Tutorial Tuesday (Greatest Hits)

December 23, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Ghosts of Christmases Past

The photographic kind, I mean! I meant to revisit this retro post about preparing for holiday photos earlier, but life got in the way. There are still some holidays yet to arrive, so better late than never. For most of us, photos are the focus of our scrapbooking efforts and anything that can help capture great photos is worth a second or third look. I know we’re all super busy right now, but maybe find a few minutes to gear up.

  1. Find your camera’s battery charger NOW and make sure you use it! If your camera uses disposable batteries, stock up NOW. I keep a basket filled with several sizes of battery so I have them handy when I need them. (Like Sunday at 5 am when the battery in the smoke detector in my bedroom announced it was quitting and moving to Arizona. Fun times!)
  2. Check that you have a fresh SD card in your camera and that it has a decent amount of memory available. If you’re into phonetography, you might want to trim your in-phone collection by saving them to your computer or the Cloud, then deleting them from your internal storage. I have a handy little PhotoStick where I’ve backed up my phone’s gallery. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you also have unlimited Cloud storage as part of your membership perks.
  3. Think about how your typical holiday events usually evolve. There will be some traditions that are carried out no matter whose house you’re having the celebrations at, so plan ahead to capture those moments. Make a list, if you need to. I’d need to! See below for a great list of prompts that I borrowed from Traci Reed.
  4. If you haven’t done it lately, review the manual that came with your camera. Review the settings and modes you’re most likely to use for your shots and remind yourself what each is doing while you’re shooting. I use the metadata from my most successful bokeh and full moon shots to set my camera up ahead of time so I don’t miss the shot.
  5. Refamiliarize yourself with your tripod, if you use one. I have three – an aluminum ball-head one that allows infinite adjustments but takes a lot of room and needs to be set up ahead of time, a mini that’s only for my phone and a Platypod Max, which looks like a little travel iron but is actually a very clever and sturdy tripod that can be set up in minutes on any surface. Why use a tripod? It lets you take longer exposures while keeping the images tack-sharp and it lets you be in the photo! Use the built-in timer and get in FRONT of the lens for a change. You’ll like the results much better than those you get with a selfie-stick.
  6. Practice a few creative techniques that you can memorize so that when you’re ready to take photos of the candles on your dinner table or that gloriously brown turkey, you won’t have to fumble. Practice, practice, practice! The best thing about digital photography is that we don’t have to keep the duds! (Too late for this year, but good to have for next year.)
  7. Do you go all out with a gorgeous table-scape for your guests? I’ve never done it, but I love seeing what others do. (Okay, so I HAVE done a couple of table-scapes in the home decorating game app on my phone. But not a REAL one.) If you’re hosting and have your table all set well in advance (like the experts recommend for sanity’s sake ) take a few minutes to look at it with your photographer’s eye. Take a shot of a single place setting. Try and get the whole table in a shot, easiest if you shoot from one end. Take a closeup of your crystal. (I’m hoping that next year, we’ll have all three of our kids, the two sons-in-law, and our three grandkids all around the table for the first time. Crossing my fingers!)
  8. Don’t forget to get some shots of the dinner prep. Be stealthy and get some candids of the main cook, or if that’s you, get some of your helpers. Look for interesting camera angles of your turkey, ham or standing rib roast. Ask someone to be the carver and get some action shots. And look for smiling faces as the meal commences. When taking photos of food, get in close and vary the angles. Show the flaky texture of that piecrust, the glisten of the done-to-perfection skin on your turkey, the creaminess of your mashed potatoes, the detail of the frosting on your cupcakes.
  9. Composition is key for any photo. Remember the rule of thirds, but don’t be a slave to it. Decide what your focal point will be and compose your photo to make it so – use leading lines where possible and don’t forget white space. Crop your photos in the viewfinder – so much less work later! And don’t forget the background. Is there anything growing out of someone’s head? Take a step to one side or the other and recompose. Think of the Vanity Fair photos the whole world was talking about. And don’t do any of that! (Unless you’re going for brutal realism. Then Christopher Anderson can be your muse.)
  10. Get in close to your subject! Even more so when that subject is a child. Get down on their level whenever possible so you capture their best smiles. Shooting from above should be reserved for those special-effect shots, not photos of kids having fun. For the most natural photos of people though, you can use a telephoto lens and shoot them from some distance. (As long as the light is right!)
  11. Don’t insist on smiles. You know what I mean… those cheesy grins aren’t going to be your favourite images. Rather than having everybody say “cheese” for your group shots, have them say “family” or “money” or “gotcha”. You could go with a made-up phrase, such as “moldy mozzarella”. Another trick is to tell everyone you’re going to shoot on “3”, then count, “1… 2… (shoot) WHOOPS 3!” then shoot a second shot right after that. You’ll get some natural smiles that way.
  12. We’ve all got a folder full of group photos where everybody is stiffly lined up and fake-smiling at the camera. So how can we take better group shots? Having the subjects doing something together is a good start. If you have snow in your area, have the group build a snowman, or have a snowball fight. Or play football in the snow. Beach ball volleyball (in sand or snow) would make some entertaining shots. But if you just have to have a posed group shot, give some thought to who goes where. If you can arrange the people so that their faces form little triangles, you’ll have a nicer image. Have them turn their shoulders toward each other or the centre of the photo so they can get a bit closer together. Make sure you’ve chosen a landscape setting so everybody will be in focus. Think about trying not to cut people’s legs off. If you can, shoot everybody down front from the waist up. Your subjects will thank you.
  13. (Missed it by that much!) If you’re celebrating Chanukah, there are lots of great ways to take photos of your menorrah. A series, with each night’s new candle lighting, would make a lovely layout. Look at the angles. On the last night, when all the candles are burning, an angled shot from one end with each flame visible would be incredible. Some of my favourite photos of my grandsons are of them lighting a candle, with the soft glow of the flame on their cheeks and wonder in their eyes. (Their mom takes amazing photos.)
  14. When shooting your tree, look for a different approach than the typical 8-feet-away-so-the-whole-tree-and-gifts-are-in-the-shot. Maybe take some close-ups of your favourite ornaments. Use a portrait mode to soften the background and make the ornament totally the focal point. Get down on the floor and shoot up toward the topper, or shoot down through the branches and make the presents the subject. Turn off all the room lights and shoot the tree with just the tree lights. Experiment with shutter speed and aperture to create some lovely bokeh effects. Add a human or a pet to the frame. Or take a photo of the lights reflected in a window. (If you don’t want your reflection in your photo, stand at an angle to the window and look carefully at what’s in the viewfinder.) Or take a photo of the tree THROUGH the window! Turn off your flash though, so you don’t spoil the shot.
  15. What about gifts? Well, there’re lots of opportunities around gift opening. Get down on the floor with the kids. Try to capture the moment when they identify what’s in the package. If it’s your thing, you can take some of them channeling Vanna White, holding up a favourite gift. If there’s a very special gift being given, arrange for it to be delivered when you have a moment to frame your image. I really wish I had a photo of myself when I opened a gift from my sister quite a few years ago. It was a resin frame with dragonflies on it, but what made it truly special was that it held a photo of me with my grandfather, who died when I wasn’t yet 4 years old. If you know in advance, you can be ready to catch the emotion.
  16. After the dust settles, you can relax, but don’t forget there might still be some great photos yet to happen. Like when a child falls asleep in the middle of a game, or the dog takes off with a long piece of ribbon… they could be the best shots you get all day. But don’t concentrate so hard on getting good photos that you don’t have fun! At a family reunion, my niece made a point of taking a selfie with every single one of us, and they were all fantastic. If you have mad selfie skills, give it a whirl. You might surprise yourself!

Now for the list of prompts I promised! As I said, this came from Traci Reed via Facebook. It’s a bit less crisp than I’d like, but it’s still readable, I hope. Some of them are already here in the text, but definitely not all.

I would be remiss if I ignored those for whom the holidays are NOT the thing of loving memories and happiness. If that’s you, think about what DOES give you joy and take photos of that. Many of the above tips apply equally to photos of more ordinary events; sometimes getting out of our own heads and letting distraction help with that can be really therapeutic. One of my closest friends lost her dad last week and she’s really not feeling the holiday thing at all. Remember, if it’s something you feel, it’s perfectly okay to document it, even if it’s painful. Reality bites a lot of us, and the holidays can be really awful. Just know that I see you.

Next Tuesday, I’ll try to have a Quick Trick for you so I don’t create more chaos in between the Big Days. Take care, love you all!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

December 16, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Challenge Spotlight: Bucket List

This week has already started feeling like it’s a month long. I have so much left to do, and disaster is lurking around every corner. But as long as that finger I sprained back in March doesn’t pitch a fit (as it has been for the last few days), you’ll all have a Blog Tutorial to check out while I brave the crowds at Costco. 😉

For this month’s Challenge Spotlight, I chose the Bucket List Challenge, hosted by Scraps-N-Pieces. The prompt: This month we’d like you to read a new book, scrap your favorite book/author, scrap your reading list from this last year. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering how I can shoehorn this Challenge into a box labeled Individual Style. It’s really not that big of a stretch. Creativity begins in the brain, where we process information and formulate ideas. Each of us will take a prompt like this one and approach it from our own perspective. And in doing so, we give others a glimpse into our innermost thoughts. You’ll see!

There are six layouts for this Challenge (so far) and they’re all quite different. I’ve linked each to their spots in the Challenge Gallery so you can see them in greater detail, and perhaps leave a comment or two. Just click on the Scrapper’s name. Here we go!

Grace. has taken the prompt quite literally (pun intended!) by writing a book review. I think her approach is very clever. It took me a bit of time to really see all the thought she put into the layout, even though she had a checklist to follow. The book choice tells me she enjoys suspense, but her review doesn’t really say much about whether the story lived up to her expectations. The *no stars given* implies she didn’t love it, but maybe she just missed that part. She reads on an e-reader, and has a busy life. Oh, and her scrapping style appears to be “clean and simple”, but only if I base my evaluation on this one layout. 😀

Of course, Katherine Woodin is an open book. (Yep, it’s gonna be one of THOSE posts!) To anyone who spends any time in the Gallery or the Forum, Katherine’s daily diary gives glimpses into her life. Her journaling is legendary! She was widowed fairly recently and her Bucket List layout tells me she’s learning how to grow around her loss. <3

If one reads between the lines of KatL‘s layout, you might pick up on the fact she works in a library. It’s not front-and-centre in her journaling, but the clues are all there. She truly CANNOT live without books! 😉 As for her scrapping style, she loves the layered look, with lots of papers and just a bit of grunge.

What vibes are you picking up from MemmieNelleke? It’s obvious she’s Dutch just from her name, and the books in her photos support that conclusion. She reads books in series, has several favoured authors, likes historical fiction and has a special interest in the Holocaust. She likes bright colours and has a love for children.

BriannasScrapper is very serious about her books. She doesn’t just read them, she logs them at Goodreads, she scores them and she basically devours them! There’s a little bit of everything here, from fantasy to suspense to feminist literature and romance. (I thought I was doing really well, having read 75 books this year. I need to pull up my socks!) IT’s impossible to get a bead on her scrapping style from just this one layout, though I would expect her other layouts to be highly organized. 😉

Our last participant is Yvonne55. She’s also reading in Dutch, enjoys reading in series and likes thrillers. (I want to see if I can find an English version of Het Bloemen Meisje; the story sounds really engaging. No, I don’t read Dutch, but Google Translate does.) Her scrapping style is classic, and she likes bright colours.

With Hannukah already underway, only 9 more days until Christmas, then Kwanzaa and New Year closing out 2025, I know we’re all crazy busy. And it shows in the Challenge Galleries. I hope you can all find a few minutes to just breathe. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and you’re on evacuation from the flooding, or digging yourself out in the snowbelt, please be safe. If you’re travelling in the coming weeks, you be safe too!

 

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

December 9, 2025 by 2 Comments

It’s THAT Time Again! Christmas and Winter Fonts

Fontaholics, UNITE!! I spent some time at Dafont.com looking for some new and awesome Christmas-y and wintery fonts we haven’t seen before. I won’t tell you how many I’ve downloaded though. 😉 But I can tell you that the free version of MainType isn’t adequate for my font collection. 😀 And speaking of MainType (it’s a font manager, for those who don’t know) if you’ve downloaded and installed a bunch of fancy fonts with swirls and flourishes, but when you use them all you get are the boring base characters, here’s a link to a tutorial on unlocking those special characters… I mention this because there may, or may not, be some fancy glyphs with one or two of the following fonts. There are eight “Christmas” fonts, five wintery fonts and four sets of seasonal dingbats coming at you momentarily. They are all FREE! (For personal use, of course.) As always, the name the designer has given the font is your link to it at dafont.com. Just give it a click.

When I saw Christmas Calling, I was immediately transported back to my childhood – doesn’t it just scream Frosty the Snowman to you?

Twinkle Christmas is a pretty, twirly font that can be used for pretty much everything… titles, subtitles, captions and journaling.

I think Christmas Holiday is a more generic font, and would be ideal for layouts about cutting Christmas trees, sleigh rides, toboggan parties, ski trips and the like.

I could totally see this font with red, white and green Christmas Candy cane stripes, with an acrylic or gel Style applied on top to give it some curves.

Amore Christmas is a classic, elegant font perfectly suited to layouts about holiday pageants, choir performances, church service and even prgrams. It’s an all-caps font with both the curly and plain characters.

If you live in a cold part of the world, odds are you’ll have snow for Christmas. (I thought for sure we would, after we got about 8 inches last week, but it’s all gone, it’s 50°F and the forecast is for more of the same. 🙁 ) What I like about Christmas in Winters is that it’s very legible and would be a good title font for any winter layout.

Look at this!! It’s so baroque and capital F fancy! When I look at The Christmas, I so want to have the main parts of the letters a deep, rich red (or maybe green), and the curlicues gold. I’m going to play with it for sure! It has both upper and lower case characters as well as some basic punctuation. No numerals though.

So… I played with this one. So fancy!

Christmas Comeback is a multipurpose font as well, with upper and lower case letters and basic punctuation but no numerals. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “Christmas-y”, but I might want to use it for card sentiments.

Now on to the winter fonts. Frozenland is a good, all-purpose winter font. It’s probably not quite right for journaling but has both cases, punctuation AND numerals. That drippy icy topping on the letters cries out for a pale blue, curvy Style.

Freezing had me thinking about that ombré technique from earlier this year. It all-caps, but in two sizes, No punctuation, no numerals, so mainly a title font, I guess.

Snowby is just FUN!

Snowballs is a demo font. The thumbnail shows letters that are included, along with numerals and punctuation. The full version has an assortment of additional characters; when you click on the name, you’ll see a link to where you can purchase, if you so choose.

This one, Snow Flakes, is my most FAVOURITE! It speaks to me of snowball fights, building snowmen, winter carnivals, skating parties… whatever fun one may have in the snow.

Now bring on the dingbats! Wonderful Christmas Symbols is filled with seasonal silhouettes. There are 159, all different! I could see using them for a border, on tags, with a beveled style to create brads… really, so many options.

Winterlight Symbols is another 52-silhouette collection. They’re a little more stylized.

Last Christmas Symbols has a bit more of a detailed, traditional look. It has some religious symbols mingled with secular Christmas images, winter sporting events and nature.

And finally, Fantasia Decorative is an outline collection with so much potential.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that all of you have downloaded at least one of these… am I right?

 

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

Designer Spotlight (December 2025)

December 2, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Its The Scrappy Kat!

Seriously? Only 29 days left in 2025… don’t blink! Our final Designer Spotlight for the year is on Katina, aka The Scrappy Kat. She and I haven’t actually chatted before, so it was lovely learning more about her. We talked a bit about her design process and then had a few chuckles. Check it out!

J: Thanks for putting yourself out there for me to grill, Katina. Tell me how you got into digital scrapbook design.

K: As with most designers, I venture to guess that they started out the same way, as a layout artist on another designer’s creative team. After a while, I started to dabble in designing for blog trains and other freebies. I finally worked up the nerve to make my first kit that I submitted to an on-line store and I got the position. My digital scrapbooking design career was born.

J: It seems like there are basically two paths to digital scrapbooking design… belonging to a creative team, as you say, or not being able to find the style/theme of product you like so you create your own. 😉 Whatever the path, you’re all awesome! Is there a story behind your brand?

K: My name is Katina, Kat for short, then just add a cool cat on my logo, and voila, that’s where The Scrappy Kat comes from!

J: Of course, the simplest explanation is usually the best one. What does your design process look like?

K: I always start out with the palette, then makes my cardstocks for the kit. After the cardstocks, I create the pattern papers for the kit. After all the papers are made, I start on the elements. When working on the elements, I try to include both themed elements, but also all the basics for creating a wonderful layout. This includes ribbons, flowers, greenery, fasteners, frames, tags, confetti, banners, and more.

J: The palette appears to be the initial spark for every Designer I talk to. The Buffet always has a specific palette, and most of you create collections for those, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer. I love a Designer who includes fasteners and tags. They’re very necessary for my particular design style, and make me that much more likely to buy a product. Good job! What stimulates your imagination most, especially when you’re lacking inspiration?

K: My number one inspiration is my creative team. When I am feeling stuck or have lost my design mojo, I turn to them for inspiration and kit ideas. They never let me down.

J: That’s fantastic! True teamwork always means back-and-forth-give-and-take. Do you have one kit you’re most proud of? I know… it’s like being asked who your favourite child is, right? 😀

K: My kit called, “My Boy” is my favorite by far. I sometimes struggle to find kits that are boy friendly. I like to have elements that are great for clustering and creating a masculine layout without having to use tons of flowers. That is what inspired me to create this kit, to scrap all the photos of my son, Logan.

J: YES!! This! I won’t say I don’t put flowers on my boy layouts, but if I have more options, that’s great! Browsing your Shop, I see a lot of masculine kits and more androgenous colour palettes. So, all you moms-of-boys, check it out… My grandsons have two very different personalities; the older one is very intellectual, science-y and introverted – but goofy. The younger one is a drama llama, literally – he’s already acted in local theatre – he’s 9 – and he’s a bit of a trickster. Are you the prankster, or the prankee?

K: In high school I was voted class clown. I was the queen of practical jokes. However, one day, my two best friends decided to get me back for years of pranks. They took my jar of Carmex and squirted super glue inside. I didn’t notice until I had smeared it all over my lips. Luckily, I smelt the glue and didn’t put my lips together, or I would have really been in trouble. This was before super glue remover, so I had to wait for it to rub off on its own. It was a mean prank, but in hindsight, I deserved it.

J: Oh dear heaven! That could have been a very bad scene!! Thankfully, the skin on our lips and in our mouths turns over really fast. I’ve glued my fingers together more times than I should mention, and have used skin glue on surgical patients. You were lucky. Oy. My tale of woe? I was catfished before catfishing had a name, and generations before social media. I was 12 and had a huge crush on the boy next door. Looking back, I’m not sure what the attraction was, but it was what it was. I found a note in my desk at school that seemed to be from him, asking me to meet him at the library after dinner. I stayed until the librarian kicked me out into the dark and he didn’t show. Later I found out that the note was written by one of the girls in the next grade who apparently “hated my guts.” She laughed and laughed at how gullible I was. The next year, she was suspended from school for 3 days after she attacked me physically on the ball diamond. Of course, she blamed me, in that abuser look-what-you-made-me-do way. They say living well is the best revenge, and I wound up much more successful than she did. 😉 Anyway… Let’s talk about pets. If you could have any pet, real or imaginary, what would it be?

K: Poodles, poodles, poodles! I have three miniature poodles (Gizmo, Rigby, and Ziggy) and I’ll always have poodles. They all have their own personalities, but they are all loving and live to please me. They are my buddies!

J: We have a white standard poodle somewhere in our neighbourhood. She’s beautiful. Dog people are the best, aren’t we? I’ve met more people just by walking my dogs. They love everybody and can totally drag my up the side of the mountain when they see someone they know. Or someone they don’t know. And then they want to jump up on them so I throw myself in the way. What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done in public?

K: When we are grocery shopping, I love to dance along to the music they are playing when a good song comes on while I go down each aisle. The whole time embarrassing my husband and son that are with me, as they beg me to stop.

J: I just did that!! I was with my sister and started dancing in the shoe department. She must be used to being out with our brother – she didn’t seem embarrassed at all. Is there one song above all that will get you going?

K: That’s easy. It has to be YMCA by the Village People. If you don’t know how to spell out the letters and sing along to it, we can’t be friends. Just kidding.

J: No worries there! I was barely out of my teens when it came out and can totally sing and dance along! What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm. Oh my, look at the time! My son will be home any minute. I just want to ask one more question. If I was starting out as a new digital Designer, what wise words would you tell me?

K: Find a designer willing to mentor you. The advice they can give you is invaluable and it will make starting out so much easier. It is great to have someone to bounce things off of and answer all your questions.

J: Wise words indeed! Thank you so much for letting us peek into your world. We all hope your Spotlight month is a smashing success! <takes deep breath before launching into the requisite spiel…?

At risk of sounding like a broken record, don’t forget that our Spotlight Designer provides all of us with the Daily Download. For those unfamiliar, the DD is a complete kit, portioned out in bite-sized packets the links for which are posted each day of the month, here on the GingerScraps Blog. The links are good for 5 days, so don’t panic if you miss a day. Want a sneak peek?

There are often add-on packets posted to the GingerScraps Facebook page too. Katina is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month in addition to her monthly Journaling Challenge. Make sure you take a look. And as if all that wasn’t enough… she has a sale!

… if your budget hasn’t been blown on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday sales. 😀

Now I must get back to trying to make our security cameras work again…

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

November 25, 2025 by 2 Comments

Challenge Spotlight: Layout Bingo

Today I’m going to do something a little different. The Challenge I’m showcasing is one that I’ve always overlooked, but now that I’ve had a peek, I might have to get with the program! I’m talking about the Layout Bingo Challenge, hosted by Tami Miller. I won’t be linking to the Gallery for this post, though, I’ll just show you the players’ bingo cards. The only “teaching” involved with this is with regard to this Challenge. (But I do have a Quick Trick keyboard shortcut to share later, so don’t go anywhere.) What’s so interesting about this Challenge? Most of us could play along without breaking a sweat! Each month, Tami creates a modified bingo card – it has 9 spaces, not 25, and there’s no Free space – and a bingo is a straight line of 3 squares, or a full card. Each space has a topic prompt, and it’s the only Challenge where you can double up with your layouts. By that I mean you can “reuse” your already-posted Challenge layouts to fill your card. However ONE layout must be specifically created for this Challenge. Let’s take a look at this month’s card.

Looks pretty typical for a November, right? Think for a second. Could you make a straight line using these topics? I could fill 3 squares, but it might be a stretch to have them in a line. 😉 Oh wait… I did take a photo of our turkey last month. Maybe not such a stretch! Anyway. Let’s move along.

There were 8 GingerScrappers who posted their bingo cards in the Challenge thread, and one who has posted two layouts but no card. First up is 5grand. She’s still working on her bingo. She’ll have to pick a lane… she has several options. Left vertical, centre vertical, centre horizontal and bottom horizontal are all possible. Or… diagonal, but that would mean she might as well go for the full card.

CathyS is next. She’s got the upper right to lower left diagonal covered. Woot! She had to do two layouts for that upper corner.

Then we have robinoes66. She chose right down the middle.

KarenDiamond took the top line and she too created two layouts for that top right square.

Here, granny5pics went across the middle and offset her layouts a smidge so the squares’ prompts are partially visible. Very accommodating!

GrannyNKy seems to be going for a full card. Look at that overachievement! I love that one of her layouts celebrates the first time one of her family members voted in an election.

Our most prolific Scrapper, Katherine Woodin took the first vertical line. She keeps an online diary through the layouts she creates, and it’s awesome!

And finally, Branma took the far right side.

What do you think? Is this something you should include in your monthly plans? I’m seriously considering it.

I’ve actually gotten back on the horse… I’ve worked on a couple of Challenges, although I haven’t posted them to the Gallery yet. My Scrap Lift has a lo-o-o-o-ng list of credits, as usual, and I have to be in the mood for posting that. While I was building the layout, I tripped over a keyboard shortcut that I think will be of enormous use. I recall a bunch of comments about how Photoshop Elements likes to put our embellishments where IT wants to, not where we want them. I was getting tired of moving things up my layer stack (CTRL/CMD>]) after Elements dropped it on my background layer instead of on top of the layer where I wanted it, and was using the Layer>Arrange>Bring to Front function when I paid attention to the keyboard shortcut next to it. If you want to move a layer from the bottom to the top of the Layers Panel, use CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>] and in one step it’s right there! Likewise, you can use CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>[ to send something to the back. (Caveat: It’ll end up UNDER your background layer, so there’ll still be one CTRL/CMD>] to put it on the bottom but not under the bottom. 😉 )

Next week we’ll have two Designer Spotlights, and a whole new month’s worth of Challenges. Stay tuned!

 

 

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

November 18, 2025 by 1 Comment

Reigniting Our Mojo – a Follow-Up

First, I want to thank everyone who offered kind thoughts last week. It seems all those good wishes have manifested! We’ve had FIVE days of normalcy and it has been exactly what we all needed. Hopefully he’s turned the corner; the medication that was the probable cause of most of his symptoms has been stopped and he’s looking like his old self again. Now… on to the MOJO part of the presentation!

Following is a compilation of the tips our readers shared in the comment section. I can’t promise not to editorialize… but I’ll try.

Browse your photos. Sandra likes to build a page around a photo she loves. Jo sometimes looks at her older photos to see if there’s a gap in her storytelling, or if she missed an opportunity to scrap something significant. Jill grabs her camera and takes some new photos. Michelle is feeling stuck too, despite having a new grandbaby and a toddler to love on. Some of the suggestions to come might help her with that…

Browse your stash. Michelle mentioned this as a place to start – rediscovering those kits she loved when she bought them but she’s not used much. It’s worked for me in the past. I have so many kits that I can’t keep track of all of them, and I forget what’s in that jumbo folder, so I fall back on the same handful of well-loved collections when I could be expanding my horizons. Kat takes it a step further and includes her templates in her browse.

Browse the Gallery. Jill and Kat both mentioned finding inspiration by looking at other Scrappers‘ work. The bonus in the GingerScraps Gallery is that most of the things we see in those images can be found right here in the Store! An extension of this gambit is checking out other digiland galleries, including Pinterest. Jill was the only one to mention that specifically. But don’t sleep on Instagram and Facebook digiscrapping groups. There’s a TON of good content if you know where to look. I’ve got a folder on my phone that’s filled with cardmaking ideas I’ve found online. Jill has a folder on her computer filled with layouts she’d like to scrap lift. She also mentioned that she likes to try her hand at scrapping Sylvia-style… lots of white space and minimal embellishment. Don’t forget to read the comments on your own layouts. There are some great pearls in them!

Choose a colour palette or a theme. Then look for photos and kits that match. That kind of browsing can stir up some creativity. Sandra finds inspiration in nature and Jill buys kits because the colours speak to her.

Challenge yourself. There are more than 30 (!) Challenges every month at GingerScraps. If you find even one that tweaks your interest, you’ve got a perfect opportunity to break out of your slump. I usually go through the new Challenges at the beginning of the month, creating folders for the ones that interest me or that instantly provide me with a mental image of what I could do with the prompt. Jo, Jill and April all mentioned Challenges in their comments. I’ve learned a lot of what I know about photo editing, techniques, layout design and scrapping period simply from tackling challenges. They take a lot of the pressure of decision-making away and sometimes a layout will come together in under an hour. Especially if it’s a Template Challenge! Both Jo and Kat get inspiration from them. I have an extensive collection of them, and use them for almost all my layouts. Other good options are the Scrap Lift, Photography, Jumpstart, Quote and Word Art Challenges.

Work through a Tutorial. (Insert shameless plug here.) Michelle says she sometimes will revisit a Tutorial she’s already tried, but with a different kit or theme. And Stephanie pointed out the Tutorial Master Index (remind me to update that, please!) where there are 9 years worth of things to try.

Do something else for awhile. Here’s a direct quote from Kat: “Sometimes I tell myself it’s OK to take a little break and recharge my creative batteries. When I am in a creative slump it makes me anxious and then it becomes a cycle of not feeling creative! I give myself permission to try something else and take a break, and so far that’s always worked for me.” I think we’re all familiar with that bloom of anxiety she’s described. And it’s an uncomfortable situation when it creeps into something that once gave us so much joy. But I think what this exercise shows is that it’s not a permanent problem. It can be overcome and the joy of creativity can be found again. This is an important message as we head into the holiday season, with all the pressures and anxieties that come with it. It’s okay to not be okay, and it’s okay to ask for help. We need to be kind to ourselves!

To all our readers who are on the struggle bus, whatever the reason, we’re thinking of you and wishing you well.

 

 

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

Designer Spotlight: November 2025

November 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Magical Scraps Galore

Is it just me, or does it feel like this year has passed in the blink of an eye? Whomever said, “The days are long but the years are short” really hit that nail on the head! Anyhoodle, this is our third-to-last Designer Spotlight for 2025, and our GingerBread Lady for November is Marina, aka Magical Scraps Galore. Full disclosure, Marina and I have been down the Spotlight path before, so some of our schtick will seem familiar. But please don’t tune out… there are still some gems in there! So let’s dive in…

J: It’s good to see you again, Marina. You keep coming back, so we must be doing something right! 😉 Let’s recap the business bit so we can get to the fun stuff quicker. Remind me how you got into digital designing.

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 “arrived” here in April 2013 and I can’t believe how much the digi-scrapping world has evolved. I love looking at others’ work in the Store and Gallery and seeing the growth in every direction, especially when a Scrapper finds her groove. It’s amazing, really. How would you describe your style?

M: Detailed, colorful, and whimsical

J: Yep, nailed it! Now, other than the obvious, is there a theme or occasion you really love designing for?

M: My favorite theme is traveling, it gives me an excuse to visit new places to do some research and find inspiration for my new collections.

J: I really enjoy the research part too, even when I’m scrapping for someone else. Case in point, the travelogue I put together for my sister using her photos from her tour of the Maritimes. Funny story – I’ve never been to Nova Scotia but because I did a bunch of digging into the history of the places she’d visited, I instantly recognized Yarmouth in a Netflix reality series I started watching. 😀 I’ve gotta tell you, I lost sleep over that book, worrying about getting it finished in enough time to have it printed and ready for Christmas while still doing all the other things that I do on the regular. How do you keep to all together when you’re working on multiple projects at the same time?

M: Oh no, I never work on multiple collections at once. It’s hard for me to keep my inspiration flowing unless I’m focused on the theme I’m currently working on.

J: Aha! I wish I had the option of focusing on one thing at a time, but it seems like I’m hit with everything all at once all the time. One of these days’ I’m going to drop a ball, and I have to hope it’s not a BIG one. Okay. Moving on. What does a typical designing day look like for you?

M: A typical day for me is going to the gym or out running at 6:00am, then spend the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon creating my designs, and finish my day sharing a good homemade meal with my family (I love cooking).

J: I’m so not a morning person! I drag my butt out of bed at 7 on weekdays to get my son ready for his day and that’s as good as it’s gonna get. Lately I find I’m shoe-horning in the creative things that make me feel productive. And happy. What makes you light up about how others use your designs?

M: That’s the most gratifying part of being a designer, seeing that a customer has chosen my designs to document their most cherished memories. It’s such an honor!

J: I bet! If you could only use three design tools for the rest of your creative life, what would they be?

M: Photoshop, Illustrator and Procreate.

J: No AI? You’re my new hero! Speaking of heroes or idols, if you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would you choose?

M: Rather than dinner, I’d love to grab a beer with three of my favorite singers that have already passed away: Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and Layne Staley.

J: Oh, that’s so not my jam! I’d probably pick Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Dolly. Is it a bad thing that my personal anthem is My Give-a-Da**’s Busted? Oops! Gotta stop tipping my hand and get a little chocolate bandaid. What’s your comfort food?

M: A big plate of homemade lasagna!

J: That’s a ton of work. Tell me you’ve got somebody who makes it for you! This time of year I’m the one doing the comfort treats thing for everybody else. I’ll be making fruitcake and fudge for my mom and peanut brittle for everybody. They’re all Christmas traditions in our family and the peanut brittle is a nod to my dad, who passed last August. Do you have a favourite random holiday?

M: (Inter)National Cat Day, since I get to give my kitties an extra doses of cuddles.

J: You’d love our neighbours then. They have three kitties, a black-and-white domestic longhair, a blue Persian and a little white domestic shorthair. Our dogs bark at them when they’re out on the deck, but they’re just saying hello. Should I tell our readers about the rest of your Spotlight goodies now? Yes? Awesome!

First, as always, Marina is providing the Daily Download for November. Here’s a sneak peek:

If you miss a day, don’t worry, the download codes are good for five days! If you miss several, the whole kit will be in the Store sometime after the end of the month. Of course, she’s hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month in addition to her regular Surprise Challenge. (The theme for the Surprise Challenge is animals!) But that’s not all…

I had to check several times to see if I was reading the flyer correctly. BUNDLES? 35% off? That never happens! Run!! Check out her Store!

 

 

 

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

October 28, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Challenge Spotlight: DSD Quote Challenge

Thank you all so much for being patient while I worked off my muscle relaxants! I truly do become quite um… incoherent and puddly when I have to take them. Good news is, I’m pretty much recovered, despite an eventful weekend in which my son experienced some very unpleasant medication side effects himself. And I’m back on track with my closet overhaul, even though I blew past my deadline completely. Now, back to our regularly-scheduled program.

This month I chose the Digital Scrapbooking Day Quote Challenge created by Diane, of ADB Designs. I love to use quotes and song lyrics on my layouts, partly because they make it easy, and partly because I can always find something that fits. Diane chose two quotes, with similar themes but with a definite difference – one is poetic and calm, the other is more whimsical. These are the quotes.

The autumn leaves
Are too heavy with color.
The slender trees
On the Vulcan Road
Are dressed in scarlet and gold
Like young courtesans
Waiting for their lovers.
– Langston Hughes

One sunny Autumn day
When I went out to play,
An Elf-man in a tree
Dropped colored leaves on me.
– Gertrude P. McBrown
​

There were ten layouts posted to the thread in the Forum and I was interested to see which of the options saw the most uptake. Before proceeding, make your prediction, then see how correct you are. Each layout is linked to its spot in the Gallery so you can take a closer look or leave some comments. Just click on the Scrapper’s Forum name and you’ll zip to the Gallery. 

First off the bat we have trinanne. She went with the elf quote and used photos of a charming little man busily raking leaves. I like the simplicity of her layout, and her clever use of the partially-nude tree element to reflect the theme of the layout.

Our next entry is from zotova (I think this is her first TT Spotlight!) and she’s also chosen the whimsical quote. Her layout is stellar on so many levels. That artsy background, her gorgeous cluster and the newsprint border frame her photo and draw the eye right to it.

KatL chose the more lyrical Hughes quote for her layout. The way her paper and element choices pull colour from her photo is perfection! She decided the photo was the star of the show and everything else plays a supporting role.

5grand also went with the Hughes quote. You really need to zoom in on this one! I love that the curled leaves look a lot like a bunch of carrots, and how the colour palette she chose coordinates seamlessly with her photos. That rabbit though!

Here’s some more whimsy. Celestine chose the perfect papers and elements for her photo. Her clever blending of plaid paper and her photo along with the denim-blue background provide a solid base for the branch.

I feel like Windswept‘s focal photo would have worked equally well with either of the quotes. But I also feel like she realllllly wanted to use the owl and the hedgehog elements and that dictated her choice.

I LOVE this one! Grace.‘s imagination and nature play well together. The drift of leaves draws the eye to the quote, but also to the little fox and bear elements. So pretty!

I have some photos of my son buried in leaves like these. They’re about 30 years old. 🙂 If you’re keeping score, the McBrown quote is in the lead. Katherine Woodin has created a lovely cluster of fall elements behind her photos.

Look at that fantastic font biche57 chose! It’s got all the elegance of Hughes’ quote and meshes well with the artsy border.

And last, we have this evocative layout from photocrazy. The watercolour paper she used provides a perfect backdrop to the fall cluster and the wildlife touches are sweet.

Did you guess correctly? I gave the edge to the playful quote before I started scrolling. It was a close one, six to four. Not as close as last night’s ballgame, and definitely not as um… drawn out. But a good competition nonetheless!

See you next week with the November Designer Spotlight. Can you guess who it is?

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

October 14, 2025 by 2 Comments

Jan’s Layout Salad Recipe

or… Taking the fear out of cohesively using parts of multiple kits to create a single layout.

Every time I post a layout with a lengthy credits list, I see several comments out how many kits I’ve used so successfully. I know most people are “kit Scrappers” using only what they find in a single kit. But boy, that’s too restrictive for me! It’s not that I CAN’T do that, I just like to mix things up. So how do I make it work? Grab a beverage and I’ll show you!

Before we get rolling, I should mention that the GingerScraps Buffet makes it really uncomplicated to mix and match kits. Each GingerBread Lady uses the same colour palette to design their contribution to the monthly Buffet, so you can easily grab papers from one Designer, elements from another and word art from a third Buffet kit and pull off a flawless layout. The following will give you a roadmap to making it work for you, whether you use some coordinating Buffet kits or pull from your whole stash.

My process is usually: open a new folder > choose a theme (for Challenges, for example) > find photo(s) > template > papers > embellishments > title. I add the tools to the folder as I go along. Once I’ve chosen a template, I open the preview thumbnail and enlarge it so I can see all the parts it contains. Then I can start pulling pieces to build my layout with. I start with the papers… count then up so I know how many I’m looking for.

In keeping with my theme, I’ll look at a few kits that fit, looking into the folders for the major parts of the template I’m using. For this layout, I chose Alexis Designs’ Ivory Pumpkins as my base kit.

Once I’ve decided on my base kit, I’ll Copy (CTRL/CMD>C) each paper and element I’ll use, then Paste (CTRL/CMD>V) them into the layout’s folder. This practice is very helpful later, as you’ll see, for assessing how well each item works with all the other items. So far, my folder holds a photo, a template, two papers, a button, some baby’s breath, two flowers and some leaves.

Sometimes I’ll go right to a kit I know will coordinate with my base kit and the theme of the layout. Here, I’ve opened Aimee Harrison’s Bonfire Nights and found a pretty paper I’ll use. I may find several suitable elements in the second kit, or I might just grab one thing.

I’ve selected the papers I want to use, but I feel like the edge of the background paper needs a little something. So I turned to the Search function in File Explorer. All of my GingerScraps kits are in a single super-folder so I’ve got that open as my primary search location. In the Search field at the top right of the screen, I typed in “edge” and let my computer do the work. It usually takes under a minute. As you can see, EVERYTHING with the keyword “edge” anywhere in the metadata shows up in the workspace. 🙂 I chose one and moved on.

There’s a string on the template, but no string in my base kit, so I ran a search for “string“. And got a gazillion results. 😀

I knew I wanted a red string, so I tightened the search parameter.

But I still had a paper problem. I needed a solid to Clip to the notepad paper on the template. So I searched for “solid paper“. I think you can see pretty well how this all works, so let’s move on!

Now I’ve selected all the things I want to use to create my layout and moved a Copy of each into my folder. I can see clearly whether they’re all going to play well together. I think it’ll work!

When I’m ready to upload my layout to the Gallery, I’ve got a complete alphabetical list of everything I used already prepared for me… I just have to transcribe it to the description box!

So let’s cast a critical eye at the final product. Did it hit the mark? Do the things I chose actually work with each other? You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Designer Spotlight: October 2025

October 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Part Two: Wetfish Designs

 

It’s my great pleasure to introduce to you the creative mind behind Wetfish Designs, Cyndi! She’s a relative newcomer to the GingerScraps world, and we had a lovely time getting to know each other. Our conversation went something like this:

J: Cyndi, thanks so much for stepping into our Designer Spotlight! You bring something quite unique to our community. What drew you to designing?

C: I am a photographer and wanted to create kits that were more “me” than what was on the market when my second son was born in 2006. I starting using my Photoshop skills to create my own kits for my personal use. I then started designing. I took a break when I started homeschooling my boys, but now I’m back. I consider it a daily learning process and I am constantly trying new things and watching tutorials for various software on YouTube. I have dabbled with AI and my go to AI software is Adobe Firefly. I could spend hours trying to create a perfect AI image—my writing background lends itself in many ways to this new technology.

J: I’m on the fence about AI. I think it could be a really useful tool when used judiciously, but also that it could become like Skynet… I’ve noticed a lot more AI content creeping into the digital scrapbooking sphere and I worry that productivity will kill creativity. But anyway. Where do you find your inspiration for developing a collection?

C: I always look at color trends in fashion, as well as textures and colors in home design. I am instantly inspired when I travel and see new cultures, styles, trends, colors, etc. When I visit a store that has a lot of unique clothes or home decor, that is always a motivator for me. I don’t like to look at the work of other designers as much as I’d like to. I usually don’t even see another designers’ work until it is posted for advertising or events. I feel that keeps my designs more true to my style and helps me keep what I’m working on unique. Feedback from customers is always wanted! In my last newsletter I created a survey and found out what types of themes my customers want. That was very helpful, and my “Rainbow Bridge” download a day kit is reflective of that survey.

J: It’s interesting that you mention not wanting to be influenced by what other designers are doing. There’s been quite a surge in very similar themes and palettes popping up all over the digi-world from different designers and it’s been commented upon more than a few times. Is it “all great minds think alike” or something else? But let’s not go down that rabbit hole! Give us a peek at your design process, please.

C: I always start with a color palette. From there I look at textures and themes. Color and texture are my starting points. Whenever possible I create my own seamless patterns. I’m still struggling to learn how to create plaid patterns that are seamless. I’m sure there is a solid YouTube video out there, I just haven’t found it yet. Once I have my ideas generated I start with papers. Papers are one of my favorite things to design! After my papers are done I make a preview with them and then I begin building my elements.

J: I’m all in on texture and dimension. I think the overall look is much more engaging and memorable when an image “moves”. My digi-scrapping has really transformed since I first started dabbling with it fifteen years ago; being invited to write tutorials for GingerScraps nine years ago was a huge motivator for that. 😉 How has your style evolved?

C: I am addicted to vintage and shabby chic textures. Always have been! Surprisingly, my home is not at all a showcase for these aspects of design! I have been trying to veer away from that look every now and again with my “Fish Food” newsletter mini kits. For these kits I use a more clean look, using more vectors and flat textures. Most of the time I can’t help myself and gravitate towards anything old, vintage and shabby. Pink has been my favorite color for many years, so it often pops up in my kits. One of my newer kits, “Pinkademic,” is reflective of my love for pink and quirky modern art. After pink, I gravitate towards shades of black. Halloween has ALWAYS been my favorite holiday and that is probably because my birthday is just before Halloween. That is the reason I have so many Halloween products!

J: Let me be the first to wish you a fabulous birthday! Halloween has been a favourite time of the year for me since my kids were small. I loved creating costumes for them out of things I had on hand. They complained about not having “store-bought” costumes like everybody else until people started pointing out how creative theirs were. Suddenly Mom wasn’t such a downer after all. 😀 One year when my middle was in high school, she asked me to give her a black eye… with make-up. We almost had a visit from Child Protective Services for that one. I guess you could say I’ve been a hobby-realist for a long time. Is there any hobby you’d really like to master but haven’t tried yet?

C: Knitting! I crochet a lot but I haven’t figured out how to knit yet. When I watch TV with my family I will crochet or do puzzles on my iPad. I believe knitting would require my full attention and that is probably the reason why I haven’t learned how yet.

J: I think you’d find that once you got the hang of it, you could let muscle memory do a lot of the work. I knitted a sixteen-foot square afghan for my sister while my son was in the hospital. Trust me, I wasn’t super-focused. Another thing you’ll find is that knitting usually uses less yarn… for those times when the budget is tight. You mentioned watching TV with your family. Do you have a guilty-pleasure favourite show or genre?

C: I could watch BookTube for hours, as well as cruise videos. Cruising once a year is my goal, but reading every day is a constant for me. Historical fiction is my favorite genre 🙂

J: I think I need to check out BookTube. How have I missed that?! But cruises are never going to light me up. I get peopled out fairly quickly and couldn’t hack being trapped on a boat with a thousand strangers. >< But if I could do the I dream of Jeannie eye blink and be somewhere else, I’d jump at it! How about you? Where would you go?

C: I would go to Scandinavia! I love watching travel videos on Norway, Sweden and Finland! I also hope to visit Slovenia someday.

J: One of my great-grandmothers was born in Sweden. I’d love to see where her family lived. She’s the only one who came to North America and stayed. Her older brother, who escorted her across the Atlantic in 1888 to live with her maternal uncle, seems to have walked off the ends of the earth. Give me a time machine so I can find Ernst, universe!!

C: Like Outlander!!! I love the books and the show! If I could time travel it would be back to the 1700s in Scotland and, of course, it would be by way of some standing stones!

J: I’d that too. Funny, my great-grandfather was an Ulster Scot. His heritage was originally Norman; the first of them arrived in Britain with William the Conqueror before heading north to Scotland a few years later. My branch left Scotland in the late 18th century for the north of Ireland (it’s only 12 miles away, after all) and then on to North America in the early 19th century. So maybe we could explore history together! We can learn to make real scones.

C: I’d rather have sourdough bread! I used to make it every day but let’s just say the weight gain was not working for me 🙁

J: For me it’s potatoes. The Irish in me. My hemoglobin A₁C was higher than I’d like back in March so I’m watching my carbs a bit closer that I was. ;( I wish I could walk my dogs again, but I get too short of breath. Good thing they love me anyway. I read about the background of your Rainbow Bridge Daily Download collection; I’m so sorry you lost TWO dogs in such a short time. If you could have any pet, real or mythical, what would you choose?

C: A cat of course! I love my dog, too, but my heart was made for cats.

J: Hard pass. I don’t think we can be friends after all. Hahahahahahaha! Moving right along…… Thanks for chatting! I’m just going to finish up by filling our readers in on your Spotlight month and see where that takes us. I didn’t see a Designer Spotlight Challenge for you this month. I hope that’s just an oversight. But you are hosting your monthly Wild For Styles Challenge, so that’s cool. I don’t think anybody who frequents the GS Blog has missed your Daily Download sneak peek, but just in case….

Thanks again for the visit! For the rest of you, next week’s Tutorial Tuesday could be a Greatest Hits… or it could be a Fantastic Fonts new fall fonts post. We’ll see how I feel in the morning. If I get some proper sleep, who knows what I’ll get into!

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