Digital Scrapbooking Freebies

Designer Spotlight: March 2021

March 1, 2021 by Jan

North Meets South Studios!

Well, February sure flew by at our house, and March is upon us. This month’s Designer Spotlight is shining on the creative minds behind North Meets South Studios: Connie Prince and Tracy Anderson, aka Trixie Scraps. Their design styles blend so flawlessly, which only serves to reflect on their very long, strong friendship. Let’s get to know them a bit better. Ladies, get ready!

J: How long have you been designing?

T: I’ll celebrate my 13th year in business this October

C: I began designing digital scrapbooking products in 2004-2005ish, but officially selling in 2006.

J: Ah, so you both came to designing around the same time! Connie, what made you decide to start designing?

C: At the time the offerings were so limited, I was a paper scrapper and want to add unique elements to my layouts which I began to make digitally and print. It didn’t take long to realize I could do the whole thing digitally so much easier!

J: I think that’s fairly common, and it’s definitely part of my motivation to learn digital scrapbooking. What other craft let’s you have your cake (your digi supplies) and eat it too (use the same things over and over!)? Connie, what do you use to create your designs (program, additional tools, etc.)?

C: I use Photoshop CC, Illustrator. I also have a scanner that I use pretty often to scan things to extract.

J: I have 2 scanners and I don’t think I could live without them. Describe your design workplace for us?

C: It’s pretty minimalistic. I have a double monitor setup, that’s the most exciting thing about it lol.

J: I work on a laptop in my living room, about as minimalist as you can get! So, what motivates and inspires you as a designer?

C: I enjoy the process, coming up with an idea and creating it. The most rewarding part is seeing someone else use something that I’ve created to preserve their own memories.

J: That’s how I feel about my tutorials. I love browsing the Gallery and seeing layouts using some technique I’ve written about. Tracy, you’ve been awfully quiet… so it’s your turn! What’s your favourite kit currently in the GS shop, and why?

T: My recent “She Shall Not Be Moved” is my favorite because it speaks to my faith. And I love the colors!

J: What would your perfect vacation look like?

T: Sitting on a beach somewhere next to Connie with our guys. And preferably with some of the “mommy juice” she makes in my tumbler.

J: Hmm, that sounds… interesting! Maybe we need a recipe for that! Tracy, are you more likely to sing, or to dance in the shower?

T: Sing… I love to sing and serve on the praise team at my church monthly.

J: I love music. It’s a big part of my every day. I’m listening to folk music right now in fact! Let’s talk about another favourite of mine… food! If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

C: Chicken wings, hands down I am obsessed! However, if I could only eat at one restaurant the rest of my life it would be Waffle House.

T: Anything Italian, provided I make it.

J: I never used to like wings, and then my friend Patti’s hubby cooked some and I too was hooked. I love Italian food too. While we’re on a favourites roll, Tracy, what are your most and least favourite colours?

T: Least favorite is easy: orange Favorite is harder to choose… I like blue, purple and pink pretty equally.

J: I’m not overly fond of orange either, but yellow… ICK! Connie, what did you want to be when you were small?

C: I can’t really remember wanting to be anything in particular, I played school a lot so maybe a teacher? I did grow up and get a degree in education, but I didn’t really enjoy teaching very much so I retired early 🙂

J: Teachers are so under-appreciated. I think they’re super-heroes! Tracy, if you could have a super power, what would you like it to be?

T: Mind-reading. I am often too trusting and also often unsure of where I stand with people. It would be nice to always know what someone was really thinking!

J: Ooh, I don’t think I’d want that. I tend to think everybody is just tolerating me, and to have that confirmed would be pretty awful. Have you ever met anyone who’s famous?

T: Yes, I’ve met a handful of athletes because my husband owned and operated a sports memorabilia company for over 10 years. Among the list are Joe Frazier, Magic Johnson, Alfonso Soriano, Joe Torre, and Julius Erving. But there were a bunch more, too!

J: Cool! The famous people I’ve met are only famous in narrow circles, but that didn’t stop me from fan-girling all over them. That’s a good segué into this: Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?

C: Cameron Diaz, she’s just quirky enough!

J: And she looks like you a bit, so that would be believable! Tracy, can you play a musical instrument?

T: When the pandemic started, I began taking piano lessons. I’ve come a long way in the last 10 months or so!

J: I took piano lessons when I was a kid, but we didn’t actually have a piano, so practicing was a problem. Same with learning to drive… While we’re talking about celebrities, what celebrity would you like to meet at Starbucks for a cup of coffee Connie?

C: Dolly Parton, she’s a hoot!

J: She definitely is. I feel like she needs a warning label: Liable to make you laugh and cry in the same moment. If you had a warning label what would it say?

C: I would have a bunch, but definitely: If you leave cookies unattended she will eat them!

J: I’m there with you! Tracy, the last question is yours. Aside from necessities, what’s one thing you couldn’t go a day without?

T: Coffee. I mean, I *could* go without it, but I wouldn’t want to!

J: And why should you have to?? Thanks so much ladies for sitting down and chatting with me. Our GingerScrappers have gotten a glimpse into your worlds and I hope those who aren’t already huge fans are converts now.

Before I sign off for today. I want to make sure you all remember that Connie and Tracy are hosting the Daily Download and the Designer Spotlight Challenge for March. To go along with their month in the spotlight, the North Meets South Studios‘ entire store (bundles excluded) is 40% off the whole month of March!

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: Designer Spotlight

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

February 16, 2021 by Jan

Creating a Shadow Box Layout

Editor’s note: This is an intermediate level technique, with as much detail as I can get in here so it’s achievable by most.

Let’s see if I can get this finished and posted before our dog barfs again… She apparently ate two cotton bandannas (and I’m not positive that’s all!) and luckily for her, she was able to bring them back up before they created a surgical emergency. She’s not impressed with the forced crate rest or the fasting, but there’s been no vomiting now for about 4 hours. Cross your fingers!

Steph has once again brought me an idea for a tutorial that will blow you away. She found it in the challenges at another store and she (quite correctly) thought it would make a great topic. In fact, I had to it split up into two parts to avoid overwhelming the new-to-digi gals. But you’re gonna love it! And it dovetails with the custom shapes tut from last week, in a way. So let’s get after it!

I started by choosing a photo I wanted to showcase but this technique can absolutely be photoless, with a quote or word art as the focal point, or any combo of elements. Then I decided I’d use a heart shape. But not a boring, typical PSE heart. I used the Custom Shape heart as my starting point, then I changed it. A lot. Remember, to be able to do anything other than resizing, Custom Shapes have to be Simplified. I used the Transform tools, a Basic Brush and the Eraser tool to arrive at my final shape. You could use any shape that tickles your fancy, one of the preset ones in your software or a freehand geometric shape… whatever you like! Before we move on, let’s talk about the Transform tools (Image>Transform) a bit. If you haven’t played with them, DO IT!! It’s fun! There are several options in the dropdown menu: Free Transform, Skew, Distort and Perspective. You can use one or all of them on a single image, but not as a single step. I started with the Skew tool. The bounding box comes up with “handles” at the corners and at the midpoint of each side. Skew only moves in one direction at a time; if you grab a corner handle and drag it up, the side of the image the corner is attached to will stretch, while the rest stays the same. You can move the handle in any direction and for any distance you like. Distort is similar to Skew, but allows the image to look like you’ve turned it on its axis while maintaining the basic shape. Perspective moves the whole side of the Bounding Box. If you grab the top corner and drag it up, the bottom corner will move in the opposite direction in the same amount. We’re going to revisit the Perspective tool in a tutorial coming in a couple of weeks. But back to my heart – as I mentioned, I put a photo on my canvas and adjusted the shape of my heart so that all the parts of the photo I wanted to be visible would be visible. It was a bit of a process, moving back and forth between tools until I got it right.

Here I’m showing you how I got the photo part right. I wanted all the hands and feet in there, but not so much of the background. I switched between Selecting the edge of the shape by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the shape so the edge was visible on my photo, hiding the shape layer, deciding what I needed to do to the shape and then making those changes. Lather, rinse, repeat. I finally got it just right, with a relatively smooth edge and could move to the next step.

The first paper layer will be this hot pink. It matches my grandsons’ capes and my granddaughter’s mask and pants. (Their other grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and they’ve been doing the Walk for the Cure every year of their lives.) For this layout I used Jumpstart Designs Jumpstart Your February kit, which is free in the Challenge forum for the rest of the month. As you can see, the marching ants are still there from the last time I checked my fit.

I had to be sure my paper layer was active because I want to cut that shape out of the paper.

Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X will cut the shape out and the photo will be visible again. We’re going to do this step 5 times, one for each of my papers.

See what I mean? Perfect colour match!!

For the next step I resized the shape by clicking one of the corner handles and then typing the amount of increase I wanted into one of the size boxes. I chose 20% because it would be enough to be easily visible and it was easy to remember, because I’ll be doing this step 3 more times. But you do you. Make sure the Constrain Proportions is checked, unless you only want your change to go in one direction. That would also work with this technique, and give a really cool result.

For the next paper layer I went with this polka dot paper for contrast. CTRL/CMD>click on the shape layer, with the paper layer active and CTRL/CMD>X and there’s another cut done!

Here’s how it looks with 2 paper layers.

Then again, I increased the size of the shape by 20%.

Now, the shape layer doesn’t have to be directly under the paper you’re cutting. It can be anywhere in the layer stack. It’s the selection that Elements cares about, not where it is. I added another grungy pink paper to the pile.

On to the cutting part.

If you want to see how it all looks without the black shape in the way, just turn that layer’s visibility off.

I went ahead and added two more paper layers, increasing the size of the shape layer by 20% each time. Now to add the shadows so it looks like I’ve stacked all these papers on top of my photo, and used those foam strips in between to give me a big offset. I’m going to create my own shadows for each layer and will take you through that process. But you can absolutely use an inside shadow style like these ones from Karen Schulz if you’d rather. That’ll reduce the number of steps for you quite significantly.

That shape layer isn’t needed any more so I’m just going to delete it. Right-click on the layer and choose Delete Layer, of just hit the Delete key. Either method will work.

If you’re still reading along, we’re going to run through my method of creating customized shadows on a separate layer. There’s a tut for that here. The first step is to add a blank layer UNDERNEATH the layer you want to shadow, in this case my first paper. To do that quickly and easily, hold down the CTRL/CMD key and click on the sheet of paper icon at the top left of the Layers panel.

Then select the layer you’re shadowing by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the layer thumbnail (not the layer, because that’ll mess up your next step!). Using the Paint Bucket tool (click>K), fill the blank layer with your shadow colour. The colour will only go inside the selection, as shown in the Layers panel. I used pure black for simplicity but you can use a brown or gray if you’d rather. (There’s another way of filling this layer with your shadow colour, but this is the quickest with the fewest steps.) Decide where your light source is coming from (upper left corner for this example) and nudge your shadow so that it appears where the light source dictates it would appear in real life.

Now, real shadows can be harsh and sharp-edged, but that’s not pretty. So let’s not do that! The way to make your shadows look more realistic starts with adding a bit of Gaussian Blur Filter to them. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur

We want the shadow to make the paper look like it’s quite a distance from whatever is under it, so the Blur can be significant. I went with 10.0 pixels.

This step isn’t essential. I change the Blend Mode of my shadow layers to Linear Burn. It makes them a little darker but more transparent, if that makes sense. You don’t have to take this step, but if you do, make sure you do it BEFORE you adjust your Opacity. If you do it AFTER the Opacity change, next time you go to nudge something, Elements is going to change the Blend Mode instead!

This screenshot shows the Blend Mode is Linear Burn and the Opacity has been lowered to 45%. Look at the shadow now, as it’s cast on the photo. The colours in the photo are still easily visible and unaltered by the shadow. I’m going to shadow all the paper layers in exactly this manner.

To review Step One: Blank layer behind that paper layer. Edges of the paper Selected by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the layer thumbnail.

Step Two: Fill the shadow layer with the Paint Bucket (click K) and click inside the canvas.

Step Three: Add a Gaussian Blur Filter. If you’re happy using the same amount of blur from the last step, the keyboard shortcut is CTRL/CMD>F and it’s done!

Step Four: Change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn. then decrease the Opacity.

I found that an Opacity of 45% was too harsh against a solid paper so I went down to 35% and it looks right to my eyes.

Follow the same four steps for each of the paper layers. This image shows 3 shadow layers finished.

And now all of them are done. Don’t you think the shadow-box effect works?!

For the second part of this technique, I’ll add some embellishments and show you how I shadowed each of them to achieve the final, cohesive look. My layout is here so you can check it out. See you in a week!

PDF Download: https://bit.ly/2ZqQ73D

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

Tutorial Tuesday – GingerScraps

January 5, 2021 by Jan

New Year, New Challenges!

2021 has gotten off to a smashing start at GingerScraps. There have been a lot of “new” ladies joining our Facebook group and that tells me we’re doing something right. I truly believe GingerScraps IS the “friendliest place in the Digi Scrapping world“. Participation in our Forum has grown so much over the last year, especially in the Welcome! subforum. Of course, each of us is looking for something specific when we embark on a new adventure. For me, I came to GS as a creative team member for one of the GingerBread Ladies; this was my “assigned” store. I spent some time looking around, trying to find a way to engage myself and discovered the GingerScraps Challenges. Bonanza!!!

For those of you who have been GingerScrapping for awhile, you probably already have an established Challenge routine and likely won’t feel the need to read on. That’s cool… no pressure! But if you’re still getting comfortable here, you might not have looked into the Challenges and could maybe use some pointers. AND……. there are NEW challenges beginning this month so I want everybody to know about them.

Let’s begin with some general Challenge info. Challenges are one of the best ways of building your skills, and they also provide a framework to build them on by giving specific guidance such as a topic, a technique, a template or a word art. They’re also a good kick-start when you’re not really sure what you’re going to scrap, or when you’ve lost your mojo. But at GS, Challenges also provide a method of growing your stash! Several of the Challenges include access to high-quality freebies, such as brushes, mini-kits, templates and word art – you just have to download them! Even better than that though is the Challenge Reward! These Rewards are mega-kits created in collaboration by several of the GingerBread Ladies and there’s a new one every month. The January Reward looks like this:

Missi (missdamsel) does a really good job of explaining how Challenge Rewards work in the Cookie Jar – the Challenge tracking thread where you link to the layouts you’ve created for the Challenges. More about that later. But I’ll give you a little recap: You must create a different layout for each Challenge. Your Challenge layouts generally must contain at least 50% GingerScraps content – things available in the GS store – although the Designer Spotlight Challenge has a higher required content rule, 90% to be product from the Spotlight Designer(s) only. Another must is that you also post your layout in the Challenge thread. When you upload your layout to the Gallery, please also include the Challenge category in your description so it goes into that Challenge’s Gallery too. There’s a detailed set of instructions for this process in the tutorial A Road Map for Newbies. (**Just had a thought when I was talking to my hubby about this tut… MAKE SURE YOU’RE UPLOADING TO THE CORRECT YEAR’S CHALLENGE GALLERY!) When you’ve completed TEN Challenges and recorded them in your Cookie Jar, you’ll receive the Challenge Reward kit for the month you hit that milestone. Missi keeps track of all the Cookie Jar entries and sends out a Private Message with the coupon code for the Reward to the scrappers who qualify. One thing that can be confusing is that if you go OVER ten layouts in a given month, those “extra” ones aren’t carried over for the next month. If you create ten layouts every month, you get all the Rewards! Okay, that’s the important 411 on general Challenge stuff. Now let’s talk about some of the new ones!! (Each of the Challenges will be linked in the description so you can just click on the red text and go right to the Challenge. All coloured, bold text in this tutorial has a link attached.)

The Challenges are listed in the Forum in alphabetical order, so that’s how I’m going to discuss them. First up is Jumpstart Your Layouts: with Jumpstart Designs. GingerBread Lady Sheri provides each Challenger with a free product – this month it’s a really cute mini-kit – and the “rules” for the Challenge, which will change each month. For January she wants each scrapper to scrap their inner thoughts about the coming year, and include a selfie somewhere on the page. For some of us, the selfie IS the challenge!

Connie Prince has changed the focus of her monthly Challenge so I’m considering it to be a new one. Life Chronicled is a way to scrap about the more ordinary parts of our lives to give our future generations glimpses of our lives as they were every day, to let them into our heads a little so they “know” us. She gives some talking points to help decide where the layout will go. She also includes a mini-kit, that coordinates with one of her larger kits, for inspiration. (It’s not a required component, though.)

Marina brings us our third new challenge, Magical Scraps Galore’s Surprise Challenge. Each month the focus of the Challenge will be a complete surprise. For January she’s requiring a ten-item overlapping cluster on your layout with a list of each of the 10 objects included when you post your layout to the thread. Clusters can be really intimidating to new scrappers, and if you need some support, there’s a tut for that: Creating Clusters… Not Clutter.

While it’s technically not new, the Mix It Up Challenge is now being hosted by Mish Fish every month. It’s similar to the Surprise Challenge in the sense that every month the goals will be a surprise. For January, Juli has given us a 1-2-3-4 list of ingredients for our layouts. 1 word title, 2 photos, 3 flower/element clusters (clusters again!) and 4 (or more) lines of journaling. Piece of cake, right?

This next one is bound to be a huge hit. My Favorite Things with CathyK is another opportunity for personal layouts, focusing on YOU and what you take pleasure in. Cathy would like us to think about, then scrap, some positive moment from 2020 for her inaugural Challenge. It wasn’t the most uplifting of years for far too many people, but there’s always at least some good mixed in with the bad. When I read Cathy’s post, I knew immediately where my layout will go.

Scraps N Pieces is bringing us a Pinterest Challenge. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to get into Pinterest, she’s done it for you!) Each month she’ll provide a mood board created from images she’s pinned, each with a related theme, to provide you with some inspiration. Your layout can take its cues from any aspect of the pinned images that pop into your head. January’s images are about food and how we relate to it. Who hasn’t started a new weight loss plan in January?

And the final new Challenge for 2021 is the Quote Challenge with BoomersGirl Designs. Each month Lori will provide us with a quotation she’s found meaningful. The challenge is to use it as a basis for a layout, but it doesn’t have to INCLUDE the quote. January’s quote is about the gift of time, and what we do with it. Layouts will end up related, but unique, because our personal stories will take us each in a different direction.

I have my personal favourites when it comes to Challenges and I have my own process for doing them. Having worked as an ICU nurse for 25 years, process for me is like breathing! It helps me organize myself and keep myself on track. I start off at the beginning of the month by looking at each of the Challenges I enjoy doing to see if they spark anything. If they do, I right away create a folder for them. (I have folders for everything!) The folder’s name will include the Challenge name and some clues about the topic so I can see at a glance what I should be looking for later when I’m ready to work. If the Challenge includes a freebie like a brush or a mini-kit, I extract the zipped folder right into my Challenge folder. Then when I’m ready to create, I Copy all the photos, elements, paper and whatever else I expect to use into the folder too so it’s all in one place. Once the layout is finished and I’ve posted it to the Gallery, I change the name of the folder by adding a simple hyphen at the front of it that tells me it’s complete. You can see in the screenshot (you had to know there’d be a screenshot!) none of the folders have a hyphen… I haven’t done any work yet. But I’m going to start right away, because I WANT the Challenge Reward!! You might also have noticed that half of those folders are for the new Challenges. Because they’re awesome!

On a more tutorial note, my plan for the coming year going forward is to have the tutorials available as PDF files. It’s a work-in-progress as Ginger and I try to work out the logistics, but we wanted you to know the work is happening to make it a reality! Unfortunately, the amount of time required to convert all 200 previous tutorials would be huge, so they won’t be converted. Stay tuned!

Here is a link to this tutorial in PDF version! https://bit.ly/3biN5FP

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

Designer Spotlight January 2021

January 1, 2021 by Jan

Wow… it’s already 2021! I know we’ve all been relieved to see the last of 2020, and are hoping for a much better year ahead. Let’s start it off right with some conversation. I’d like you all to get to know the two amazing women who are in the Designer Spotlight this month: Aimee Harrison and Cheré Kaye. Be sure to read to the end, because these lovely ladies have a little gift for you!

Let’s get comfy and chat, shall we? (I’m not really a Grand Inquisitor, I just play one on TV.)

Jan: How long have you been designing?

Aimee: I have been designing since June of 2009, two weeks after I discovered digital scrapbooking. I knew it was what I wanted to do right away.

Cheré: I’ve been designing since 2007, with a short break in there to bring home my daughter.

Jan: You’ve both been doing this a lot longer than I have! No wonder you’re so good at it! Next question… Cheré, what made you decide to design?

Cheré: When I first started, I was doing paper scrapping, but wanted something specific to print out for my page and couldn’t find it. I started playing around, and my design career was born.

Jan: I can relate! That’s how I’ve built my tutorial business. Aimee‘s turn… what motivates and inspires you as a designer?

Aimee: My motivation and inspiration is color and my own photos. I love color and it inspires me in so many ways. Color combos, photos that showcase a scheme, Ginger’s spectacular palettes to us each month. They all inspire me completely. I love color and you can probably tell by the bright colors in some of my collections.

Jan: I love the way you use colour; your kits have a definite elegance. Cheré, you’re up! Please describe your design workplace.

Cheré: I have a small corner of our living room. I love my setup. There are two walls so I have a bulletin board and a calendar, and pictures of my family. My computer is on a small corner of the desk, and I have bits of paper everywhere because I’m always writing myself a note or sketching something out. It’s perfect for me.

Jan: I work in my living room too, but I don’t have a setup like that! Just a laptop, a zillion scraps of paper and a good lamp. How about you, Aimee?

Aimee: I work at a big table in front of four big windows in my bedroom. I love this space because it has plenty of room and I can look out over our front yard and watch the birds and squirrels. It’s also lovely to watch the sunrise, which really inspires me.

Jan: I have 4 big windows in my space but I see sunsets. I’m okay with that! Cheré, next question is for you. What is your favorite kit currently in your GS store and why?

Cheré: My favorite is probably Dear Prudence, shortly followed by Star of Wonder. I love the muted colors of both sets, and how they really showcase your photos.

Jan: You’re right, they are such soft and versatile kits. (Click on the titles to see the kits!) This one is for both of you. What one word would your friends and family use to describe you?

Aimee: Sleepy, lol! I have narcolepsy and sleepy is how I am 100% of the time. But I try to not let it get me down. One of the reasons I love designing is because I can make my own hours. I need a lot of naps. But I can work at any time that I am awake and that makes a huge difference in my quality of life.

Cheré: Hopefully, it’s kind. I put a high value on being kind to other people.

Jan: Wow… narcolepsy! I was always sleepy, but it was from shift work. Cheré, I know you’re kind. You’re one of the first people who reached out to me when I came to GingerScraps in those Night Owl chats. So tell me, what would you do if you won the lottery?

Cheré: I’d pay off bills and treat my family to a nice vacation. (Then go straight back to designing, because I love it!)

Jan: They say that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Aimee, this is a weird question, but enquiring minds want to know… If time travel was possible, would you go back in time or ahead? Why?

Aimee: I think I would go back in time. I am not sure if I would go back so many years. I think I would go back in time to where my parents were alive and other family members so I could appreciate them all the more. I may be a huge history buff but I would want to live the life I have been given over any others.

Jan: I think a lot of us would do the same, love the people in our lives more obviously. So let’s give Cheré an odd question now, to keep things fair. Are you more likely to dance or sing in the shower?

Cheré: If I tried to dance, it would end badly. Haha. I do love to sing, though.

Jan: I’ll let you know how dancing in my shower works out… Speaking of physical, Aimee… What is your favorite game or sport to watch or play?

Aimee: I love to watch soccer. I wish it were a big sport here in the US as it is all over the rest of the world. It gets me fired up like no other. I love the Spanish team Barcelona and Leo Messi is my favorite player. I also love to watch Greco-Roman wrestling. In high school or college. I was the wrestling manager when I was growing up and have a great love for that sport.

Jan: Nope. Not a fan of either. I worked with a lot of doctors from South America so soccer was always on in the breakroom, and my grandmother loved wrestling so it’s not like I haven’t been exposed. Cheré, I love gardening so do you have a green thumb? What do you grow?

Cheré: I have ONE plant I can keep alive here on my desk. The rest of them I either kill or my cat eats them. My mother tried to teach me about plants – she could grow anything – but it must have skipped the generation!

Jan: I’m doing the same with my daughter! Here’s one for both of you. Can you play a musical instrument?

Aimee: I used to play the French Horn. I still think it is the most beautiful instrument there is. When I hear it, it stops my breath.

Cheré: I can play the piano, the guitar, the trombone and the flute. I also love to sing.

Jan: Such talent! Some of my favourite pieces of music have French horn in the intros. A friend from high school played the flute in our orchestra and me? I can listen to music all day long. Now, what did you want to be when you were small?

Aimee: I wanted to be an archaeologist. I was very passionate. Still am. I pursued that dream well into college and when my narcolepsy became too bad to be able to pursue it any longer I decided to design scrapbooking kits.

Cheré: I wanted to be a musician of some sort. I did that for a while, and now I just sing for my family.

Jan: Archaeology would be fascinating! But not a great profession if you’re not awake to enjoy it. I sing, sometimes at the top of my lungs, but I don’t have any talent. Now I have one of those dreaded job interview questions. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Cheré: I would lessen my anxiety. I’m a pretty chill person – I don’t get angry easily at all – but the anxiety thing sometimes drains my energy.

Aimee: I would get rid of narcolepsy. If that was impossible, I would change how easily I get stressed out, lol. I think that is directly related to how tired I can get, though.

Jan: Stress, anxiety – two sides of the same coin, I think. I know them both well. And that’s a great segué into our last topic. Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?

Aimee: My Kindle. I listen to videos with it while I work and I read it when I’m done. I get so much use out of it that it could have been named after me. I go everywhere with it.

Cheré: Probably my iPad. It plays music, I can keep up with the people I love, and I do most of my artwork on it.

Jan: You two are more alike than you are different. But your design styles are so different. I’m excited for the Daily Download. It’s going to be epic! Now before we rinse out our mugs and head for home, remember I mentioned Aimee and Cheré had something for you for sticking with this post to the end? Both of them have coupons for 50% off EVERYTHING in their stores for the entire month of January- excluding bundles, of course. Aimee‘s coupon code is: aimeeh-GS-SL-50 and Cheré‘s is CKH-SL-GS21. Their stores are linked at the top of the post by clicking on their names. If you’re not flat broke after the holidays, maybe you should take a look!

See you all right here again at the beginning of February with a brand-new Designer Spotlight.

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

December 15, 2020 by Jan

Christmas is Coming… Get Your Fancy Fonts HERE!

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one whose having a hectic time right now. Even though Christmas will be a little different this year, it’s still coming and there are still lots of jobs to take care of. I haven’t had much free time this week to do something wildly creative to share with you, so I went for the low-hanging fruit – free Christmasy fonts! (It’s been a while since I shared some wintertime fonts with you, after all.) I have a baker’s dozen for you, and four sets of dingbats that I think you’ll love. They’re all from dafont.com and are 100% free for personal use. The bold blue test links you right to the download area, so have fun! (I won’t tell you how many I downloaded while I was doing my “research”.)

We’ll start with this brand new font called Christmas Bell. It has a bunch of glyphs (swirlicues, doodles and tiny ornaments) that turn the letters into something really special. If you’re unsure how to find those fancy add-ons, I have a tutorial for you called Unlocking the Secret Extras in Your Font Files and one for Mac users here.

Next up is Snowy Christmas. It’s a cute one, with lots of potential. It too has some little add-ons like that adorable snowman.

The third one has the very imaginative title of Merry Christmas. But those snowflakes! And the reindeer!!

Holly and Berries looks similar to Snowy Christmas, but it’s got lots of its own charm.

The Perfect Christmas is also similar, but is a cursive font that looks almost hand-drawn. And it has snowflakes.

Sorry, I got sidetracked there for a second. I was watching a red-tailed hawk looking for lunch! PW Joyeux Noel is font #6 on my list today. It’s more wintery than Christmasy, but it’s fun. (Joyeux Noël is Merry Christmas in French.)

This one has a delicious distressed, grunge look. Miraculous Christmas would be ideal for layouts with a farmhouse or rustic theme.

Christmas Lights is like a font/dingbat hybrid. It has two different looks: the “outside” version reminds me of all the times hubby and I were outside in the freezing cold, putting lights on the gutters without enough clips and freezing our fingers off. Yep, it’s good enough, now let’s get inside! Then the “inside” version looks like the lights have been carefully strung on a mantel or around a door, with plenty of attention to detail.

This one, Christmas Time, comes with two versions, one with stars and one without.

I think I might have shown you Candy Cane before. But it’s cute enough and has so many possibilities, so here it is (maybe) again.

Next Tuesday, December 21, is the first time in nearly 800 years that the “Bethlehem star” (a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn that will look like a huge star) will be visible to the whole world. (Astronomers say those living near the Equator will have the best view.) If you’d like to know more about why I’m calling it the “Bethlehem star”, drop me a comment and I’ll expound. What made me think of it is the way the stars in Christmas Sparkle look a lot like artistic portrayals of the original New Testament star.

I like this next one for its title-potential. Hello Christmas has a calligraphic style with a scatter of glitz.

What can I say about Christmas/Flakes? It’s a very formal, very upright, very elegant all-caps font with snowflakes!

Now on to the dingbats. There are so many things that can be done with these!! You could create a customized coloring book for a special little person, create a brush you can use over and over, turn them into Christmas cards or gift tags, really the only limit is your imagination.

Xmas TBF Christmas is filled with festive images. That reindeer cracks me up!

I think this one is really creative. The outlines can be done in one color, the fillers in another. Hello Christmas Icons is simple but interesting.

I think Merry Christmas Go would be perfect for the littlest kiddos as coloring pages. The outlines are thick and dark, the shapes aren’t overly fussy and they could be used to teach new words to little readers.

I saved the BEST dingbat set for last. It’s crammed with images both spiritual and fun. There are 3 dingbat sets in one collection called WM Christmas. Pro tip: This one takes a lot of time to queue up to install, so make sure you verify a successful install before you want to use it.

Hopefully next week I’ll have something new and creative for you, but I’m not making any promises. I’m going to make a drive-by visit at my parents’ house on Sunday, just to see them with my own eyes. It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive each way, but the weather should be good. Maybe inspiration will strike while I’m driving… To my Jewish friends out there, may the last days of Hanukkah be blessed.

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

December 1, 2020 by Jan

Stuffing that Envelope!

Did you ladies enjoy the tutorial on Reflections, Perspective and Shadows from a few weeks back? I hope you did. I know the ladies on the creative team for Ginger at Dandelion Dust Designs did, and becky_a wound up with a Layout of the Week with her version of the scraplift. After such success, the team has brought me another technique challenge after they found this beautiful layout by Blackkathy.

That envelope is to die for, isn’t it? It looks three dimensional and so real! So challenge accepted. Let’s hit it!

I looked and looked through my stash for an envelope or pocket I could transform and came up empty. So I created a template, which I’ve zipped up for you to download if you like. You can find it here. Then I clipped a paper from CathyK‘s Christmas Delight kit to it. (It’s rotated 90° to have the stripes running diagonally instead of the original vertical.) When you go to use the template, clip your paper to the base layer BEFORE you move your envelope onto you layout. That way you’ll have both the paper layer and the stitching together.

Then I loaded up the envelope with pretty seasonal goodies that will work with my photo. (It’s from Pixabay, the photographer is Terri Cnudde.) I used more of the elements in Christmas Delight as well as from a couple of CathyK‘s other kits. Remember when you’re putting objects “inside” pockets or envelopes that are stitched down that your objects have to sit within the stitched border. They shouldn’t rest UNDER the stitching, unless they’re flat or you plan to warp your pocket/envelope around them. In this screenshot you can sort of see the bounding box for the crocheted snowflake I’ve tucked in there. (More about THAT choice later…)

To achieve the dimensional look of a stuffed envelope we’re going to use the Dodge and Burn tools. I’ve shown several ways to use these tools before and if you’re already comfortable using them, you’ve probably figured out where I’m going. first up is the Burn tool. If you remember the basics, Burning darkens or burns the where you apply it, while Dodging lightens. I’m going to use a LARGE (367 pixels) soft brush with the Burn tool with the Range set to Shadows and the Exposure set to 55%.

Make sure the active layer is the ENVELOPE and keep it the active layer all the way to the end! I’m right handed and work toward myself rather than away, but you’re welcome to start with either corner, depending on your own preference. I’ve placed the cursor as shown to centre the tool over the actual corner of the envelope. Click and drag the brush down, across and back up along the edge of the envelope to darken it where it would be more tightly attached to the background.

Now you can see the difference. It already looks more contoured. And you could stop here and it would be just fine!

But that’s not my jam… so I’m going to highlight areas where the paper of the envelope would be stretched by the things inside it. I started with the chocolate dipped spoon. To know exactly where the handle is touching the paper on the inside of the envelope, I CTRL/CMD>clicked inside the layer thumbnail for the spoon – don’t click on the layer itself, just the thumbnail. You don’t want to change your active layer! The marching ants show me where the edges of the handle are and I can adjust the size of my brush to fit inside. This time I’m using the Dodge tool with the Range set to Midtones, the brush size is much smaller (65 pixels) and the Exposure is 30%. I click-dragged the brush down the centre of the handle.

And this is the effect it gave me.

Then I moved on to the candy cane, which is sitting underneath the spoon. It *might* be pushing the spoon into the paper a little harder so the area where they intersect is a smidge lighter.

This springerle cookie mold is a bit more complex. It has a significant ridge in the centre of the outline and so I’m going to do the Dodging in two steps. First I’ll do the whole width of the metal, then with a smaller brush I’ll go over the high ridge again. I’m not going to be too picky here, just close enough.

I think it still needs something. So I’m going back to the Burn tool with a smaller brush and I’ll go around the outside of the star to add a bit of shading.

It doesn’t have to be right there in your face, but perceptible if you know what you’re looking for.

This little gingerbread house cookie has holes in it. So I think it needs the same treatment.

See what I mean? It’s subtle, but definite.

I kept working down the layers, adding contour as I went. This paper strip really only needed a tiny bit of shading/Burning along the edge, since it’s flat and probably a bit stiff.

Ah yes. The crocheted snowflake. What was I thinking? Dodge the high spots, burn the low spots. Zoom out. Look at it. Zoom in and add a bit more. Zoom back out. Repeat until I’m happy.

There, I think that’s good enough!

Here’s how it’s looking so far. I think I might add a bit more shading to the outside edges of the envelope, and in between the thicker objects.

I’m really pleased with how it looks. So now to finish the layout!

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

Designer Spotlight: November 2020

November 5, 2020 by Jan

Wimpychompers!

Here we are in November already. 2020 has, in so many ways, definitely been an annus horribilus, to steal from the Queen. Hopefully there are better days ahead!

I’d like to introduce you all to Christina, the creative genius behind Wimpychompers. (I just wish I would have thought to ask her how she came up with that name… I’m sure there’s a story there!) She’s in the Designer Spotlight this month and has gifted all of us with a fabulous Daily Download. Make sure you’re picking up your pieces while they’re available.

J: How long have you been designing?

C: I want to say 10 or 11 years

J: What made you decide to design?

C: I got really interested in making signatures in forums actually. I started messing around with Paint Shop Pro (ha) and ended up writing tutorials for signature making. I swore I would never start digital scrapbooking as I did paper scrapping at the time but soon changed my mind. Once I started figuring out the program I switched to digital, then decided I loved designing.

J: What do you use to create your designs (program, additional tools, etc.)?

C: Mostly Photoshop but I have recently gotten my hands on Procreate so we will see if I add my own drawings to my items

J: Describe your design workplace.

C: My couch. (laughs). I sit on the couch with a lap desk, it’s the most comfortable and especially helpful now that my kids are doing school from home and have taken all of our desks.

J: What motivates and inspires you as a designer?

C: I love looking at colors on Pinterest but mostly I am theme driven. I especially love to do kits I know I could use.

J: What is your favorite kit currently in your GS store and why?

C: Can I say all of them? (ha). I would say the entire When I Grow Up series, it’s not technically one kit but that one took a lot of time and makes me smile, each kit being so different.

J: If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

C: Ooh, dangerous. Cinnamon rolls probably although my waistline may not appreciate that one

J: What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play?

C: I don’t watch sports but I love playing Lego video games with my kids, it can be therapeutic to smash everything in the game.

J: What did you want to be when you were small?

C: A children’s book author, a teacher, and a ballerina

J: Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?

C: Hugs from my kids, they are teens so it’s not as often anymore and I take them when I can!

J: Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?

C: I’ve never considered this one. Maybe someone like Kristin Bell

J: If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

C: Caution: Can go off on a tangent with no warning!

J: What celebrity would you like to meet at Starbucks for a cup of coffee?

C: Maybe Reese Witherspoon

Before we say thanks and see ya to Christina, I think I should tell you that she’s put everything in her store on sale at 30% off for the WHOLE MONTH of November!! That’s really generous, and I bet it boosts her sales pretty nicely, just in time for Black Friday and Christmas. I’m going to check it out right now!

Tutorial Tuesday (Fabulous Fonts)

June 9, 2020 by Jan

Ten Fonts for DAD!

It’s almost Father’s Day already, and that means the year is nearly half over. I know staying home and feeling hemmed in has made it seem like time has really been dragging, but it really hasn’t. I know many of you have been scrapping your little hearts out to keep busy, and that Father’s Day this year (like Mother’s Day and so many other special occasions) will be a little different than we’d like. Personally, I haven’t had time for much, but that’s gradually sorting itself out. For this week’s tutorial, I have a question for you… “Do you have some great fonts for your masculine layouts?” I did a little looking around for some manly (and FREE!) fonts that will add the finishing touches to your layouts about Dads. These are the Top Ten on my list.

First I looked at dafont.com, which is my go-to for free fonts.

Chunk Five is a basic poster-type font, but a sturdy one.

Reisenberg comes in a variety of styles. It’s an all-caps font with limited punctuation. It’s clean and bold, so it will make awesome titles.

Galactic Vanguardian has a slightly futuristic look to it.

Black Hawk is a marquee-style font that would be perfect for layouts showcasing vintage photos.

Here’s another spacy font, Galaxy 1. I think it’s ideal for dads (or sons, or brothers) who love the Star Wars franchise, Space Balls, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica… You know who they are!

This grungy font Capture It still has a lot of presence, even though it looks pretty rough.

Then I moved on to fontspace.com, another source for fabulous free fonts. Permanent Marker is a handwritten font you could use for both titles and journalling.

I like this one, Trajanus Roman, for its formal and spare look.

The next site I checked out was 1001fonts.com, where I found a couple of keepers.

Marlboro is reminiscent of the old cigarette ads that used to fill up magazines. But it’s also a strong, rugged font.

I saved the best for last… I LOVE Saucer!! I can think of so many ways I can use this one.

What are YOUR favourite fonts for layouts about the men in your lives?

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

June 2, 2020 by Jan

Building Strong Borders with Brushes

Woo hoo!! I’m BACK!! Did you miss me?? Our move went pretty well, despite the challenges of COVID-19 and all that entails. We’ve been in the new house a month and are gradually sorting out our lives, finding out how to get to the stores we like and settling in. The dogs have made meeting our new neighbours pretty easy – they don’t have any hesitation or social-distancing skills at all. Everybody has been very welcoming to both them and us. Getting down to work writing a new tut has made me feel more like myself too. So let’s get after it!

Awhile back I asked for some topic suggestions on the GingerScraps Facebook page. This is one of those, from Shana, who asked for some tips on using brushes to create custom borders for her layouts. This might not be what she was expecting, but here goes!

The area around our new house is quite natural and there are so many wildflowers in bloom right now, so the concept for this border will build on the photos I’ve taken in the last month. I went through my stash and found a kit that will work beautifully with them, it’s CathyK Designs‘s Back to Nature. This solid paper is from the kit.

The colour I chose for my brushes is a medium brown. Don’t be too concerned about the colour choice you make, because changing the Blend Mode later might give you something unexpected, or you can always change it to something you like better later.

When I set up my “new” laptop several months ago, I discovered that I’d forgotten how to keep my brush library built in to Elements 2019, so I’ve changed my workflow with brushes, only loading the ones I want to use. Not sure how to load brushes? Click on the little icon that looks like 4 short horizontal lines at the upper left of the Brush control menu. Then select “Load Brushes“. Click on the set you want to add then click on Load. I put all of my brushes into a dedicated folder so I don’t have to hunt for them.

I might sound like a broken record, but this is VERY important. ALWAYS put your brushes on their own layers! If you forget and put the brush directly on the layer you’ve got active, there’s nothing you can do with it other than Undo. On their own layers they become “Smart Objects” and can be manipulated in many ways.

Because I put them on their own layers, I usually make them as big as possible, and then size them to fit my vision. I downloaded this set of free floral corner brushes from Brusheezy.com which is one of my favourite sources for free goodies.

I then positioned and sized my corner brush to be slightly less than 1/4 of the available area.

Then I made a Copy (CTRL/CMD>J) of the brush layer, grabbed one of the side “handles” (the little open square on the bounding box) and flipped the whole brush horizontally. I used to make myself crazy trying to get the exact dimensions with my mouse as I worked, but soon figured out that it’s much easier and more precise to just start the process, then tell Elements what I want! The Transform menu, which activates when you start the flipping process, has boxes for both height and width, so you can type in whatever you want there.

I decided I didn’t want to have upside down bows on my layout, so I went with a different corner brush for the ones on the bottom.

This one I just rotated 180°, resized and slid into place.

Another Copy, Rotate and slide for the opposite corner and it was time to tie the corners together. For this task I used a set of floral divider brushes I also got from Brusheezy.

I liked the look of this butterfly divider, but didn’t like that it messed with the bows at the corners. That’s easy to fix, and because it’s on its own layer, I won’t be mangling anything else.

I wasn’t sure if the butterfly would work at the bottom, but just in case, I made a copy of the layer before I altered it in any way.

I flipped the second butterfly layer vertically, moved it out of the way and then turned the visibility for it off.

Using the Eraser tool on the original butterfly layer, I erased all the areas that impinged on the corner brush layers.

Like that!

On to the bottom of the paper. Mmm. Nope. Upside down butterflies don’t work any better than upside down bows. I turned that layer off for now but it’ll be deleted.

I picked this divider brush from the same set and it works much better. Just had to remove the parts that overlie the corner brushes.

But….. it needs to be tied together at the sides too.

I like this divider brush, also from the same set.

It needed to be rotated 90° to work with the corners.

This time I didn’t need to have the brush where it was going to live to erase the extra stuff.

It fits in the gap so neatly!

I made a copy of it and flipped it horizontally to slip it into the other side.

Once I was happy with where everything sits and how it looks, I went ahead and Merged all the brush layers into one piece.

Now for the really fun part! I actually tried ALL the Blend Modes. Some of them turned my brown border to a beautiful red, but that wasn’t in keeping with my vision. I decided I liked Darker Color.

But instead of playing with the Opacity, I copied the border then applied a paper style I bought at Creative Market to the bottom layer.

After some experimenting I realized I needed to put a thin stroke around my upper brush layer, and the reason for that will become apparent in a minute. I put the stroke on its own layer too. To do that I added a new blank layer above the brown brush layer, then clicked on the thumbnail of the border layer to Select the outline. Applying the Stroke to that selection on the new layer gives me a perfect outline of my border.

I used the same brown and went with just 2 pixels’ width, applied to the outside of the selection.

Just like that.

I turned visibility for the layer I added the paper style to off so I could concentrate on what was happening to the brown layer. I changed the Blend Mode to Soft Light and like it a lot more.

It looks so different, but it’s pretty good!

Once I brought the Opacity down to 85%, I could see a hint of the paper texture and the border looked more like it belongs on the base layer. I like the way it came out, so I saved it both as a .psd (with editable layers) and a .jpg so I can use the paper for my layout.

Hopefully I’ll have time to get my layout together soon so you can see the full effect!

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

Valentines’ Day AND Newsletter Hop!

February 14, 2020 by Sarah

Did you know 2020 is a Lead Year? Yep, that means we have one extra day in February! The GingerScraps designers wanted to show you some extra love, join us for a Newsletter Leap! Head over to the forum and sign up for every participating designers newsletters.
All you need to do is sign up to receive newsletters BEFORE February 26th. The full list is posted in the GingerScraps forum here: https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?50186-2020-Newsletter-quot-Leap-quot-

If you are already a subscriber to a newsletter, don’t worry, you will also be receiving the new freebie too! To grab the FREEBIE from the GingerScraps shop make sure you scroll down the the end of this newsletter!

Forum Link with all the details: https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?50186-2020-Newsletter-quot-Leap-quot-