Digital Scrapbooking Freebies

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

October 3, 2023 by Jan

Autumn and Creepy Season Fonts

Have you chosen the font(s) for your October Signature Challenge siggy or Inspiration Challenge? Have I got some options for you! Now, Heather‘s instructions for the Signature call for a “beautiful font”, while Joy just wants 2 different fonts in the title. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think you’d be quite safe using a creepy/spooky font for the siggy, and anything goes for the other. I took a quick wander through the dafont.com collection of FREE fonts and found some I didn’t have but must… and I’m going to share them with you. Each font/dingbat’s name is linked to the site so you can quickly and easily download the ones you love.

I didn’t find any fonts that really proclaimed *AUTUMN*, but there are some lovely dingbats (little drawings). This one is called LCR Autumn Harvest Dings. The scarecrow sold me on it!

KR Fabulous Fall has some lovely leaves.

Next up is WM Leaves 1, which is literally all leaves, complete with the Canadian stylized maple leaf from our flag.

Autumn Days Clipart has a selection of solid symbols. Just look at that cute little fox.

I love the line drawings in Arboris Folium. They can be used like stamps or brushes and are filled with potential.

While we’re doing dingbats, let’s carry on into the Hallowe’en sets I found. Freaky Halloween has some classic images, like those creepy jack-o-lanterns.

I LOVE the frame in Alit Halloween. And the spiderweb, and the crow, and the haunted house… well ALL of them.

Look at the creepy witches’ hats here in Halloween Dreams Doodles!

This set, simply named Halloween, has more, very detailed line drawings.

Ooh, Vintage Halloween is really creepy.

Now on to some actual fonts. I’ve never seen this one before. Gnarly Skeleton has both an outlined alphabet and a bold version. That skull is in the glyphs section, along with an assortment of symbols and accented letters. No numbers though.

Halloween Guises is a bubble font with more of a cute look to it. There are numerals and a bunch of glyphs too.

Spoky Spider (not a typo) is both cute and creepy.

Halloween Party 3 has elements of both font and dingbat. There are numerals and glyphs galore here.

I feel like Spooky Halloween is my favourite of all today. It has upper and lower case alphabets and numerals but no glyphs.

Nightside is a bold, Gothic font that made me think of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s a demo font, meaning only upper case alphabet, no numerals or glyphs.

Then I found Nightmare 5… which also made me think of Tim Burton, or maybe the Addams Family. It has no numerals or clyphs; to achieve the look in the sample, use alternating upper and lower case letters.

And THEN… I found Burton’s Nightmare! It’s not really scary or creepy, but definitely has a vibe. There are numerals, some accented letters and some punctuation.

Okay, so maybe Single Ghost is my actual favourite! It’s got it all, wrapped up in a very elegant package.

Last, I have Dracolas for you. It’s Goth, it’s vintage and elegant. It’s a bold, all-caps font with the lower case characters smaller and less fancy. And there are glyphs!

Did you see anything you like? Did you find Inspiration for Joy‘s Challenge? I think I might pair Nightmare with Single Ghost. I’ll have to go back and make sure I’ve downloaded all the ones I love.

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

September 19, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Minikit

September is surely flying by, isn’t it? It’s already almost the autumnal equinox and the slow slide into winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, while our GingerScrappers down under are looking toward spring. And life goes on…

This month’s Spotlight Challenge is the Minikit Challenge, hosted by Joy of Memory Mosaic. As the name implies, the Challenge is to use the pieces of a supplied (free) minikit to create a unique layout. This type of Challenge showcases individual style very well, since all participants are starting with the same tools. This month’s mini is shown below.

Now I’m going to share each of the layouts that have been posted to the Challenge Gallery as of noon today PDT. They’re in the order they were posted, and I’ve linked each to the Gallery so you can get a closer look and leave some praise for the Scrapper. Just click on their Forum handle.

KAPOH has created a calendar with the mini. I see today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. I guess we should brush up on our “arrrhs”.

Alasandra has blended the papers to give herself some more options and flexibility, and flanked the ornate frame with two simple clusters.

As most of you know, I’m a sucker for heritage photos. I LOVE how trinanne has adapted the frame to encompass each of the people in her photo. The emphemera she’s added are scans of her aunt’s actual teaching diploma and license… precious!

MarilynZ has used the frame very cleverly here, with one being lightened without losing detail. The diagonal placement of the ribbon, with the key centred and the repeating small paper squares, gives the layout balance.

Pippin chose the perfect photo to coordinate with this mini! The purple sunset behind the house is a very close match to the purple paper. Her simple cluster and all that white space are very effective at drawing the eye to her photo. Brava!

NHSoxGirl has reversed the order of Pippin‘s papers to create a minimalist layout where the photo is the star. Good choice to go with black and white. The white stroke around the purple paper is brilliant.

This is something I would do! Those old keys in the photo play with the key in the mini so well. I see angbrey has also recoloured a flower and has used the frames as mats. Creative!

AnnieA has used everything but the tape, and kept her layout minimalist, with strong diagonals. I like the rotated purple paper, it’s exquisitely shadowed. Very eye-catching!

What an interesting layout PixyGirl has created, with a very vintage feel. The patchwork effect with the papers is beautifully executed. The slight tilt to the frame mimics the slight tilt of her great-grandmother’s head for a very effective focal point.

It took me a few minutes to deconstruct kabrak1207‘s layout. She has used additional elements and papers from the coordinating Buffet bundle from Memory Mosaic – totally allowed! – and has created an outstanding piece. That centre cluster is perfection.

CathyS has also added some elements from other designers in the September Buffet. I like how she’s faded the papers together and mirrored the brick behind the flowers in her photo with arty paint.

Oh my! Look at that beautiful dissolve/fade effect lulumoon has created with the papers!! The clusters provide a pop of colour and the entire layout is a showstopper.

The mini is cleverly disguised in nimble4u‘s layout. The only element from the mini that I couldn’t find is the tape. She’s added some elements from other kits, which are included in her credits.

Lastly, this layout from hkeith87 has included the whole mini, pairing it with a stunning sunset photo. The purple clouds in the photo look like they just merge into the purple paper strip. Beautiful!

It’s always a learning experience to browse the Gallery. Next week it’s Quick Trick time again. I’ll have to see what I can pull out of the ether to share with you all. Have a great week!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

August 15, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Inspiration

How is it already the third Tuesday of August? Of course, this month has FIVE Tuesdays, so we’re actually smack-dab in the middle of the month. The Okanagan valley in BC, where I live, is having a heat wave and we’re blanketed with wildfire smoke again. I feel very bad for the movers who are emptying a truck across the street in this heat and cruddy air. Our Level 4 drought is quickly moving to Level 5. Seems like it’s bad news everywhere. To all the GingerScrappers in Hawaii, you have all our love.

I chose the Inspiration Challenge for this month’s Challenge Spotlight because the Challenge Joy (Memory Mosaic) has tossed our way is something I love to do: take a photo from an “odd” perspective and scrap it. The alternate Challenge is to scrap a photoless layout from someone else’s perspective. When I looked at the Challenge Gallery, I was a little surprised to see only one person chose the photoless option. But what a great choice it was! Let’s have a look at the entries. As usual, they’re in the order they were uploaded to the Gallery and they’re linked to the Gallery so you can take a closer look, leave some praise or whatever. Just click on the scrapper’s user name and you’ll be right there. (I have participated in this Challenge, but decided not to include my own layout, because the focus of these Individual Style posts is on YOU!)

Here, greenfiend27 has two photos and perspective is a feature in both of them. These stainless steel balls see, to be everywhere these days and offer endless potential for interesting photos. They can be a lot like funhouse mirrors, right?

GrannyNKy has a really carefully-framed photo for her layout. There are millions of photos of Christ the Redeemer near Rio de Janeiro, but not many like this one!

Look at TBear‘s layout… the lone outlier! Here’s what she said about it: “DGD, who thinks outside the box as second nature, asked me what I thought an alien birthday cake would look like. I tried to create something from her perspective…outside the cake mix box.” I LOVE it! Kids are so clever.

I had to look very closely at this layout by MeleahG to decide where the “perspective” was… and then it hit me: the depth and breadth of variety! Shakespeare, Narnia, The Count of Monte Christo, The Witch of Blackbird Pond… I read that one when I was about 10 and had completely forgotten it.

For her layout, bumblebeee chose a photo taken from HER perspective of her family canoeing in an idyllic spot. Sometimes looking at the back of someone’s head can be magical. (This PICU nurse’s heart is happy to see life jackets on those precious babies.)

One of the cardinal rules of obtaining great photographs of kids and animals is to get down on their level. And Karen Diamond learned that one well! She also has an aerial view of the farm and a downhill shot of cows in a pasture, so she’s used many perspectives. Good job!

JAMSquared80 has skillfully used up-shots for her layout. That perspective gives a sense of just how tall those buildings are.

Here’s another good example of getting down on their level from photocrazy. Not only do we get better images this way, but they’re more natural and uninhibited.

I’ve NEVER seen a real peacock with its tail fanned out, never mind from the BACK! Props to gmae for this unusual perspective!

This makes it look like the subject of the photo is either walking on water or walking up a glass wall. It’s a bit disappointing to know it’s a glass balcony wall and gadawg83‘s subject is seated, don’t you think?

If you’re new to digi-scrapping, GingerScraps’ Challenges are a perfect way to find inspiration, learn new things and build up your stash. Several of our designer-hosts include freebies with their Challenges and there’s a Challenge Reward kit for completing 10 Challenges. (Missi keeps track of everybody’s totals. When you reach 10 completed you’ll automatically receive the download link for that month’s Reward via Private Message. However, the counter stops there until a new month starts, so if you hit your 10 layouts on, say, today – August 15th, but you keep going and complete 5 more layouts, those ones don’t carry over to September when the counter starts again. Clear as mud?) Here’s a look at the August Reward kit.

See you all next Tuesday!

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

Designer Spotlight: August 2023

August 3, 2023 by Jan

Cindy Ritter Designs!

Remember my comment about updates in Tuesday’s Tutorial, that they mess things up? Well… it happened again. I couldn’t find my notes for this post. <fuming> All is not lost though. I’ve been able to recreate them. Now, let’s get to know Cindy Ritter a bit better!

Cindy and I chatted at length last week over margaritas on the patio. We got the housekeeping stuff out of the way early, so we could really dish later.

J: What do you use to create your designs?

C: I primarily use Photoshop but am trying to learn to use Illustrator and a tablet. I also use various types of paints, pens, papers and my scanner to create unique products.

J: It can be really challenging to learn new software. I’m trying to wrap my head around Cricut Design Space right now and really wishing there was a common lingo for these applications. I mean, what the heck does “weld” mean, and why didn’t they go with “merge”? I think I’ll need a glossary… Okay, now that we know HOW you work, let’s talk about WHY. What motivates and inspires you as a designer?

C: Most often I am inspired by music, my emotions and color. I absolutely have to have music when I’m working.

J: Oh, me too! I’m often inspired by song lyrics I find especially resonant. Tell me about your favourite kit in the GingerScraps store. Let me guess… it came to you in a song. 😉

C: My favorite is the Beautiful Struggle collection. It WAS inspired by the song “Beauty in the Struggle” by Brian Martin. Like many women, my life has been a series of struggles and challenges, so for me it was very personal. I collaborated with Aimee Harrison and Cheré Kaye and really enjoyed working with both of them.

J: It’s amazing! I LOVE IT!! (I linked it for our readers – just click on the title above and you’ll go right to the collection.) Honestly, who among us hasn’t struggled at one time or another? I think I might be able to guess your answer for this next nosy question: What are your most favorite and least favorite colors?

C: My favorite colors are greens, yellows and orange, I really don’t like pinks and purples.

J: Ladies, take a look at the collection… See any pink or purple? Me neither! Cindy, since you love green, do you have a green thumb? What do you grow?

C: I have a fairly green thumb and do pretty well with green and blooming plants but I don’t have much luck growing anything edible. I live in an apartment so I do container gardening and love growing anything blooming that can survive the heat of Mississippi summers. My current favorites in my garden are Hibiscus, Rock Trumpet, and Bromeliads.

J: In Mississippi you get heat AND humidity. Here, we get the heat but it’s tinder-dry, which is why there’s so much smoke in the air all the time. <sigh> Our HOA has very strict rules about planting anything that isn’t drought-tolerant and every house has drip irrigation to minimize water use. Water is one of the necessities of life for everything. Aside from necessities, what is one thing could you not go a day without?

C: My cats! All 3 are rescues who weren’t old enough to be away from the mama cat when I got them. Bowie and Ziggy have both been with us for over a year now. Our most recent rescue, Phoenix, was only 4-5 weeks old and under a pound when we got him recently. He was brought to us on July 18th by a neighbor who found him injured in her driveway. Apparently she knows I’m a crazy cat lady. Lol

J: I’m not a cat person, but I get the desire to take care of living things who can’t take care of themselves. That’s why I was a nurse for 25 years. 😉 Perfect segué… What did you want to be when you were small?

C: As a child I dreamed of being an artist. I spent most of my working years as a floral designer and also worked as a graphic designer. After I retired I taught myself scrapbook design. My childhood dream is my reality.

J: That’s fantastic! Who says dreams don’t come true? As a fellow retired person, I have so many things that fill my days. Are you a sports fan, or a gamer?

C: I love to play Cribbage. My grandmother taught me to play when I was young and now that she’s gone it brings back pleasant memories of time spent with her. I’ve taught my grandson to play and I hope that years from now playing cribbage will hold pleasant memories for him.

J: Ooh, yes!! I learned to play Cribbage when I was about 10, but I don’t play it well. My late father-in-law skunked me almost every time. When we had a family retreat for my parents’ 60th anniversary, we taught our son-in-law to play. He’s brilliant and caught on right away, now he loves it too! We also got him interested in curling. Such a Canadian thing. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

C: I’m torn between teleportation and time manipulation. Having ADHD, I get distracted very easily and am usually running behind schedule. Both of those would be helpful in getting things done and getting where I need to be on time.

J: I grew up in a military household, so if you’re only 10 minutes early for something, you’re already late. Teleportation would really be a boon for that! I’m also a serious procrastinator, which means I spend a lot of time in conflict with myself. What would you do if you won the lottery?

C: Give each of my kids a house and the money for college. Anything left I would use to help the homeless.

J: Every time I ask that question of designers, I get a variation on those answers. Which leads me to remind everybody that Cindy is providing this month’s Daily Download (and it’s a-freakin’-mazing!) and has already posted a template freebie on the GingerScraps Facebook page. If you’re on FB and haven’t seen it, LOOK FOR IT! You won’t be disappointed! Of course, Cindy is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month, in addition to her usual Real Moments Challenge. But if all of THAT wasn’t enough, she’s also put her entire store on sale at 40% off (with bundles and collabs excluded, naturally). But wait! There’s even MORE… Spend $12 or more and you can get an ADDITIONAL 15% off with the coupon code SD_cindy_8-23. What are you waiting for? Go shopping!!!!!!!!! (If you see me with a cartful, just look the other way, okay?)

Cindy, thanks for letting us have a peek into your world. Have a fabulous Spotlight month!!

WordPress is being snarky today… no signature line. Love JAN

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

July 18, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Word Art

I feel like we’ve done a Word Art Challenge Spotlight not that long ago, but when I looked at the layouts in the Gallery, I just had to choose it for this month’s Spotlight. You’ll see why once I get all them all into this post.

Challenges are a great way to grow your scrapping skills. They encourage creativity and highlight individual style. They can also be a good way to break out of a slump by motivating us to think about what we have in our stash and how we could make it fit into a specific Challenge. Several of the Challenges at GingerScraps include freebies: #2023, Brush, Created with Rewards, Daily Download, Font, Jumpstart Your Layouts, Mini Kit, Memory Mix Up, Photomask, Template (there are 3!), Use It All and Word Art all provide you with some building blocks for zero dollars. (I’ve linked all of the freebie-included Challenges for you.) These are the Challenges that really offer the best insights into individual style because everybody is working with the same key items.

The layouts I’ll show you have been taken from the Gallery in the order they were posted. As always, I’ve linked each layout to its spot in the Gallery for those inclined to take a closer look or to leave some comments. Just click on the scrapper’s user name. Cheré has provided 2 separate versions of the word art, the teal one as shown above and a grey-scale that can be recoloured as desired. Let’s see how they’ve put Cheré‘s word art creation to use.

First off the hop is justpennys. Her layout is a photoless, minimalist one where her Top 3 are things she likes about herself. The teal word art is her choice.

KAPOH has recoloured the word art a vivid yellow to mirror the topic of her layout. It’s clear she’s a soccer fan!

Here, we can see that wvufan04 used the grey-scale version and left it as is. It works beautifully with the theme of her layout, favourite photos of grandparents. I love that line drawing of the antique sedan.

For her layout, fontaine surveyed her family to list their Top 3 places they’d visited together. Glacier National Park got the most votes. She used the teal version of the word art and kept the layout simple to keep the focus on the choices.

Roller coasters would never appear on any list of mine, unless it was things I don’t like, but elfmaiden687 has her own Top 3. She also used the original teal word art, using it as the basis for her palette.

The grey-scale version works nicely with nimble4u‘s layout too. It seems to reflect the dusty olive green of her background paper.

Got2Scrap recoloured the word art to coordinate with the colour palette she chose for her white-space layout. Look at those clusters! Incredible.

This layout by lulumoon is deceptively simple. (Cluster alert!) She pulled the lighter teal colour from the original for her subtitles, which compliments the coral background to perfection.

I think Jill‘s layout is my favourite of the bunch. She chose the deep red of the flowers in her cluster to bring the focus to her title, which then leads the eye to her black-and-white photo. Her colours absolutely POP off the page.

Pixel Palette chose to keep the original teal for her philosophical layout. (She’s not wrong!) The focus of the layout is firmly on her photos.

Once again, I have to commend Katherine Woodin for (literally) documenting the good, the bad and the ugly of everyday life. I like how she’s divided the layout into perfect thirds and used the same paper in 3 different colours to reinforce the 3 aspect of the Challenge.

Grace‘s layout is a work of art in itself. Her colour choices relate to Klimt’s work in the best way. She recoloured the word art a golden brown that also reflects Klimt’s sort of grungy look.

The faith-based simplicity of dkane‘s layout is its strength. She opted for a beautiful deep green for the word art and it works.

For her layout, glee also kept the original teal and pulled it into her overall palette. I like the stencil look to the fern-and-leaf border and that her title tells the whole story.

Grey-scale for the win here! These are hichchei‘s Top 3 foods. Can’t argue with any of them!

I’ve thought about this Challenge a lot and still don’t know how I would meet it. I have 3 siblings. I have 3 children. I have 3 grandchildren. I have 3 best friends. I have 3 favourite wineries. It’s making my brain hurt! Maybe I’ll save it for later.

Next week’s tut will be another Quick Trick. With the announcement of GingerScraps‘ partnership with the Digital Scrapper and their suite of video tutorials, it appears I’ll soon be rendered redundant. Time will tell.

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

Designer Spotlight: July 2023

July 8, 2023 by Jan

In the Spotlight: Neia Scraps!

It feels like forever since I had this chat with Edneia, aka Neia Scraps. Things kinda went sideways here and I put our conversation on the back burner; just as I was falling asleep last night I remembered and had a mini panic attack. I’m so sorry, Neia. Hopefully all is not lost.

Neia told me she enjoyed our last visit when she was in the Spotlight with Dani (JB Studio) and hoped we could switch up the topics a bit this time so no one is bored. Absolutely! Let’s see how much I remember of our chat.

N: Let me start!! Hello, fellow Scrappers! My name is Edneia, I’m 43 years old, I’m married for 20 years and I have 2 cute kittens.

J: Oh, that’s a first! I need more coffee. So. Tell me how long you’ve been designing so we can get the formalities out of the way.

E: I started designing in 2011 when I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter.

J: Is that what inspired you to jump into digital scrapbook design?

E: I decided that I would have a profession that would give me the opportunity to be closer to my daughters and I liked it so much that today she is 12 years old and I still work at home.

J: It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to work from home for so long! I stayed home with my kiddos until the youngest was 4, then I worked part time, mostly evenings. Are your daughters your main motivation?

E: No, actually, my biggest inspirations to start a project are colors. When thinking about a theme, I look for the colors that inspire me, but often the colors inspire me first and the theme is based on a color palette.

J: That seems like a good place to start, rather than trying to shoe-horn a palette into a structured theme. Do you have a favourite kit in the GingerScraps Store?

E: My current favorite kit is “Ocean Wonder“. I’ve always loved the sea and blue is one of my favorite colors. I loved the wood effects I used in this kit. The sea can be soft and at the same time have the strength of the blue immensity.

J: It’s GORGEOUS!! I have to say, I really like how your design style has evolved over the last year or so. What would you do if you won the lottery?

E: I would love to travel the world, see some different places, like Australia for example. (Even with so many huge spiders lol)

J: Travel is a common theme for that question. You can have the spiders… but that makes me wonder, since I’ve found quite a few of the 8-legged creepy-crawlies in my bathroom, are you more likely to sing or dance in the shower?

E: I sing AND dance, hahahahaha!

J: I do too. I love my Bluetooth speaker and my Amazon Music playlists for that. It helps to have a huge shower-only spa bathroom. Spiders notwithstanding. Do you have a green thumb?

E: I love plants but they don’t love me. I already tried it, but my finger is not green.

J: Gardening is one of my stress-busters. I can think troublesome things through and work out some frustrations digging up all the rocks our yard is built on. But I think I’m done digging holes. What colours do you like? Are there any you really DON’T like?

E: My favorite color is pink, I really LOVE the color pink. And the least favorite is some shades of green. Although I LOVE plants and nature, there are few shades of green that I really LOVE.

J: My flowers are mostly pinks, purples, blues and whites, with the HOA-required Stella d’Oro daylilies adding some yellow. My wardrobe is pretty much the same… but NO yellow. I look awful in yellow. All those yellow isolation gowns I wore on the job. <shudder> One time at work we did a little thought experiment. One of my coworkers asked each of us who we’d want to portray us in PICU: The Movie. It was a lot of fun. So…

E: Margot Robbie. She could play me as sweet as the Barbie doll and also as crazy as Harley Quinn.

J: Hahahahaha! I can see it! I had no idea who would be right for my part; my coworker thought for a minute and said, “Judi Dench!” Uh. She’s 20 years older than I am, pal. “But she’s so dignified!” Uh. Have you met me?? Anyway. My warning label would say “Caution! May explode without warning!” What would yours say?

E: “Be careful, it’s fragile but it knows how to bite.”

J: Same, friend. Same! Thank you so much for letting our readers get to know you better.

E: Thank you, I loved participating. GS is a very dear store to me. It is my home. And all the staff are always very friendly.

J: You are so right, Neia! Before we wrap this up, I just want to remind everybody of all the ways you’re making GingerScraps a better place while you’re in the Spotlight. Besides creating beautiful kits, that is. Ladies, Neia is providing this month’s Daily Download and is hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge. In addition to her regular monthly My Memories Challenge. And… drum roll please… her store is on sale all month PLUS she has a coupon!!

See you all soon!

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

June 6, 2023 by Jan

3D Title – Paper Letters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Designer Spotlight: June 2023

June 4, 2023 by Jan

Designs by Lisa Minor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you all in July!!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

May 23, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Jumpstart Your Layouts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

May 9, 2023 by Jan

Selectively Recolouring Brushes – Revisited

PFD VERSION : https://bit.ly/3pwIn0c

Awhile back Jill asked me if I’d consider writing a tutorial for making the Challenge brushes look like the images the designer shows of the brush in full colour. I pointed her to some similar topics from before, but the request kept niggling in my brain. This month’s brush is GORGEOUS and, wouldn’t you know, Alexis had an image in full colour. May is my birthday month and lilies of the valley are one of my favourite flowers/scents, so I dived in.

Before we get started, here are a couple of tips. If you’re planning to recolour THIS brush, you should be well-rested and have your glasses on. You WILL feel some eye-strain! And make the time to take breaks every so often to give your eyes and brain a rest!! As usual, I’ve experimented with each step to ensure the pitfalls have been already identified and covered over. I can screw up anything, so let me make all the mistakes so you don’t have to. I’ll only show you what gave me the best results.

Let’s get going. This brush if quite transparent, as you’ll see in the screenshots. I’ve got it on a transparent background and the gray grid is easily visible. I approached this task the same way I do selectively recolouring word art.

First step is to make several Copies of the brush layer. Make more Copies than you think you’ll need. Because once you get going, you might need to have an unblemished Copy waiting for you. So decide how many colours you think you’ll be using, and then make one more Copy than colour. Elements offers several methods of doing things like making Copies. Layer>Duplicate Layer is one way. Right-click on the layer and choose Duplicate Layer is another. If you use these methods there’s another step before you’ve got those new layers. (See next screenshot.) The easiest way to make Copy layers is to use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J.

When you use the first two methods above, Elements will ask you where to send the Copy. This is handy if you want to Copy a layer from one project to another or to start a new project based on that Copy layer. In this interface, the default setting is to Copy it into the existing project; you can also rename the Copy layer to help you keep all your stuff straight.

Close your eyes on all but the bottom-most layer so you can see what’s happening. Activate your Eraser Tool. Choose a smallish, hard, round brush for your Eraser and set the Opacity to 100%. Decide which parts of the brush you want to isolate first. I usually go with the one that will be the most work first, in this case, the blossoms. Then start very carefully Erasing everything BUT the blossoms.

I really hope you get comfortable with using keyboard shortcuts. It may seem like an impossible dream that you could memorize them, but the more you use them the easier it gets. They’re amazing time-savers so they’re worth trying. To increase the size of your brush, click CTRL/CMD>] as many times as needed to bring it to the size that will work best. To shrink it, use CTRL/CMD>[. Zoom in (CTRL/CMD>+) and out (CTRL/CMD>_) as needed to see what you’re actually doing.

Remember, take frequent breaks so your eyes don’t fall out.

If you find yourself looking at a Zoomed IN image and can’t figure out what to keep and what to remove, turn one of the other Copy layers’ visibility on momentarily. See how it darkens the image so you can see that little stem so much better? Once you’ve identified the next area, turn the Copy layer back off. If you leave it on, you won’t see where you’re Erasing.

There… only the blossoms are visible on this bottom layer. If this was word art, or if the brush was more opaque, it would be easy to Erase the blossoms from the next layer. But I tried it and it didn’t work. Rest your eyes. Get a glass of water, Stretch your legs…

Let’s work on the stems. The more remote blossoms were easy to remove from the second layer. It’ll be a bit more challenging where there are leaves and blossoms touching, but not impossible.

Now I have just the stems. They’re much more meaty so they’ll come out of the leaves much easier.

Move up to layer #3. CTRL/CMD>click INSIDE the STEMS layer thumbnail to Select the edges of the stems. Don’t click outside the box though, or you’ll activate the stems layer and have to Undo. It’s hard to see the marching ants in the screenshot but they are there.

For this step you can Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X to remove the stems from layer #3. I found that, due to the transparency of the brush, just Cutting once left a ghost image, so I repeated the Select>CTRL/CMD>X process several times, until every pixel was removed.

After the stems were removed, I tried again to Select the blossoms and although I couldn’t see the marching ants at all (I wasn’t seeing much of anything by then…), when I hit Select>CTRL/CMD>X a couple or four times, the blossoms vanished!

This is where I really took one for the team. Figuring out the best methods for colouring each layer was a major experiment. For the leaves, that turned out to be applying Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. I’d never used this option before but I think it’ll be a great tool.

Check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask box. Choose green from the dropdown menu. Don’t worry if it’s not the green you want. That’s changed in the next step. Leave the Blend Mode set to the default Normal and Opacity at 100%.

At first you won’t see ANY green. Check the Colorize box! Push the Saturation slider all the way to the right. Then use the Hue slider to get the right green. If you think it’s still not quite right, adjust the Lightness slider. You’ll see all of the changes in real time. Look at how all the shading and details are preserved.

The stem layer didn’t cooperate with an Adjustment Layer so it got the Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color treatment. The keyboard shortcut for Undo is CTRL/CMD>Z. You can go back several moves if needed, but if you find you’ve gone one step too far, Redo is CTRL/CMD>Y.

Always check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask, otherwise you’ll just have a solid coloured square.

I picked a much darker green for the stems so they’d show up better. Notice they’re still quite transparent.

So I Merged the Color Fill and stem layers together. Select both layers then right-click and choose Merge Layers. Or… CTRL/CMD>E.

My reason for Merging was so I could Copy the stem layer to make them more visible.

With the Copy layer in place, the stems are much more sturdy.

And it’s coming along nicely! On to the blossoms.

If I didn’t add at least a hint of colour to the blossoms, whatever will be behind the brush will show through them and that might not be a good thing. So I added a Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color.

I chose an ivory shade here. When you see my finished layout, you’ll also notice I made a bunch more changes to the blossoms, but let’s stick to the basics.

As expected, against the transparent background the blossoms are difficult to see. Will changing the Blend Mode for that layer to Multiply help? I still want the shading and detail preserved.

Let’s try something completely different… let’s make a Copy of JUST the Color Fill layer!

And the finished product is not terrible. I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going to Save this as a PNG so I don’t have to do the work all over again!