’t see the solid white paper anywhere though.

Celestine had added some daisies, a rub-on, and a bunch of other elements from the collection. I like the diagonal arrangement of her layout.

There it is! The elusive journaling block makes its first true appearance on mom2triplets04‘s layout. I’m glad to know my dogs aren’t the only ones on their best behaviour at day care!

Aw… bathtime photos are always a favourite. It looks like pepsibubbles borrowed the Beatrix Potter elements from another of Karen‘s kits.

The flowers got the royal treatment by lisar. Does anyone see the white solid paper though?

That paper fold is genius, dragonstarr! Lovely cluster, too.

I’ve been very busy here this last week and have had limited time for scrapping. Thanks for letting me look at your layouts, ladies!

 

 

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, GingerBread Ladies, Tutorials Tagged With:

Tutorial Tuesday (GingerScraps)

August 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Multitasking: Gallery Uploads

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

Last week’s tutorial was a lot, wasn’t it? It was pretty much a 3-in-1 and covered a lot of ground. Somewhere in the middle, I mentioned that it’s possible to batch-process your layout uploads, so today I’m going to show you how to do it. It’s a lot easier than you think, and the tut will be a quick one! I won’t go back over the entire routine, since it’s easy enough to review the tut from last Tuesday. We’re going to start on the Upload Photos screen.

It’s okay to leave the Category box on Member Galleries. We’ll change it on the next screen.

Choose your layout files. You have the opportunity to add 5 layouts per upload. [More about that in a minute.] The app will reorder them in alphabetical order by title when we move to the next screen. If you’re uploading a two-layout spread, it’s hit-or-miss if they’ll end up with the proper orientation. It helps if you’ve given both layouts the same name, but with a number at the end to distinguish one from the other. Leave the Title and Description boxes empty.

You can leave the Keywords box blank. If you’re uploading creative team layouts, you can put your designer’s name in here. If you’re uploading Challenge layouts, you can put a generic “month/year/Challenge” label in there. If you choose not to allow comments, click on the Upload/Submit bar now.

BUT… if you want praise and you want to KNOW what others have said, flip these boxes to Yes, then click the Upload/Submit bar.

Thumbnails? CHECK! So I know my layout files are the right size.

Find the correct Category for your layouts here. Again, if these are Challenge layouts, make sure the correct year is there so Missi can count them toward your Reward. The GingerBread Ladies‘ (designers’) names are also listed in the drop-down menu, as well as special-events galleries too. REMEMBER: IF YOU SELECT MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY HERE, THE SERVER WILL COUNT EACH ONE AS A ‘NEW’ LAYOUT AGAINST YOUR DAILY TOTAL. There’s a work-around though. I’ll tell you that bit at the end.

Put in the title for each of the layouts you’ve got showing. One thing I forgot to mention in last week’s tutorial is that if you enter your title on the first screen above and it contains any special characters, like quotation marks or an apostrophe, when it pops up on this screen, the special characters are lost. But if you wait until this screen to add your title, they stay put!

Now add in your credits. Please don’t skip this step.

Edit the Keywords box with the appropriate Challenge, if applicable. Then click Process. The next screen will move to your Gallery and you can proceed from there to update your Cookie Jar and post your layouts to the Forum.

Now, If you want to bypass the 8 layouts-a-day limit anomaly, once your layouts are posted to the Gallery, you can Edit Photo in the Gallery! You can also fix typos, replace lost credits (a known issue that occasionally happens and isn’t really fixable) or even replace the layout itself with an edited one. Look just to the right of your avatar and you’ll find User Options and click Edit Photo.

You can add your extra Categories here without them impacting your daily limit, as well as heal other wounds.

So now we’re all GingerScraps Community experts!

 

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

Tutorial Tuesday (GingerScraps)

August 6, 2024 by 3 Comments

Step-By-Step: Gallery Limits, Challenges and Filling Your Cookie Jar 

[editor’s note: Sorry this is so late! I got caught up watching the Olympics. 😉 ]

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/4fLz9D5

Over the weekend I got a message from Ginger with a plea from a new GingerScrapper. This is a very timely request, given GingerScraps is running a Summer Scrap-a-Thon with a mega-collab reward for completion. In part: ‘Here is her message, ‘Help please. I’d love to do all the challenges, actually have a couple that would qualify as already done for August. I just do not understand how to post these with links and all. Could somebody do a step by step for me? I see those cute colabs as rewards every month and hate to keep passing them up. Something simple like Facebook’s dropping an image in a box I can handle, links & things I don’t understand.‘” Well, that’s a big job, but I’m up for it! That is… if our newbie is using Photoshop Elements. 😀  Warning: This will be a long tutorial and many of you aren’t going to need it. But if you do, I’ve got you!

First things first. The GingerScraps Gallery has strict limits on image size, type of file and number of images posted per day. I’ll go over them, starting with image size. The usual pixel size of a digital paper is 3600×3600 – clearly way too big for the Gallery, but good for detail, clarity and ease of use. So most layouts tend to be 3600×3600 and will need to be Resized for the Gallery, down to 600×600 pixels. To do that, click on Image>Resize>Image Size… OR use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>I.

This dialog box opens up. Make sure all the boxes at the bottom left are ticked and choose Bicubic in the long bar for best results. Change the Pixel Dimensions to 600×600.

Then click File>Save As…  or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>S. This will give you several options.

I always Save my layouts as a full-sized PSD, a 2400×2400 JPG and a 600×600 JPG (except signatures – those are PNGs). So I have to change the name of my file when I go to save the 600×600 version. I add GS to the title. Just a note: if I want to use your layout in an Individual Style tutorial, it’s a lot easier for me if you Save As a JPG…

So, format is figured out. Now File Size… it can’t be bigger than 500KB. Depending on the complexity of your layout you may be well under that… or well OVER it. See the box outlined in red. If that number is lower or barely more than 500KB – like 510KB, you’ll be okay to go ahead and Save As is. (There’s a tiny bit more compression that takes place after you hit OK.)

But if it’s too big, do this instead.

First, make sure the image is Optimized (#1). Then look at the File Size at #2. If it’s less than 500KB, you’re good to go. And it usually is. If not, make adjustments at the Quality box, #3. The size drops REALLY fast, so watch it closely! Then when your file is at or less than 500KB, click Save.

Okay! On to Gallery uploading and Challenge entering. I find it easiest to have 3 GingerScraps tabs open at the same time, one for the Cookie Jar, one for the Gallery and one for the Forum. Then I just move between tabs.

Take a moment to commit the Gallery limits to memory. (Just kidding – the Gallery will tell you is you’re overstepping!) A lot of other digital shops use the same platform for Gallery posting, and have the same or similar limits. When you first open the Gallery tab on the GS site, the default is the Member Galleries – your personal Gallery, as it were.

To choose a Challenge Gallery or a Designer Gallery, click on the arrow shown below then scroll through the list that pops up. Pay attention when choosing a Challenge Gallery because sometimes the one you choose is actually last year’s version and you don’t want that**. The label should say (2024) after the name of the Challenge. [There are also some special-events Galleries.]

Once you’ve got the right Gallery, click on the bar that says Choose File. (As you can see, there are five of those. Yes, you CAN upload five different layouts at a time. But… you can only have a total of eight in one day. I’ll expand on that in a few.) The last folder you accessed on your computer will appear. If it’s not where your layout is, find the correct folder, then click the 600×600 image you Saved. Then click Open.

The title of your layout will appear to the right of the button as shown.

Okay, let’s recap. The correct Gallery is selected. The correct image is chosen. Now enter the title you want displayed with your layout once it’s up in the Gallery. It doesn’t have to be whatever you named the image when you Saved it.

Leave that big box empty for now. We’ll fill it later. You can skip the Keywords step if you want. I always just fill it with the name of the Challenge. Here I have August 2024 Signature Challenge. Then look at that bottom section. It’s asking if you want people to be able to leave comments on your layout, and if you want to be notified. If your answer is no, click on the Upload/Submit bar in either section. If it’s yes, click on the bottom Upload bar.

If your image is small enough, you’ll see the thumbnail. If it’s too big, you’ll get an error message on this screen where the thumbnail is.

NOW we’ll fill in the big Description box. At the very least, type in your credits. The Designers deserve recognition, it’s part of their Terms of Use, and if you’re entering Challenges, you have to meet content requirements. So don’t skip them! You can also add other Galleries in this step. BUT… each additional Gallery you add on THIS STEP will count toward your daily limit. Yes, it’s only ONE image, but ON THIS STEP, each Gallery counts as a separate image. Weird, right? [I’ll do another tutorial on multiple uploads later if y’all think it’s needed.] Then click Process.

There! My siggie is in the Challenge Gallery, and in my Member Gallery as well. (Oddly, the platform does that automatically, but doesn’t count it toward the limit. I know… weird!) You can see my credits there too.

If you’re interested in earning the monthly Challenge Reward, you’ll need to have a Cookie Jar. It’s where you record links to all of the layouts you’re entering for the month. Highlight the text in the address bar at the top of your browser, which is the Universal Resource Locator (URL) for your layout. Right-click and choose Copy.

Then click over to your Cookie Jar tab on your browser. I like to set up my Cookie Jar on the first day of the month with just the Total Challenges Completed:(0) bit filled in. Then when I’m ready to add a layout, I just have to do this next step. But you can just type in the name of the Challenge then Paste in your URL. Up to you. I type in the Challenge and the title of my layout.

Then I highlight the title and click on the globe-with-chainlink icon (in the little red box). That opens the link box option.

Set the cursor inside the box, right-click and choose Paste.

That adds a direct link to the Gallery where the layout title is, which makes it easy for Missi to verify at the end of the month, and for any of the Challenge hosts who need to check content.

Are you tired yet? 🙂 Almost there!! The last part is to add your layout to the Challenge thread in the Forum. Click your cursor somewhere inside your layout then right-click and choose Copy Image Link from the pop-up.

Now click through to your Forum tab in your browser. Find the Challenge thread and scroll to the bottom of the page. There’s an Add Quick Reply box there. You can add some text in the Reply box if you like. Click on the icon that looks like a stretchy photo, as shown,

This box will open. Set your cursor in the box, then Paste the Image Link that your computer has conveniently remembered for you. Click OK.

If you see any part of your layout in the Quick Reply box, you have success! All that’s left is to click Post Quick Reply.

Do you feel like you just ran a marathon? I know I do! Obviously, you don’t have to do all of this in one go. Now have fun!

 

 

 

 

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

Designer Spotlight August 2024

August 3, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Magical Scraps Galore!

Well, here we are staring August in the face. I’m not going to lie, I have quite a bit of anxiety when I remember last August, and the wildfire we faced then. Thankfully this year I have the Olympics to distract me. I don’t usually watch much in the way of sports, and the Olympics is no exception, but this year, here I am, glued to my chair watching even sports I don’t like (looking at you, soccer!) and getting loud and proud of our athletes. That’s why this Blog post is a bit behind my original plan. But not TOO late! Let’s meet Marina, the designer known as Magical Scraps Galore. [editor’s note: Any coloured text in bold and underlined is hyperlinked for your viewing pleasure.] Our conversation took place before the Games started so I’m working from memory. 😉

J: Marina, thanks for giving me the opportunity to shine the Spotlight on you and your work. Why don’t we get the mundane stuff out of the way first, then we can get to know YOU. When did you get bitten by the design bug?

M: I’ve been designing for 13 years now!

J: That’s a good long time. I guess it explains the depth and breadth of your GingerScraps shop! What was the catalyst for you?

M: I started creating my own digital papers and embellishments for scrapping our second trip to Disney World, since the digital offerings were very limited back then. It didn’t take long to realize that scrapbook design was my passion, and I started participating in the design challenges hosted by MouseScrappers. I opened my first shop in 2013 and I’ve been part of the wonderful GingerScraps family since 2014.

J: I joined the GS family at the end of April, 2013, so we’re cohorts in a way. This truly IS the friendliest scrapping community on the Web. I work on a laptop seated in a comfy armchair in my living room. What does your workspace look like?

M: I design in my studio at home, with my three cats sleeping by my computer or on my lap. Sometimes they like to sleep ON my computer and they mess with my designs, LOL! I have to be very careful but I just love them! I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, and ArtRage.

J: What kinds of things motivate you when you sit down to create?

M: My main motivation and inspiration are my kids and my trips around the world.

J: Same! Many of my layouts are trip-related or have either my kids or grandkids in them. I’m busy creating a memoir for my sister, who travelled to the East Coast last year, for Christmas and love to scrap travel photos. What would your perfect vacation look like?

M: My perfect vacation is a road trip with my family, hiking national parks and visiting small towns along the way.

J: I live in a tourist destination! This year has been quieter than usual, I think because of our wildfire last year. People are scared, rightfully so. Not a fun topic at all, so let’s change it up. Do you have a favourite kit in your shop?

M: What a hard question! It’s hard to pick just one, it’s like choosing your favorite child, LOL … I have several kits that I love, especially my travel collection, but one of my favorite kits is Magical Memories, it’s all about my happy place and it’s a reminder of all the magical moments I spent there with my family.

J: Everybody says that, but what a fun collection!! I’ve been to Disneyland twice, once when I was about 12, and again in 1988 with my kids. I should dig out all those photos and do something with them. What did you want to be when you grew up?

M: I wanted to be a flight attendant or a rock star.

J: And here you are, a travelling rock-star digital scrapbooking designer! What super-power would you wish for?

M: Teleportation, so I can travel anywhere in no time and with no jet lag!

J: Amen sister! That would make life so much simpler. And healthier! One last question. If you had a warning label, what would it say?

M: Warning: Crazy cat lady!! LOL! I’m a huge cat lover, and if my family would let me, I’d have 10 cats or more!

J: If current events are any indication, you’re in good company! I’m not a cat fancier, but our neighbours have two beauties who sit on their deck and drive my dogs batty. Thanks so much again for chatting with me. I hope your Spotlight brings you all the best kind of attention in the Shop and the Forum.

Marina is not just the Spotlight Designer for August, she’s also providing the Daily Download. Each day a link for the day’s pieces is posted on the Blog, and it stays active for a full 5 days so you don’t have to worry if you miss a day. If you find you’ve missed a bunch of days, the entire kit will be released in the Shop at a later date. In addition to her monthly Surprise Challenge, she’s also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month too… just in time for the Summer GingerScraps Scrap-a-Thon! Check them out, they’re ALWAYS fun!!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

July 30, 2024 by 9 Comments

Quick Trick: What the Font?!

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3SqmX0b

Today’s Quick Trick is literally a 5 second life saver! You may recall that I’m teaching myself to use Cricut Design Space. It has some similarities to PSE, although it’s REALLY not intuitive at all. One similarity is the extensive use of fonts in projects. Which, of course, leads to… “ACK!! I need to update this/correct spelling/change wording/add something and I can’t find the font I used! Help!!!” This one little trick will end that – and it works on both platforms!

In my screenshot, the text in the speech bubble is a font I picked up somewhere… could be dafont, or Creative Fabrica, or Font Bundles… I don’t know. I love it for this layout of my youngest grandpuppy. But it’s not going to stay in my brain.

But –  if I double-click on the text to the right of that big T where Elements is just showing the first couple of words of my text, I can type in the font’s name there and the layer will save it for posterity! Now, this only works if you save a layered version, either PSD or TIFF, of your layout, as I do. If you know you’ll be Simplifying your text – to change fonts, for example – you can do this step before you Simplify. The layer’s new name will be the same as your font.

Another option is to add a text layer to your layout somewhere with the names of all the fonts you’ve used. This layer can be made invisible by closing the eye on the layer; it won’t show in the Gallery or if you decide to print your layout, but it’ll be preserved in case you need to use the same fonts again!

Personal note: My dad’s cancer is back and he’s filled with metastases. He has declined treatment and will be receiving palliative care. It’s impossible to predict how long he has, so if I’m suddenly MIA, you can assume I’m with my family.

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Windows)

July 23, 2024 by 6 Comments

The Style File: Where Is It??

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/4c2NvvL

If you read the comment section, you’ll have seen that Kathi, aka Granny5pics, responded to my question on shadowing transparent objects: ““add and find commercial Styles (and Brushes) to your electronic devices? Do we need a tut on it?” Yes, I would benefit a lot with that tut!””  So this one’s for you, Kathi!

Because I work on a PC laptop running Windows 10, these instructions will reflect that. The process for Mac users will be very similar, and I’ll include a link to help with browsing files on a Mac at the end.

This might not be the smartest way to do this, but it’s been working for me for a long time and I don’t have to remember file paths – BONUS! I have two file tabs open, one with Window Explorer and one with my Digikit folders where the Styles I want to add to the directory currently are. Let’s look at the Digikit tab first.

These are all the Styles Katie, aka Ooh La La Scraps and Just So Scrappy, creates for ALL of her collections. I want to use one of these in my demo.

I’ve used several different versions of Photoshop Elements over the years, and I have directories galore. There’s no guarantee that a current version is going to put things in the same place as the older versions, so I stopped trying to memorize file paths a long time ago. Instead, I let my laptop do the work! Moving to the Explorer tab, I type “.asl” into the Search box – it’s where the arrow is pointing. That’s the file type suffix for Photoshop and Elements Styles. In the screenshot it shows that I’m searching my OS(C:) drive, because it’s the only drive I have in this laptop. If you have multiple drives and aren’t sure which drive to search, you can choose This PC in the folders list to the left of your screen instead. Then I let Windows find all the files with that suffix. It might take a couple of minutes, so I make myself some tea while I’m waiting. 😉

If you’ve used a progression of versions, look for a file path on the list Explorer will provide you that names your current version – you want to be sure Elements finds the files later, and it’s not going to look in those other folders. Mine says C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2021\Presets\Styles. Then right-click on that file name and choose Open File Location from the pop-up menu.

Explorer will open up the Adobe folder where all the Styles included with the software are.  I have a LOT of Styles I’ve Copied into this folder so your mileage may vary.(I really should merge my directories…)

Now I’ve moved back to the tab open with my Ooh La La Scraps kit Styles folder. I’ve selected all of the Styles in the folder [click on the top name, hold down the CTRL key and click on the last name to select all quickly] and right-clicked to Copy. [Keyboard shortcut is CTRL>C]

Back on the Explorer tab, you can see the actual path Windows uses to locate Elements Presets. But why memorize all that? To add the Copied Styles into the folder, right-click and choose Paste or simply CTRL>V.

That’s all there is to the process. Let’s give it a quick test. I’ll use this acrylic F as my sample. The new Styles have to be Loaded into Elements‘ menu before they can be used, so click on the Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel, and then click the stack-of-paper icon to access the Tool Options. Choose Load Styles…

All the Styles in the Directory list will pop up. I’m going to use the Nearly Fall Dots Style on my sample. So I clicked on it then Load.

Et voilà!

Brushes can be Copied into the Presets directory in the same way, using the suffix “.abr” instead. If you like, you can rename any or all of them to make them easier to find on the Directory list. Make your software work for you!!

Mac users: How to Browse Files on a Mac (howtogeek.com)

 

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking, Theres An App For That, Tutorials Tagged With:

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

July 16, 2024 by 2 Comments

Challenge Spotlight: Recipe

It’s time again to shine the spotlight on all of YOU! But first… did y’all get your Prime Day shopping done? 😀 I paid my credit card off yesterday so I’d have a wide-open window. 😉

Let’s get down to business. This month the Challenge in the Spotlight is the Recipe Challenge, which is hosted by Sweet Pea Designs. It’s a good Challenge for a Blog post, since all the participants are working from the same set of required elements. So I’ll be taking a close look at each of the layouts to find each of the things on Penny‘s list. The layouts will appear in the order they were uploaded to the Challenge Gallery, and as usual, they’ll be linked to the Gallery so you can get a closer look. Just click on the Scrapper‘s name and you’ll be zoomed right to their layout. (Anything I underline will be a hot link!)

First up is this pretty layout from alexandergirl68. She’s definitely got 5 papers there, a tiny string heart, a ribbon bow and there are flairs on her title. banner Single photo, frame, 2 clusters and border, check. I had to zoom in to see that the heart on the frame is made of beads, check! And the theme is perfectly represented.

Let’s look at this one from snickels next. She’s used 2 photos, one with a thin white frame and one masked. Check! One of her 5 papers has been clipped to her border. Clever! Beads are all over the place, I’m guessing the string is holding up her birthday banner and she found a birthday flair to coordinate. Bow, yep; 2 clusters, yep; looks like all the boxes are ticked!

GrannyNKy‘s layout is so feminine! Like snickels, she has clipped one of her papers to an overlay. I like how she’s interpreted the “photo with frame” by putting the frame behind her photo. 10 points! I see 2 clusters, 2 bows – one of string, several flairs, a lovely banner, some paper borders and a celebratory theme. The beads are there, scattered under the larger cluster. Zoom in if you don’t see them. Full marks.

Katherine Woodin‘s clebration isn’t obvious, but it’s everywhere in her journaling. I had to look really hard to see all 5 papers, which is a sign of a crafty Scrapper. The rest of the required elements are much more easily spotted. That happy face emoji flair cracks me up.

I didn’t have to look too closely to see the theme for dj_w‘s layout. Every one of the listed ingredients is easily identified. Good job!

Macsandy had me squinting… she used a string of beads and I overlooked them 3 times! I love the stamped-heart border she chose and her clusters are perfection. This might be my favourite of the six layouts I found for this Challenge.

One thing I noticed about these layouts is that four of them have a similar colour palette, which has to be a coincidence.

I hope everyone is safe from all the weather-related events we’re seeing. Last night’s derecho was pretty frightening. We’re seeing quite a bit of smoke today, as we head into week 3 of 90+°F temps. I’ll be driving up to have what might be my last visit with my dad later this week… he’s tired of feeling unwell and is talking about being “ready to go”.  So if I miss a post, that might be the reason. Stay cool and stay safe, my friends.

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, GingerBread Ladies, Spotlight Challenge, Tutorials Tagged With:
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