Digital Scrapbooking Freebies

Designer Spotlight: May 2023

May 3, 2023 by Jan

Memory Mosaic (aka Joy)

How is it even possible that one third of the year is already behind us? It’s crazy! Our Spotlight Designer for May is someone we’ve already met back when I first started writing the Spotlight posts. Joy is the creative mind also known as Memory Mosaic. We had a little chat so I could catch up with her and what follows is a transcript of that visit. [Click on her designer handle to check out her store!]

O: Joy! It’s good to see you again. What’s new?

J: Well, for years I designed on my lap book, a MacBook, but in the last couple months I have started designing on a 24inch iMac…. That has been a big difference. I had to get a trackpad, because I was used to using that on my laptop, and I just couldn’t get used to using a mouse. But I have to admit that the larger screen is a huge plus. I use Photoshop in making my designs. I have also been using Procreate on my iPad, to create some new elements.

O: Ooh, nice! I’m not an Apple fan – I’ve only had problems with any of their products, but I know a lot of folks who swear by them. I hear you about the trackpad… I use a laptop pretty much exclusively, so when my husband wants me to check something out on his desk top PC, I fumble with the mouse. A LOT. Which is funny to me because when I was still working, I used a mouse to chart, all the time. But then, it’s been almost 4 years since I retired, so I should expect to be rusty, right? When you switched to a desk top system, did you also revamp your workspace?

J: I have just in the last few months turned a small bedroom into my own personal office! It has been so much fun. I created word art for the walls, I have photos of my kids, and some special artwork my daughter made me. I have an antique secretary in there and a new corner desk. Beside my desk is a white board where I try to keep track of what I need to accomplish for the current month. I have a tv, which I often use to stream music, and my essential oil diffuser which I like to use to diffuse oils that help keep me in a positive frame of mind, boost creativity and peace. Having my own space has been a game changer for me.

O: Sounds like heaven! I’m still trying to organize all my non-digital hobby stuff in the room we had purpose-built… been in the house 3 years. Guess I’m just lazy! Or not motivated enough. Probably both. What inspires you when you’re designing?

J: My family and friends are a huge inspiration to me. But also life experiences play a role. I just created a new kit in my Going Places collection, that is focused on NYC, and that was based on the years I lived in NJ while growing up and we would make trips to the City.

O: That’s great! I’ve never been to NYC. I don’t love crowds so it isn’t somewhere I ever consider when I’m planning a trip, but the history would really appeal to me. I’m curious though… what colours do you really love to work with? Which ones do you steer clear of?

J: My favorite colors are blues, with punches of yellow or red added for accents. My least favorites are oranges, although I do love fall landscapes, which are full of oranges… so maybe it is more that I don’t feel I personally look good in oranges, so I stay away from them.

O: I wore a yellow gown at work all the time and look dead in yellow, so it’s not for me. Orange looks hideous on me too. But, as you say, fall colours are so beautiful. Are you a sporty person, or do you prefer to watch others sweat and injure themselves?

J: No, not sporty, But… I love playing card or board games with my grandchildren. Right now our favorites are Ticket To Ride-Europe and Trash.

O: That sounds wonderful. I haven’t seen my grandchildren since the fall of 2018. They’re all pretty physical kids, but are also voracious readers. My granddaughter is fearless and has great potential as a junior Ninja Warrior. It’s her super power. If you could have one, what would it be?

J: Well, as a kid I always enjoyed watching Bewitched… I would love to be able to wiggle my nose and have my house clean and the laundry done! LOL! Not sure that is a “super power”, but wouldn’t it be amazing?!

O: Definitely a super power! With my luck, I’d end up more like Esmeralda than Samantha. And look like Aunt Clara… The actress who played Samantha has the same surname as my mother’s maiden name but I’m absolutely sure we’re not related. Have you ever met a famous person?

J: When we lived in Ecuador, Joni Eareckson Tada came to the school I was teaching at and I got to meet her. I don’t know if she would be considered “famous”, but it felt like it to me. 🙂

O: I’m sure she’s famous in some circles. What did you want to be when you grew up?

J: When I was little I wanted to be a teacher. I actually went to college to do that, and right out of college taught 2 years, before we started our family. Later on, when we were missionaries in Ecuador, I taught in our international school to help cover fees for my girls. Over the years I taught Pre-K4, Kindergarten5, First Grade and Third Grade. Then we adopted 3 children and our family moved to a place that didn’t have good school opportunities for our kids, so I ended up homeschooling the last 3.

O: So you made your childhood dream come true! Awesome!! Having lived in a poorer country, I’m sure you learned how to do more with less. Is there anything now that you couldn’t live without?

J: It would be hard to go without my phone. I didn’t have a “smart phone” for years, but then when we did finally get them, I wondered how we had managed without them! LOL! Some days though, I wonder what life would be like, if we just went back to everyone having landlines, at their house. (Of course that would mean going back to the time of no internet, and that wouldn’t be any fun!

O: Yeah. Dystopia! When we moved into our house, hubby was the one to supervise the service provider who set up our stuff. We have a landline. It never rings. 😉 If you could make a movie about your life, who would you want to portray you?

J: Julia Roberts. LOL! Not sure that it would be a very good fit, but I think she is amazing.

O: Oh, isn’t she?? One night when it was quiet on the unit, one of my coworkers decided we should write a script and call it PICU: The Movie. He asked each of us who we’d want to be our characters; I couldn’t think of anybody I felt was suitable. He looked at me for a long moment and then said, “I know! Judi Dench!” This was at least 15 years ago, at which time I was about 50 and Judi was… older than my mother. He thought it was a great compliment. “She’s so dignified!” Yeah, well. He redeemed himself. “Oh, wait, I was thinking of Helen Mirren.” Marginally better – she’s only 13 years older than me. James, maybe just stop digging. 🙂 Joy, thanks so much for letting our GingerScrappers get to know you better.

Ladies, before we go, I should remind you all that Joy is providing the Daily Download – found right here on the Blog – this month, as well as hosting the May Designer Spotlight Challenge. That’s in addition to her regular hosting duties for the Inspiration Challenge! She also has a coupon…

interNational Scrapbooking Day is upon us, she make sure you visit both the Forum and the Store so you don’t miss out on any of the fun.

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

Designer Spotlight: April 2023

April 5, 2023 by Jan

ScrapChat Designs

Hello again, ladies! Another month has begun and it’s time for the Designer Spotlight once again. This month I’m chatting with Jillian, otherwise known as ScrapChat Designs. A little birdie told me April is her birthday month, so in celebration we visited over bourbon rather than coffee. Let’s get to know her a bit!

O: We’ll start with the yeahyeahyeah stuff… How long have you been designing?

J: I began designing templates spring of 2021. Kits/collections in Summer of 2021.

O: So you’re pretty much still cutting your designer teeth. Props to you for jumping in and doing a such great job already. What made you decide to design?

J: I was on the creative team for many of the wonderful designers here at Gingerscraps. Several of them encouraged me to start and support me with their moral support and advice to this day. They are not only my mentors but my friends.

O: The community here is really incredible. I arrived here ten years ago as a CT member and have loved every second of those ten years. When I think about how much I’ve grown, both as a digital scrapper and as a person, I can’t regret any of it. What tools do you use when creating your designs?

J: I use Photoshop. Late in 2022 I started to use some basic functions in Illustrator. I switched to Mac at Christmas time.

O: I’m always trying to learn new things. But I draw the line at an entire, new software system. I’ve been organizing my crafting space for months now so that I can accommodate a Cricut. What an enormous job. Do you have a specific place that’s set up specifically for your design work?

J: I don’t have an official work space. I have a Mac Book. I can work any place. I move with the sunshine in my house. I work in the sun room, at the kitchen table and even outside on the porch. I spend a lot of time in airport parking lots waiting to pick up my long time boyfriend who is a pilot. I work there as well. My computer, planner and idea notebook travel with me.

O: Being portable really makes it easier to be productive, doesn’t it? I couldn’t imagine working in my car though. This next question can be hard to answer… Do you have a favourite kit or collection in the GingerScraps Shop?

J: I Have Overcome, the collection I designed for the March Buffet is my favorite. It’s dedicated to the strength of overcoming things. My oldest daughter passed in March of 2019. She had a tattoo that said “I’m not what I have done but what I have overcome.” The photo of her and her tattoo showed on my photo memories on my phone the day I started to work on the Buffet. The collection was one of the prettiest and quickest collections I’ve ever created.

O: What an amazing way to remember your daughter, although I’m sure it was a painful process. I’m so sorry for your loss. She sounds like someone I’d like a lot. How do you relax? Describe your perfect vacation.

J: My perfect family vacation would be to take my three children, significant others and grand kids to Walt Disney World. Many of my best memories of my children’s childhoods were created at Disney World. My perfect couple vacation a long cruise with a balcony room starting with coffee in the room each day.

O: How did I know your first thought would be family? Made me think about the Disney cruises I’ve seen on Instagram – you could have a twofer! What would you do if you won the lottery?

J: After the obvious of paying off bills, I have a dream of starting a garage for low income individuals to get their cars repaired at. As a long time single mom, car maintenance was always a struggle. Cars I could afford needed work but the work was expensive. Not having a car was not an option living in southwest Ohio, so I always had to pay for the repairs some how. I dream of helping people by removing the fear of that noise in the back of the car costing them a $1,000.

O: OMG, what a selfless dream! I’ve never been a single parent, but I absolutely have lived the used-car-unexpected-repair-bill-how-do-I-pay-it part. It’s funny that I’m driving an eight-year-old SUV that is still in very good condition and rarely have to spend any money on it, but I can’t explain why that is. I told the salesman it was the last vehicle I intended to buy. He laughed. But it’s hauled me, my family, hundreds of bedding plants, tons of soil and mulch and many other things. Are you a green-thumb kind of person?

J: I cannot grow things in my house. I love, however, caring for our two acre yard. When we moved in almost two years ago, I was overwhelmed by the number of trees and flower beds this house had. I have embraced the care of the yard. I relax and forget time when I am out there.

O: Our old house had a huge yard that eventually had 5 separate flowerbeds. There’s something very soothing about digging and pulling weeds. Now we have a very small yard so most of my planting is in pots. Still satisfying. And as I get older it’s nice to garden standing up. 😉 Okay, I’m trying to decide what to cook for supper_ unsuccessfully, might I add. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

J: Pepperoni and pepperjack cheese. So weird I know! It’s always my go to snack.

O: Ooh. Pass the Pepcid please! I used to have a cast iron stomach, but no more. Thanks, COVID. Anyway, if there was one thing you could change about yourself, what would it be?

J: My anxiety and confidence levels. I stress over every decision I make. I’m the poster child for a mountain out of mole hill. I can overthink everything. If you only knew how long it took me to pick out 10 questions and answer them, you would laugh. [Editor’s note: Designers receive a list of possible questions in advance so they can avoid topics they’d rather not address.]

O: Thank you for being a good sport! Before I let you off the hook, let’s remind our readers about what being the Spotlight Designer means… Obviously, it means she’s hosting the so-named Challenge this month in addition to her usual Year of Blessings Challenge. And she’s providing this month’s Daily Download right here on the Blog. She’s gotta be busy! Make sure you check out her Shop.

See you next time!

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

Tutorial Wednesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 8, 2023 by Jan

Weaving – the Digital Way

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/428oL1i

Sorry to keep you waiting! When Ginger send me an idea for a tutorial that I really loved, I had no idea it would end up being much more complex than at first glance. I scrapped the first two attempts at making this a coherent process and I think you’ll find it’s not as bad as all the screenshots – and your faithful demonstrator – make it look. (However, this tutorial will require intermediate-to-expert familiarity with the Elements software.) It started with Ginger sending me a link to this layout by trinanne; she used this month’s brush and clipped her papers to it over and over. Of course, I had to take the long walk sown the garden path instead…

Now, obviously, if we’re weaving a bunch of papers or ribbons together, they’ll look best against a neutral solid background. I’m using 10 different patterned papers and a solid cardstock from the February 2023 Daily Download Noteworthy, from Miss Fish.

I decided it would work best for the way I was seeing this in my head if I created a bunch of paper strip Clipping Masks. If you’d rather use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to cut strips, that’s up to you. I want to have some variations in width, some crooked and torn edges, and one strip will have a deckle edge. (Instructions not included.) To make those individual features work best, the adjustments are made to the Mask to ensure the patterns on the papers aren’t distorted. I’ll be making a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch square, 10 strips in all. Here’s a tip: When using the Custom Shapes Tool you can specify dimensions and with only one click, you’ve got the desired shape in the desired size. I’m using a Width 8 inches, Height 1.5 inches for my first strip Mask.

Don’t forget that when using the Custom Shape Tool, the resulting shape is a Smart Object – it’s locked and can’t be altered unless you Simplify it. More recent versions of Elements includes a Simplify button bar in the Tool Options. If your version doesn’t show it there, right-click on the layer and choose Simplify Layer from the drop-down menu that appears.

Here I’ve created all 5 of my horizontal Clipping Mask layers. I’ve changed the foreground colour a bit for each to help keep them separate in my mind. You can see there are some thinner and some thicker strips. Next I’ll make 5 vertical strips the same way.

All 10 strips are there now. Let’s Clip some papers to them!

I know you all already know how to Clip papers to template spots but I’ll review anyway. With your paper right above the object you’re Clipping to, right-click on the paper layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. Alternately, you can use a keyboard shortcut. For versions 14 and earlier, CTRL/CMD>G will do it. For versions 15 and later, CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>G. My fingers just go there almost automatically now, I’ve used that shortcut so often.

Here are the 5 horizontal strips with their papers Clipped in place. The process is identical for the vertical strips.

Just like that.

I’ll show you how to make them look a little less deliberate in the next few screenshots. Here’s why I opted for Clipping Masks and not just Marqueeing out a bunch of strips. If I decided to Image>Transform>Skew a paper strip, the pattern would also Skew and it would look awful. So instead, I’ll Skew the Mask, giving it crooked ends, and the paper will stay unblemished. Skew only allows the corners to move in a single direction.

To make each paper strip more manageable, after I make my tweaks to the Mask, I’ll right-click>Merge the paper and Mask layers into a single layer. The shortcut is CTRL/CMD>E.

Here I’ve made a bit of a curved cut into the end of the Mask. The Smudge Tool will give that effect, or you could use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to Cut (CTRL/CMD>X) away a thin curved sliver. That method will give you a cleaner Cut.

Why not, indeed?

For this strip I used Image>Transform>Distort. With that command, each of the corners moves independently in all directions.

Another variation on the Smudge Tool.

Now let’s get to the WEAVE. First you’ll need to decide which strip to start with. I’m going to skip the first vertical strip and pass the pink striped strip then the multi-striped strip underneath my red-and-white horizontal strip. I Selected the edges of the first horizontal strip by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel. Then I made the pink striped layer my active layer. To make it look like it passed behind the horizontal strip, Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X removes that Selection from the pink striped paper.

Alternate this process for each of the horizontal layers.

Here is what it looks like before the dimension of shadowing is added.

Add a new, blank layer at the top of the stack of layers. This is where you’ll put your shadows. Decide where your light source is. That will determine where your shadows will lie. I like my light to come from the upper left, at 120°. Because some of my paper strips don’t have sharp, straight edges, I created custom shadows for those layers. (Custom Shadows – Jan’s Method) If you’re going with straight edges you can ignore that. Instead, use the Pencil Tool. For the horizontal strips, you’ll be drawing in your shadows inside the edges of the paper horizontally. For the vertical layers, you’ll be drawing your shadows inside the edges of those papers vertically. The Radius for your Pencil lines can be fairly small, since the papers will be laying tightly together. I used 4 pixels but 5 or even 8 won’t be too big. Set your Foreground Colour to black (000000) Click the cursor right inside the corner of the paper square you’re working with.

Then hold down the SHIFT key and click the cursor in the opposite corner. Here I’ve made a horizontal line. Don’t be too fussy about making it perfectly straight, because it’s not going to be noticeable later.

After you’ve got all your paper rectangles outlined in black, add a Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to that layer.

Don’t go overboard here. The Blur is to soften the lines, not make them blend right into the paper! If you can’t see anything in the Preview Pane, click your cursor in a spot where you know there’s a line. It’ll pop up in the Preview Pane and you can gauge how far to Blur. 2.3 pixels worked well for me.

Last thing to do is to change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn and drop the Opacity to about 60% and it’s done! Now to decide how to use the weave…

You can Save this weave as a PSD to allow for alterations later, or as a PNG to preserve the transparent layer behind. Or you can just go ahead and scrap on top and around it.

Til next Tuesday!

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

Designer Spotlight March 2023

March 5, 2023 by Jan

North Meets South Studios

This month we have two designers in the spotlight, but only one was able to join me for a chat. North Meets South Studios is a collaboration between two best friends, Tracy Anderson (Trixie Scraps) – the northern half, and Connie Prince, the southern belle. Connie and I had a wee visit and this is what she shared.

J: Thanks for agreeing to let me pick your brain, Connie. Let’s get the formalities out of the way first. How long have you been designing?

C: I have been designing since 2006!

J: That’s a LONG time!! You must really love it. What made you decide to get into design?

C: There weren’t a lot of digital scrapbook options back then and I wanted specific things for our family albums. I started making things and it just spiraled from there!

J: That’s a familiar story, Connie. Can’t find what you want? Create it yourself! And here you are, crushing it! What tools do you use to create your designs?

C: I use Photoshop, Illustrator, and a program on my iPad called Procreate!

J: Ah, the usual suspects… What is your favorite kit currently in your GS store and why?

C: Currently, I’m getting tons of use out of my Happy Plans collection. I caught the planner bug this year and it’s been fun using it for that purpose, too.

J: When I think of your store, this is pretty much exactly what I see! Now, to get a touch more personal… What one word would your friends and family use to describe you?

C: Loyal.

J: What an essential and valuable trait to have! Next, I already know the answer to this question because I’ve been following you for 10 years, but maybe there are folks who haven’t caught on.
Describe your perfect vacation.

C: Anywhere with sugar white sand & gorgeous blue water is perfect for me!

J: Yep, called it!! I’m not much of a beach person. I’m more into museums and cooler climes. Okay, so this query typically gets the same response from everybody. Are you like me, or like them? Are you more likely to dance or sing in the shower?

C: Dance for sure, I dance all over the place so why not lol!

J: I actually do both, with my own personal country music playlist helping me out. Bluetooth speakers are amazing! On to food: If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

C: Salad, I can never get enough of a great salad!

J: I enjoy salad, but living in Canada, in the winter salad greens aren’t easy to find and are expensive. I just signed up for an organic produce delivery service and they’re sending greens in my first order. Can’t wait! Can you play a musical instrument?

C: Yes! I played piano when I was younger and my husband gifted me with a new one last year so I’ve had a wonderful time “relearning”.

J: I took lessons when I was quite young. We didn’t have a piano so I would practice at the school after all the rest of the kids went home. When we moved I lost that opportunity and that was that. I wasn’t destined to be a concert pianist anyway, so it’s all good.
What did you want to be when you were small?

C: Honestly, I just wanted to be a mama! I had the best mom and I wanted to be just like her!

J: I’m pretty sure you met that goal. Thank you so much for helping me let our GingerScrappers get to know you better. Now, before I let you go, I just want to make sure to pass on the rest of the Important Information! Connie and Tracy (in absentia) are hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month in addition to providing the Daily Download for March, right here on the Blog. Each piece of the DD is available for 5 days, but don’t worry if you miss some because the whole kit will be available for purchase in the Shop next month. Connie is also host to the monthly #2023 Challenge, and Tracy hosts the Show Us Your Hobby Challenge. Be sure to check them out!

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

February 21, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Word Art

This month we’re looking at Word Art, the challenge sponsored and hosted by Cheré Kaye Designs. The supplied word art looks like this:

Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking you have no possible use for word art, but there are so many ways to be creative with it if you just give yourself permission. I’m going to show you, in the order they were posted, the first 16 layouts posted to the Word Art Challenge Gallery using this exact word art so you can see some of the ways it can be made your own. Each layout is linked to the Gallery so you can get a better look or offer some good vibes to the scrapper. Just click on the scrapper’s Forum handle!

The first layout is from demma_b13. She’s used the word art exactly as it was designed, pulling the colours for her layout from it and adding some photos of a very sweet little gnome to go with her kit selection. I like how she’s “painted” the big heart over the edge of the top photo. That touch of transparency is divine!

Here, trinanne has used the word art as is too, but made it the focal point of the layout, surrounded by photos of her loved ones.

As you can see, scrapcrazy has departed from the traditional. A simple layout about a very handsome dog needed something a little less “romantic”, so she recoloured everything to work with her photo and kit choice. I’m intrigued by the gradient effect she’s used on the outline for “love”. So cool!

Here again, the unaltered word art is supported by the colours in both the photos and the kit dkane has chosen. Just gorgeous!

For her layout, lulutoo has recoloured the letters in “love” to coordinate with the russet and peach tones of her kit. Those colours work so nicely with her vintage-looking photos.

When I first looked at alexandergirl68‘s layout, I didn’t notice that the mask she used makes a heart, I was so caught up in the photo of that precious baby! For the word art, she dispensed with the white border, pulled from the varied shades of russet ink for the letters, and added a shadow to make them look cut from cardstock.

branma has left the word art unchanged and used the same background paper as trinanne to show off her photos. Those pops of black add dimension and interest. The depth of her shadow gives the word art a embossed appearance.

Here, dhariana has recoloured the word art, ditched the white border and added a stitched border to the “love”. Clever!

Look at these kitties! The nuzzles! alasandra has clipped two different papers to the letters in “love”, while sticking closely to the original palette.

When creating her layout, firstoscartgrouch used the colours in the word art for inspiration, leaving it as it, but adding some flowers and a bunny sniffing them to replicate the subject of her photos.

I like how larkd has incorporated the word art into her clustered border. The purple in “hello” is the only place purple appears on the layout, causing it to draw the eye to her photo.

Here’s a novel idea! Not only has chigirl recoloured the word art to coordinate with her layout, she’s turned it into a tag.

The word art’s original colours wouldn’t work at all with ranchcreations‘ photos, so she clipped a paper to it. By using a brown paper for the word art and for the brad border under her square photo, she’s bringing the eye right to her large photo.

The word art on nimble4u‘s layout looks like it’s made from something very sturdy and offset with those foam tape things paper scrappers and card-makers use.

I would have known this is a KatherineWoodin layout anywhere! Katherine is so diligent about chronicling life every day; I stand in awe. She recoloured to pick up the colours of the boys’ uniforms and their basketballs. The way she’s shadowed it, it looks like it could be acrylic, not paper. Good job, Katherine!

We’ve seen quite a lot cats this time around! (I’m not a cat person, but know a few.) Our last layout is from lebjs, where the word art is as designed. She’s cleverly used strips of white as whiskers to give her main photo the appearance of a cat’s face. So sweet!

I wish someone would have used some layer styles to really customize the word art. Maybe I’ll do a mock-up to see how it would look.

I have a question for you all about dating your layouts. Do you include the date? How do you do that? Do you have a preferred method of including it, such as using a tab or paper strip? I’m working up an idea passed on to me by gmae (Ellen) and need your input. Please send me a private message (ObiJanKenobi) and share your wisdom!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

February 7, 2023 by Jan

More Hearts and Flowers Fonts

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3k05qOr

It’s been a rough week at our house, meaning no time for me to do anything really inspiring. But I’ve been seeing a LOT of inspiring Valentine’s Day projects so I had a thought… Surely there are some great new Valentine’s Day fonts and dingbats that y’all can use those Styles we talked about last week to make REALLY fabulous. And there are!! I’ve got eleven FREE fonts and six dingbats for your scrapping pleasure, from dafont.com. (If you want any of these, just click on the font’s name and you’ll be linked up.) Ready?

Couple Valentine is a fancy, all-caps font that would be perfect for pretty much any application. Titles, subtitles, journaling – all of it! I love that.

This romantic script font, Mybook Again, is another multipurpose gem. I could see this on wedding invitations, all kinds of wedding favours and Valentines. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?

I really love these bubble fonts like Romantic Love. There are SO many ways to use them and so many things you can do to zhuzh them up.

Pink Valentine is so retro and cute! It brings me right back to my teenage years when I still had rose-coloured glasses.

This font could be right out of a fairy tale. Lovaline Story is another versatile font that is suitable for any purpose.

Candy Kisses would make beautiful titles. Beyond Valentine’s Day and weddings, I’d probably use it for baby layouts.

Beauty Heart is a lovely farmhouse-type font. I’d love to see it with a glossy Style so it looks like candy.

I like the heart ligatures on Finding Love. It’s yet another all-purpose font with infinite options.

Ooh, here’s a swashy script called Jully Julia. It’s perfect for subtitles and journaling.

I don’t know that I’d use You Are My Valentine for journaling, but it would be good for titles and subtitles.

I was looking for dingbats when I found Quirky Love. It’s already pretty fabulous, and has potential to be even more so! Doesn’t it look like leather?

Now for the dingbats. Heart Salads is the first set I’ve found that has an anatomical heart in it.

I can see so many things that can be done with Romantine Dingbat. Yes, most of them involve hitting them with a Style… or three.

I love these heart emoji dings, don’t you? Fluffy Hearts Ding just makes me smile.

PW Little Hearts covers the gamut of things we love. That heart-with-the-ball-of-yarn would make a great element for a cat layout.

These are pretty romantic hearts in Vanlentines Day TBF. I think my favourite is the solid heart with the stars along the right side.

Last, but not least, we have Merciful Heart Doodle. I might use this one to create a border. What would you do with it?

Now I must run… gotta deal with all the errands I’ve put off for the last week while my son has been sick. Hopefully I’ll get ’em done before the rain turns to snow…

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

Designer Spotlight: February 2023

February 5, 2023 by Jan

It’s Miss Fish!

Many of you will already know Juli, aka Miss Fish. Lately she’s moved past mainly template designing and is bringing more of her talent to entire kits. I know I’m happy to see that! She’s also been in the Designer Spotlight before, so we talked about some different things this time to keep it fresh. (Since we both have the same first initial, I’m going by “O” today.)

O: Let’s get the bread and butter out of the way. What motivates and inspires you as a designer?

J: I love designing templates that make me want to stop what I’m doing and scrap a page. I often will plus in my own photos
and some elements to make sure designs will look good for my customers.

O: Segué ahead… What one word would your friends and family use to describe you?

J: Busy! Lol…I work full time, plus I design and we like to have fun with friends and travel. I’m not one to just plop down and relax.
I go all the time!

O: It can be exhausting, right? I enjoy traveling too, so why don’t you describe your perfect vacation.

J: Anywhere in Europe close to a train station so I could go on different adventures every day.

O: So is that what you would do if you won the lottery?

J: YES! I’d quit my day job and travel full time. I’d bring along my laptop so I could design and scrap in my free time.

O: Oddball question, that I can probably guess the answer to: are you more likely to dance or sing in the shower?

J: Sing.

O: Yep, called it! Do you have a green thumb? What do you grow?

J: Yes. Currently growing Brussel sprouts, cherry tomatoes, peppers, arugula, and some herbs. Plus my cat’s favorite, carnations.

O: I’ve grown broccoli but never Brussels sprouts. Now I don’t have room for much but I have some flower boxes and a small bed in the front yard. Most of my blooms are purple, white or pink. What are your most favorite and least favorite colors?

J: My favorite color is blue. My least favorite color is orange.

O: Oh, I don’t like orange much either, or yellow. Hence they’re not prominent in my garden! {Except the Stella d’Oro lilies the developer planted. They can stay. What would your dream car be?

J: Something red and fast but in an SUV size, maybe a Porsche?

O: That would be amazing! My daughter had a BMW SUV, but didn’t love it so she’s driving a VW Tiguan now. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

J: I would make myself able to actually remember words and why I walked into a room.

O: I can definitely relate! Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?

J: My phone. I’m embarrassed to say how attached I am to it.

O: I’m finding myself falling into that habit too, at least until my eyes start protesting. If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

J: Caution: probably crabby, feed for best results.

O: Hahahahaha!! Me too! Let me get you a snack, girl!

Before we disappear with our treats, I want to remind everybody that Juli is not just the IN the Designer Spotlight, she’s hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month AND is providing the Daily Download on the Blog too. Each snippet of the Daily Download is available for 5 days; if you miss one or two and are heart-broken, don’t worry. The entire kit will be available for purchase in March. (Egad, did I really just say that?)

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

January 31, 2023 by Jan

Loading Those Styles Files

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

Back a couple of weeks, I said I’d put together a quick tut on how to load Styles into Elements. That’s where we’re going today. It’s really easy, but I can complicate anything! I’ll show you the easy way, and the more complicated way then let you decide how you’ll do it. Sound good?

But first, let’s talk about Styles a little bit. What are they, anyway? Essentially, they’re little automatic scripts that allow you to alter and enhance individual layers in your Photoshop Elements layouts. They include things like shadows, glitter, metal, fabric, gel, wood, cork, texture… so many different Styles exist and more are being created all the time. Several GingerScraps designers create Styles that coordinate with their kits. In fact, many of the GingerBread Ladies‘ collabs have Styles files in them, so you’ve probably got a bunch you aren’t even aware of! Let’s get you up to speed!

There are two ways to access your Styles portfolio. One is to click the Window tab along the top of the workspace then choose Styles from the drop-down menu. The second way – the one I use because it’s right there – is to click on the Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Once you’ve accessed them, there’s a Style Picker bar at the top of the Layers Panel.

Here’s the Style Picker. It will let you see all the Styles that are already Loaded. Elements includes several default Styles embedded in the software (Bevels, Complex, Drop Shadows, Glass Buttons, Image Effects, Inner Glows, Inner Shadows, Outer Glows, Patterns and more) That little stack of lines to the right of it is where the actual Styles Menu hides.

Let’s click on the stack of lines. Now choose Load Styles.

Here’s where I can complexify things… I learned how to find where my computer puts things and have worked out my own workflow using that knowledge. With Styles (and Brushes, which are Loaded in exactly the same way), I rename the files then move them into the folder where Elements will look for them first. I’ve outlined the path here. The path is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements [Version #]\Presets\Styles. This makes it easier for me to find them later but it’s not the only way to manage them.

You can see that Styles files have the tag .ASL or .asl after the file name. Knowing that, you can let Windows search for your Styles. (Sorry Mac users, I know nothing about file searches in the Mac OS.)

Here you can see there’s at least one file I haven’t renamed. 😉 And it’s the file I’m going to use… To locate the folder it’s hiding in, I right-click on the file name and choose Open File Location from the drop-down.

Now I can go back to the Styles Menu, because I know where the file is, and retrieve it.

Click on the file and then Load. DONE!

The set is there, open and waiting for me to decide which one I want to use. Hovering the cursor over the thumbnail will tell you what the Style has been named by the designer.

I tried the two blues, but liked the black best. As I’ve shown in other tuts, the Style can then be adjusted by double-clicking on the fx icon on the layer and playing with the settings.

There are lots of sources of free Styles online. Some Photoshop Styles will work with Elements and some won’t. Brusheezy, which I’ve shared before, is pretty good at separating them out. I’ve linked you up if you’d like to explore.

See you in February!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

January 17, 2023 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: Real Moments

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3DlA2Ay

Did you notice there are a couple of new Challenges for 2023? Today we’re going to check in on the Real Moments Challenge hosted by Cindy Ritter. This is how Cindy describes the Challenge: “There’s a quote that says “Life isn’t measured by time, it’s measured by moments.” and that’s what this new challenge is about, preserving those moments that stand out; the good, the bad and everything in between. Many of those moments in our lives are not accompanied by photos so feel free to experiment and think outside the box while making your layouts.

Each month I will give you a theme and prompt (it might be a quote, a song, a poem or something different) and you should create whatever you are moved to do.

This months theme is Change.
Please use the following quote to inspire your page.
“Sometimes change requires you to take a giant leap. But, you won’t be able to fly unless you are willing to transform.” ― Suzy Kassem”

I love the idea of scrapping REAL moments, even the ordinary ones. Each of us has our own idea of what that means, and our Individual Style will guide how we approach the Challenge. I think as memory-keepers we tend to scrap the happy stuff and pretend the no-so-happy stuff even happened. But we all have REAL moments, and we shouldn’t shy away from them. The layouts in the Challenge Gallery cover the gamut; there are a couple of them that might be too REAL for some of our readers; if that’s you, no one will know if you skip over those ones. The layouts will appear in the order they were uploaded to the Gallery. You may notice that a number of them have been created using Cindy’s Real Moments – Metamorphosis collection, and each participant will be gifted a matching mini-kit. As always, each layout is linked to its spot in the Gallery so you can drop by and leave some love; just click on the member’s name. Ready?

First up is a layout by lulutoo; her journaling, paired with that Pinterest-worthy photo would fit in well with our discussion on resolutions, wouldn’t it? I love her vertical cluster and how she’s combined all the papers she’s stacked behind it. Tucking elements between papers always adds interest.

As a former military spouse, I found 01lousmith‘s journaling to be very familiar. Change can be really hard, and not always good. She’s created a beautiful but haunting photoless artsy layout.

We’re all our own worst critic! AJsRandom proves it. The smiles in her photos and the cheery-ness of her clusters is a little at odds with her journaling. But I commend her for taking such a personal approach to the Challenge.

I really think I need to buy this collection! This beautiful, simple layout from dkane has me really convinced. There’s so much warmth and optimism here.

Talk about making lemonade outta lemons! Look at how mafrerichs has transformed that dorm room! The colour palette of the kit coordinates beautifully with the photos and those clusters… total thirst trap for me.

This simple but celebratory layout from twizzle made me smile. Congratulations! Feeling good about oneself is the key to happiness.

How gorgeous is this?? I love the way kabrak1207 has blended the gold border into the background paper and how that stitched heart is SO 3D. The quote from Wicked really captures the theme of the Challenge without needing a photo.

As dorannmwin says, change can be scary. Kudos to her for going back to school! She looks so confident in her photo, and the way she’s surrounded it with ephemera and clusters keeps the feel-good going.

NHSoxGirl has infused some humour into her layout. I knew instantly what she was going to focus on when I saw those photos. In keeping with the serious-but-still-funny-ish topic she kept her layout clean and linear.

Our own AimeeHarrison has chronicled a significant challenge that changed her whole life. Her layout reflects triumph and hope through the bouncy clustered swag and all the hearts. Strength is a good trait to have!

A-M kept her layout simple and clean. Downsizing is definitely a change! We UPsized… I can’t even imagine.

(Content-warning) Katherine Woodin has always been very open and comfortable with her journaling as she records daily life. She’s probably the most dedicated Project 365 scrapper I know. She doesn’t gloss over the tough stuff, and this layout is an example of that. Her beloved Fred passed on to his next life on Christmas Eve and she strips bare her feelings as she details the events of that day. My deepest condolences, Katherine.

I can’t even count all the ways basketladyaudrey has covered “change” in her layout. She chose the most perfect colour palette possible for her photos, which tell the story of becoming a grown-up. Love it!

Leaving home is one of the hardest changes we all go through. Blaise used a list as journaling, and her photo tells the rest of the story.

If you were to participate in this Challenge, what would be the change you feature? Seeing all these layouts has given me some ideas – on top of the absolute determination to acquire Cindy‘s kit. Off I go to sort through my photos…

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 (Photoshop Elements)

January 10, 2023 by Jan

It’s the Snowy Season! (Fancifying a Font)

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3jf6vBS

If you’ve thought about taking part in the Font Challenge this month, you probably live in North America and have lots of snowy photos you can work with. Snowy Season is a showy font with lots of visual interest. It’s an all-caps font with scaled lower-case characters, a full set of numerics and the most commonly-used punctuation, which makes it a great title option. I think it would make for difficult reading as a journaling font though. Today’s tutorial will show you how to make the snowy parts of the font look like actual snow! Read on…

Before we get into the meat of the tutorial I want to welcome all the new GingerScrappers who have joined us in the last while and give an overview of Tutorial Tuesday. The first two Tuesdays of the month will focus on techniques that elevate our 2 dimensional layouts into 3D masterpieces. The third Tuesday is Challenge Spotlight day, when I share YOUR layouts and discuss what makes them special and interesting. On the fourth Tuesday, I provide a Quick Trick that will speed up your workflow. When I create these tutorials I want them to be achievable by anyone, with any amount of experience with digital scrapping. To that end, I typically provide both written and visual instructions of every step in the process I’m demonstrating. If you already are proficient you have my blessing to skip over all the extra instruction. I try to use free or software default fonts and styles wherever possible so you’re not having to shop before you can play. Most tutorials are for Photoshop Elements, which is the most commonly used software and what I work with. There are usually multiple ways to accomplish a task. I like to Work Smart, Not Hard, so I’ll show you the easiest/fewest keystroke ways, and include keyboard shortcuts where they exist. I work in Windows but recognize that there are a lot of Mac people out there. So any keyboard shortcut will include the appropriate function keys for both PC and Mac. For example, the keyboard shortcut for Merge Layers is CTRL>E for PC users and CMD>E for Mac users. So when I include Merge Layers in a tutorial it will look like this: CTRL/CMD>E. The other function keys that are part of keyboard shortcuts are the ALT (PC) and OPT (Mac) keys. Make sense? Now for today’s tut!

Our winter began a full 6 weeks early than usual and brought us a LOT of snow. I like to think outside the box when it comes to titles for my layouts and sometimes will do a Google search for related words, phrases or synonyms. That’s how I came up with this one. Notice the transparency inside the snowy bits. If I just used the font as is, whatever is behind my title will show in the snowy areas. Not what I want!

Before I can manipulate this title, the text needs to be Simplified. The actual text itself will no longer be editable so make sure it’s spelled properly and it says what you want it to say before you Simplify. One way to do this is to click Layer tab on the taskbar that sits at the top of your workspace then choose Simplify Layer. Or right-click on the text layer and choose Simplify Layer from the drop-down menu.

I made a Copy Layer of the title so I could work on a Copy and not the original. There are several ways of doing this. Click Layer>Duplicate Layer… on the taskbar. Or right-click on the layer then choose Duplicate Layer… from the drop-down menu. Both these will open another menu where you’re asked where the duplicate layer will go. In this instance, it’ll go into this project, so all you’d need to do is click OK on that pop-up. Or easiest for copying layers within the same project, CTRL/CMD>J will just do it all.

Here’s the pop-up I mentioned above.

Now I’ve made the original title layer invisible so I can see what I’m doing to the Copy Layer. Just click on the eyeball to close it.

I’m going to remove everything but the snowy areas from the title. I added a Layer Mask to it by clicking on the icon at the top of the Layers Panel that looks like a gray circle in a blue square. Why a Layer Mask? It lets you hide parts of a layer but not make them actually disappear. It gives you the most control you can have over what happens to your image. More later.

This is where Elements puts the Layer Mask. You want to be sure you’re working on the MASK and not the LAYER itself. When you look at the Layers Panel you’ll see a blue line box around the active part of the layer. Be careful to make sure you’re on the MASK.

Next, activate the Eraser Tool. You’ll have another reminder that you’re working on a MASK because the Color Picker will show black and white. It there are any other colours there, you’re NOT on the mask. If you remember “White REVEALS and Black CONCEALS” it’ll help with your task… but this mnemonic is referring to what’s BEHIND the object you’re masking. The magic of Layer Masks is that it lets you erase things, but if you accidentally remove a part you wanted to keep, it’s not really gone. For example, sometimes my track-pad sticks and my cursor goes haywire, erasing EVERYTHING it touches. To recover that stuff, I just toggle my colour from white to black and reveal it again by rolling my cursor over the oops. Toggling between foreground and background colours is easy, just click the X key.

Make sure your snowy areas are completely enclosed with a thin border of your font colour. It’ll save you a lot of grief later.

This is what you’ll be left with on the Copy Layer once you’ve concealed all the non-snow areas. Zoom in and go over all of it while you still have the ability to correct any little issues. Once you’ve moved on to the next step it’ll be too late…

Now, to be able to play with this layer, the Layer Mask has to be integrated into the layer by Simplifying it. Same steps as for the initial title.

As soon as your Layer Mask was integrated, your Color Picker will have returned to whatever colours you’d had there before. Set your foreground colour to white: you can either click your cursor on the upper left corner of the palette or you can type “ffffff” into the hex code # box.

Now to fill the snowy areas with white. I tried my preferred method of New Fill Layer>Solid Color>Use Previous Layer as Clipping Mask but all it Filled was the outline. In retrospect, that might have worked just as well as what I ended up doing. Keep that in mind as we proceed. I used the Paint Bucket to click-and-fill the snowy areas. This method is imperfect, sometimes leaving areas unfilled around the edges. That can be overcome by Filling again. As you can see from the screenshot, there’s still a navy blue outline that detracts from the look I want. Here’s where it might have been better to use the Fill Layer process, THEN the Paint Bucket. Live and learn!! Instead, I worked unsmart…

I essentially did the same thing that using the Fill Layer>Paint Bucket method would have done but with WAY more steps. I covered up the blue outline with a Stroke. Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection…

To expand on the EXTRA steps I took, I had to experiment to find the right size and location for the Stroke. I settled on 6 pixels and Inside to conform to the contours of each snowy shape.

Okay, that looks a lot better. Still a few areas where the Stroke didn’t quite cover the outline – another reason to advocate for using the Fill Layer>Paint Bucket route.

Now to add some dimension! I experimented to find the right combo for this step. Click the Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel then go up to the drop-down menu at the top of the Layers Panel and choose Bevels. These are stock Styles that came with the software.

I got the best results with the Simple Inner Bevel as shown. I know it makes the snow look like toothpaste, but Styles are adjustable! Double-click on the fx icon on the layer to open the adjustments menu then push the Size slider to the left until it stops looking like it’s sitting in your bathroom sink. To reduce the glaring shadows, decrease the Opacity of the beveled layer to 66% or so.

Now make another Copy Layer of the snow. We’ll add some glitter to it so it glistens like real snow. CTRL/CMD>J. (Learn the keyboard shortcuts! They’re amazing!!)

Ugh. Let’s get rid of the glop. Right-click on the layer then choose Clear Layer Style. That’ll remove the bevel from the Copy Layer.

You may already have some fine white glitter loaded into your Styles collection. I didn’t have the one I wanted so I went to my Styles folder by clicking on the stack of lines to the top left of the Styles Panel and chose Load Styles. This is where your software stores Styles; if you’ve purchased some to coordinate with your kits this is where Elements will look for them. I’ll put together a tutorial on managing Styles later. For right now I’ll just give you the bare bones.

Here’s the result of applying fine white glitter, then decreasing the Opacity of that layer to 60% so the contours of the layer below are visible.