~~March Feature Designer: Designs by Connie Prince~~

March 20, 2019 by

Hi everyone!! Boy, March is flying by. Sorry this is a bit later than normal. I’m really not sure where the first half of the month went.

This month we are talking with the fabulous Connie Prince. She took a few minutes out of her busy schedule and birthday celebration to answer a few of my questions.

How long have you been designing?

Since 2006.

What made you decide to design?

When I started designing there weren’t that many digital scrapbook stores or designers. I wanted to be able to create things to use in my own scrapbooks and it just took off from there.

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

I design in Photoshop & Illustrator.

Describe your design workplace.

I have an office / craft studio where I do my design work.

What motivates and inspires you as a designer?

I pull inspiration from pretty much everywhere! If I’m ever feeling stuck a visit to the craft or antique stores will usually get me going again.

What was your first job?

Cashier in a family owned grocery store.

Have you ever met anyone famous?

Yes, a few – my favorite was Newt Gingrich, I worked for him while in college.

What are you reading right now?

It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way by Lysa Terkeurst

What is your favorite quote?

Your life is an occasion. Rise to it. – Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

What is something you want to do in the next year that you’ve never done before?

Visit Alaska!

You have your own latenight talk show, who do you invite as your first guest?

Bradley Cooper

If you had to delete all but 3 apps from your smartphone, which ones would you keep?

Instagram, Bank App, & Snapchat.

If you could have someone follow you around all the time, like a personal assistant, what would you have them do?

All of my admin work!

Would you rather travel back in time to meet your ancestors or to the future to meet your descendants?

Past – I don’t know that I could handle knowing the future!

What commercial jingle gets stuck in your head all the time?

State Farm.

If you could turn the ocean into a liquid other than water, which one would you pick?

Something not sticky!

Thanks Connie!!

Make sure to check out her GS Store, her FB Fan Page, her blog, and her FB Group. And make sure you are picking up the Daily Download this month.

Also – her store is on sale all month.

Have a great week!

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Feature Designer, GingerBread Ladies Tagged With: , ,

What are Blend Modes?

March 16, 2019 by

Many of you have expressed the desire to learn more about Blend Modes, so today let’s take a look at this powerful Photoshop tool.

Blend Modes are available both in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to assist you with your creativity. But what are they and why should you care?

Blend Modes change the way that layers interact with each other, allowing you to create a variety of looks with the same supplies, depending upon the Blend Mode you choose.

Screenshots in this tutorial are from Photoshop CC2019; however, you will find that Blend Modes work exactly the same in Photoshop Elements.

You will find the Blend Mode option at the top of your Layers Panel. The default is set to “Normal.” Click on the down-pointing arrow to the right and a drop-down menu will open with all of the options you see in the image below.

snickerdoodle-blend-modes-tutorial-1

Because the result of a Blend mode will depend upon the colors you are working with, there is not one formula that is perfect for every situation. However, if you have a general understanding of how Blend Modes work, you will be able to have a good idea which Blend Mode to start with when experimenting, depending upon what result you want to achieve.

There are 5 main Categories, each their own use and options.  First listed is Normal. “Normal” is an unaffected image, and “Dissolve” can give your image a “frayed” look. I don’t know if I’ve ever used that category myself.

What I consider the “real” first Category is the are the options which will darken your images. Within that category, your options are: Darken, Multiple, Color Burn, Linear Burn, and Darker Color.

Moving onto Category #2, which lightens images, you also have 5 options, as shown in the image below. Categories 3, 4, and 5 also have their own options.

The best way to see how Blend modes work is to fill a layer with color, place an overlay on a layer above it, and just experiment. Try each Blend Mode to see what it does and how it affects your image. This will give you a good feel for the results of each option and you will be on your way to understanding what you can expect with each option.

Here is an example using a pink colored cardstock, with a grayscale Vintage Book Texture.  Overlay and Soft Light are my favorites here, and those are always good options to start with when you are using a grayscale texture.

snickerdoodle-blend-modes-tutorial-2Time Saving Tip:

Did you know that you can cycle through Blending Modes without using your mouse?  Here’s how:

  • Select the layer that you want to blend. In this example, I want to Vintage Book Overlay with a piece of colored Cardstock.
  • Click on the down-pointing arrow in the Blend Mode box to make it active.
  • Click on any Blend Mode to make it active.
  • Use the Up and Down or Right and Left arrows on your keyboard to cycle through the different Blend Modes

I hope you have found this helpful! If you would like to download a PDF of this tutorial, you may do so here.

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: ,

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

March 12, 2019 by

Fontastic Spring!

Once again I’m apologizing for not having a great tutorial prepared for you. I’ve been caught up in family obligations the last several days and haven’t had time for much else. I didn’t even get my family bible layout done. But I’ve noticed that almost all the comments on last week’s post mentioned the fonts I showed you. And I also noticed that I haven’t done a post about spring-y fonts. So there we’re going!

As I’ve mentioned before, I love dafont.com as a great source of free fonts; their selection is outstanding! I made a quick cruise through there and have found you a baker’s dozen of fonts (and a dingbat set) that would make great titles or subtitles for spring layouts. See if you agree. Each font is hyperlinked to the site; just click on the font name in the description.

Alpha Shapes Raindrops might be what you’re looking for when you scrap rainy-day layouts. If you simplify each letter on its own layer, you can use the Smudge tool to animate your drops.

Floralies is similar to Blomster, but a little “lighter”.

Florality isn’t technically a font, but the viny, leafy look of it is so pretty!

I’m thinking there are so many ways to make Alpha Flowers just POP off the page.

Flower Explosion is a little lighter too, but still really pretty.

Think how beautiful CF Flowers of Destiny would look with a Blend Mode like Multiply! Ooh, and a gradient… smashing!

Nebulo is really gorgeous, just be aware that it’s a mishmash of capital and lowercase letters.

I just love this one! Kingthings Willow has two choices for even more freedom and control.

Black Flowers Blossom is just pretty.

Vanessa is another really pretty font; imagine it clipped to a paper, maybe with a little border around it.

CF Springtime has a nice bit of heft to it, and those sprigs are a cute touch.

This whimsical little beauty would be an amazing addition of layouts with Day Dreams ‘n Designs‘ Daily Download kit Bee Mine. I think we also need to heed the message… Save the Honeybee.

This one doesn’t say spring so much as the name of it does. I like it though. Butterfly

That leaves only the dingbat set. KR Spring Me has LOTS of spring-y images and so many possibilities.

Do you have any favourite fonts that make you think of spring? It looks like spring might actually be on its way to my corner of the world. Our temperature finally got above freezing on Sunday for the first time since January 31. That’s a long time to be cold!

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

How to use Distressed Patterns and a Freebie

March 9, 2019 by

Hey everyone! Today I’m here to talk about patterns.  Subtle or bold, distressed or not,  patterns add so much to a digital scrapbook page.

With the use of Blend Modes and Opacity Levels you can convert a plain paper to a pretty paper. Here’s how:

  1. In Photoshop CC or Photoshop Elements, open a background paper.
  2. Place a Pattern on the layer above the background paper.
  3. Experiment with Blend Modes and Opacity Levels of the Pattern.

Yes. It’s really that simple. Sure there are other things you can do to add even more interest, but basically, that’s it.

Here is a simple cardstock paper with a Distressed Pattern in Normal mode on the layer above the cardstock.

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-01

In the image below I’ve changed the Blend Mode of the pattern to Multiply and lowered the opacity to 26%. The result is a soft and pretty look.

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-02

By changing the Blend Mode to Screen, and increasing the opacity (to 73% in this case), we can get a totally different look:

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-03

Here’s another example.  I changed the blend mode of the pattern to Hard Mix and lowered its opacity to 47%. I added a Color Balance adjustment layer to it, tweaking some of the colors. Now we have a totally different paper from the one above.

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-7

Don’t restrict yourself to plain cardstock though. Here is a paper from my This is Me April kit.

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-04

It’s a pretty paper by itself, but if you wanted to add even more interest, here’s something you might try:

  1. Add a pattern on a layer above a paper
  2. Experiment with Blend Modes and Opacity Levels. In this case, I used Color Burn and lowered the Opacity to 84%
  3. I added a Mask to the Pattern, and brushed away a majority of the pattern, just leaving it near the top of the paper to add more interest.

snickerdoodle-deslgns-how-to-use-patterns-06a

There are just so many ways to play with patterns!

These patterns are provided in PNG format, which gives you the ultimate flexibility!

Distressed Patterns 01 & 02

Available at  here in my Commercial Use Store

Take advantage of the 40% sale on these products, valid through March 14th.


Distressed Patterns Snickerdoodle Designs

And here is a freebie for you to experiment with. Just click on the image below to download!

Distressed Pattern Freebie Snickerdoodle Designs

 

 

Experiment and have fun!!

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies Tagged With: , , ,

Sneak Peeks March 7th 2019

March 7, 2019 by

Happy Thursday! This week the designers went crazy and are releasing a TON of new goodies! Let’s check them out!

From Dagi

From LDrag Designs

From Tinci

From Clever Monkey Graphics

From JoCee

From CathyK

From Down This Road Designs

From Just Because Studio

From Aimee Harrison

From Miss Fish

Check out the full reveals tomorrow!

 

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

March 5, 2019 by

Heritage and History: Recorded

Late last week, I connected with one of my distant cousins on my mom’s mother’s side through Ancestry DNA. I never expect anything to come from my contacting them, and am always so thrilled when they respond. This particular long-distance connection led to an explosion of “new” family members for me and the beginnings of several friendships. But perhaps the best thing that has come from this is that I now have several photos of the old family Bible, that dates back to 1884.

I know there are more than a few of you loyal readers who are also interested in your family history and in recording what you learn for future generations. My family Bible photos are going to make an amazing layout. And GingerScraps has pretty much everything I’m going to need to make it special. And I’m going to let you in on my design process.

First, did you know you can search the store using keywords? On the far left of the store’s home page, there’s a search box right underneath the log-in panel. I typed in “heritage” and the search returned THIRTY-TWO pages (more than 500!) of possibilities. I know the right kit for me to use for my special layout will be in there somewhere. Here are some of the options I’m considering.

Many of these kits are part of a larger bundle, which of course is your very best value.

My heritage layouts go in one of two directions; I either focus on a single photo or I go with a collection of them. Because the photos by themselves are just “nice” but don’t tell the story, lots of room for journalling is a must. Our GS designers have so many options for templates that it’s like an embarrassment of riches. Here are some options for multi-photo layouts.

For titles and journalling, there are nearly as many options for (free) fonts as there are days in a year. I like to use decorative fonts for titles, typerwriter fonts for journalling – it needs to be completely legible for the story to be preserved. Here are some that I like.

Now, my challenge to you is to see if you can guess which kit, template set and fonts I will use for my layout. Check in the gallery at the end of the week to see if you’re right!

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

4 Ways to Add Color Pop

March 2, 2019 by

Colorizers, by Snickerdoodle Designs, are a new product here at Ginger Scraps. But what are they and what do you do with them?

Colorizers by Snickerdoodle Designs

Colorizers by Snickerdoodle Designs

Hi! I’m Karen, of Snickerdoodle Designs; and I’m here today to show you how to use my Colorizers to easily add color to your digital scrapbook papers, text, elements, and shapes.

I’ve prepared a 2-minute video to show you how easy Colorizers are to work with. Take a look at the video, and then scroll down for 4 additional ways to add color to your digital scrapbooking projects.

4 ways to add color pop to your digital scrapbook pages Snickerdoodle Designs

1. Changing the Color of an Element

Many designers include graffiti, doodles, or other graphic elements in their digital scrapbooking kits.   They are usually provided in papers or colors that coordinate with the designers kit, which makes them super easy to use. But if you love a specific graphic and want to use it with a kit of a different color palette, using a Colorizer is a fast and easy way to achieve that goal.

Here is a piece of graffiti from This is Me November Graffiti. While it coordinates beautifully with the kit, it is also a piece that could easily be used on any scrapbook page with a simple recolor.

snickerdoodle-4-ways-to-use-colorizers-tutorial-1

We could add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, to change the color, from brown to blue in this example.

snickerdoodle-4-ways-to-use-colorizers-tutorial-2

But if we wanted to add multiple colors to the design element, using a Colorizer is a quick method. Place a Colorizer above the graffiti and clip the Colorizer to the mask, and you’re done! The variegated color adds a unique flavor to this piece.

snickerdoodle-4-ways-to-use-colorizers-tutorial-3

2. Coloring Black Stamps

Stamps can add great interest to our pages. Most often they are black or gray in color. We can blend them into our backgrounds, colorize them, and apply Styles to them. Another quick way to color black elements in with Colorizers.

This is an element from “You Color my World.” In the kit, it is colored, but I have made it Grayscale for this tutorial. I am going to use Colorizer #8 from Pack 1 to quickly color this Stamp.

I clipped the Colorizer to the stamp and experimented with Blend Modes. We can get a variety of different effects, based on the color of the stamp and the color of the Colorizer that we are using. In this example, Hard Light gives the best result. Sometimes just clipping a Colorizing to an image adds enough color, so you don’t need to do anything else. How easy is that?

snickerdoodle-4-ways-to-use-colorizers-tutorial-16

If you really want to play and experiment try adding a Levels or Curves Adjustment, or a Brightness / Contrast Adjustment. Or use 2 Colorizers – one Colorizer for half the stamp and a second Colorizer for the other half of the stamp.

3. Coloring Grayscale Backgrounds, Basic

No matter what type of grayscale background you have handy, whether it is plain or patterned, using a Colorizer is a quick way to create a lovely background paper.  Place a Colorizer on the layer above your grayscale background and experiment with Blend Modes of the Colorizer. (Grayscale paper from Crumpled Textures 01).

4. Coloring Grayscale Backgrounds, Advanced

If you want a little more fun with the Colorizers, start with an artsy, mixed media background. The texture I am using for this example is from my Artsy Textures 01, #6. I placed the Colorizer on a layer above the grayscale texture and changed the Blend Mode of the Colorizer to Screen.

Next, I merged the grayscale texture and the Colorizer to create one layer.  I placed the merged layer above a Crumpled Texture and changed the Blend Mode of the merged paper to Difference.

It was way too dark for my taste, so I added a Levels Adjustment, followed that with a slight Curves Adjustment. I was happy with that result.

Colorizers were designed to give you a multitude of options. You can get fabulous results by just using one Blend Mode, or you can use multiple techniques to get the effect you want. The key to using Colorizers is to play, experiment, and just have fun!

Go ahead! Give it a try!  Here’s a sample for you to experiment with. Just click on the image to download.

If you would like to download a PDF of this tutorial, you may do so here:  4 Ways to Add Color Pop.

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Tutorials Tagged With: , , ,

Sneak Peeks February 28th 2019

February 28, 2019 by

Happy Thursday!!! It’s the last day of the month so I get to show you a sneak peek of the new BUFFET as well!!!!!

From Heather Z

From our new Guest this month, Down this Road Designs

From Clever Monkey Graphics

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, outdoor

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling

Image may contain: text and outdoor

And now lets take a peek of the new Buffet!!!!

Come back tomorrow to see all the awesome goodies releasing!!!

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

February 26, 2019 by

Magic Eraser!! (Not Mr Clean but close)

I know I can’t be the only one who collects brochures from the attractions I visit when I travel. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who likes to make my own journal cards to go with my photos when I scrap those travel photos. I really wanted to use the Wells House logo somewhere on my layout below and decided this would be a good time to try something new (to me). The template I chose, from the GingerBread Ladies mega-collab Oh Snap! had a journal card spot, and it inspired me. And ADB Designs‘ January Daily Download kit Cozy New Year was the perfect kit to go with my photos.

The logo is pretty well delineated in the image below, and I just want the logo itself. I could put it on a new document and extract it using one of the methods I’ve shown you in the past, but I wanted to try something new. So let’s get to it!

I’d never tried the other options in the Eraser Tool menu and this seemed like a good time to give it a look. That one with the yellow starburst is called the Magic Eraser Tool and it is indeed magical!

There are some settings that are vital to use with this technique. The Opacity has to be 100%, and all three boxes along the right side of the menu should be checked: Sample All Layers, Contiguous and Anti-Aliasing.

The screenshot says it all… I really did just click on the background and it vanished. (See the new transparent background?)

So then I wanted to play! I have a bunch of Bitmoji images saved to my computer and this one, which is pretty much how I’ve looked the whole month of February, was my next victim.

CLICK!

It was so easy, I wondered what would happen if I tried it on a photo. This one looks like a good choice to experiment with.

Oh. Didn’t expect that!

The tool magically erased some of his t-shirt along with the sky. That’s a limitation – the shadow isn’t enough of a contrast to the sky and Elements couldn’t tell

So I combed through my stock photos for one with more obvious contrast.

Now I’m starting to understand how the tool works. I’m going to need to click on every. single. different. colour. variation. Too much work!

So how about this one? Will it work better?

Not so much.

Maybe this one will work.

Or maybe not. Now I had to see what else I could do that would be smart, not hard, to preserve the stuff I wanted and remove the stuff I didn’t.

I went to the Magic Wand tool to see if it would be quick and easy enough to extract the woman and only the woman.

The marching ants surrounded her hair well enough. So I clicked on Select>Inverse (I lie. You know I went with CTRL/CMD>Shift>I.) to invert the selection… to “select” the background and not her hair.

Now you can see the marching ants around the outside of the photo. Back to the Magic Eraser I went.

Much better! The wisps might be a problem.

I clicked on other areas of the background that were still there.

Not bad! The only fiddly part of this is the wispy hair now.

I wanted to try it one more time, with this crest from one of the radar stations I lived on when I was a kid. It’s a fair representation of the place, I’ll say that! And it has a more detailed edge with that wreath of maple leaves.

One click got rid of most of the background, but left the white in the spaces between the leaves. You can see them along the right side of the screenshot. I’d already clicked a few more times in the spaces to the left side. It only took about a minute to go all the way raound and get rid of the rest of the white background.

Sweet!! I’m not sure what I’ll use this for, and I’m going to see what I can do about wispy hair for a future lesson, but I can feel you chomping at the bit to try this one yourself.

Have fun!!

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

Using the Drag and Drop Feature in Photoshop Elements

February 22, 2019 by

With the release of Photoshop Elements 2015, Adobe introduced a new Drag and Drop feature. This component of Elements is activated when using templates that were created specifically with this feature.

The Drag and Drop feature does work in Photoshop Elements versions 10-14, with limited editing capability. It also works in versions released after Version 15.

The Drag and Drop feature does not work in the full version of Photoshop. Those users can use Drag and Drop templates; however, will need to use traditional clipping masks, just as they would with any template.

You’ve got to see how easy the Drag and Drop feature is to use in order to fully appreciate it! I’ve created a 10-minute video  so you can see for yourself how fun these templates are to use.

If you are inspired to use these templates,  you will find them in my shop.

Karen Schulz/Snickerdoodle Designs

How to Use Drag and Drop Pocket Scrapping Templates

 

Filed Under: Digital Scrapbooking Tagged With: , , ,
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