Silly Face

This uses the new Wild Things bundle (including LD Kracken - "Silly Face" and "winner", LD Wild Child - "Contest" and DB Mutant Trait Doodles - monster after title, labels under photos), DB Forest Friends - journaling arrow, DB Dainty Swirl and LD Soccer Mom. Whew! That's a mouthful.

Other credits: paper is In Living Color from all things visual, ribbon is from Shabby Princess Happy Go Lucky.

A scrappy quilt

Check out this fabulous baby quilt I received as a gift from my sister-in-law.

Is that not one of the cutest blankets you've ever seen? The fabrics are adorable and the quilt is a work of art.

I've noticed there are a lot of similarities in trends for quilt fabric and craft paper. It inspired me to try to blur the lines a little with a layout inspired by this quilt. It was really fun and I used the fonts from the new Jillustration Sweet Nothings bundle.

The title font, LDJ Mac n Cheese, is really neat! Have you ever seen an outline script font like that? Jill, the artist behind Jillustration, really takes the cake with that font. The lowercase letters are the connecting ones, the capital letters are capped on the left side so they can start the word, and you need to type the right bracket ] to cap off the end of the word. So to type the title, I had to type: No], Thanks]. But seriously, it's such a cool result!

Other credits: "I prefer my fingers" in LDJ Jillberish, journaling around the outside in Scrap Casual, Papers from Lettering Delights Denim and Blue Jeans Paper Pack.

Where do you find inspiration for your scrapbook pages and cards?

Christmas in September Winner

Congratulations to Amber from Maryland for this submission to the September challenge!

Christmas in September

Ah, September... the lovely crisp air in the mornings, the ring of the school bell sounds down the street and autumn is fast on it's way. It's the last full month before the beginning of what I call the holiday time warp. You see, once September is over then October is suffused with Halloween, November is building up to Thanksgiving, and BAM, it's already time for holiday decorating, company and neighborhood parties, gift buying, cookie baking and what can be the most time consuming: sending out the holiday greetings.

Which brings me to this month's challenge: Christmas in September (or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or even New Year's). Here's to being ahead of the holiday time warp. Bring on the holiday spirit in cards, scrapbook layouts or other craft projects that use scrapNfonts products. This is a challenge to those of us procrastinators out there.... Post your project in the scrapNfonts idea gallery by September 20th for a chance to win a coupon code for free scrapNfonts product.

Luckily, we have some inspiration from the lovely and inspiring Regina Easter, who is on top of things with this delightful Christmas Card.

For this card Regina used the new SNF Marmalade to write the "Happy Holidays" in the background and Y from DB Retro Noel for the main image.

Fortunately, disorganization can come in handy for this challenge, too. Do you have any old Christmas photos you want to add to your scrapbooking history? Now's your chance. Have at it!

Happy scrapping.

Picture perfect spoon bridge

I'm really starting to like working with frame brushes. The new Film Frame Brush Set at ScrapNfonts is no exception.

Other credits for this layout: LD Remintong Portable, TXT Long Hand and Post Stamp Brushes from ScrapNfonts, flowers and journal strips from Shabby Princess's Harvest Spice, Paper from Wanderlust from Lettering Delights.

p.s. The Post Stamp Brushes are still in the lead, especially when a holiday is involved.

August Challenge winner

We had a good turnout for this month's challenge. Thank you to all who participated. It was fun to see the layouts in the gallery! Here is our winner:

Congratulations to Susan for winning the August Challenge! She has won a $10 coupon code to ScrapNfonts.com.

Thumbelina

I am in love with this card by Allison.

Template anyone?

This month's challenge is a little different, perhaps easier, perhaps harder. Have you worked much with scrapbook page templates? If not, here is your chance to try one out. Today's challenge is to make a project using this template.

There are several options with this challenge. You can either download this template as a photoshop file or a png file and work with the layers in a graphics program you're familiar with, OR you can use the image of the template as a sketch to base a paper project off of. All scrapbook pages or cards based off this template are welcome! You must ALSO use at least one product from ScrapNfonts in your layout. If you don't have any ScrapNfonts products, you are welcome to check out their free fonts, which have recently been switched out.

Click here to download the Photoshop file template

Click here to download the PNG file template

Upload your finished project to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery by August 22nd. The winner will receive a coupon code for free product at ScrapNfonts. Here is a layout I made with this template, to get you started.

The fonts are SNF Jester Fool for the title, SNF Sophia for the handwritten font, and DB Garden Shower to make the cute flowers in the upper right corner. Other credits: Paper from Shabby Princess Spontaneous Delight.

Happy Crafting!

Oh, baby

Finally I got the images to upload! Here is the layout I promised a week ago using the swirly frames.

Other credits: LD Cursive, LD New Arrival, DB Dainty Swirl

Using frame brushes on photos

The new frame brushes over at ScrapNfonts this week have some fun potential! If you've never used brushes before, don't be scared! Each set comes with a brush file for Photoshop and Photoshop Element users, but it also comes with .png images that can be used in virtually any photo editing program (including free programs, like Picasa and Photoscape) and other design programs.

Here's a quick walk-through on using the new frame brushes on photos.

First, let's start with a photo. Which one should I pick... Ah, here's one with the most beautiful baby girl ever (according to a biased new mom, which I whole-heartedly admit I am). This picture is just begging me for a frame.

Next comes the brushes. If you're working in Photoshop, all you need to do is double click on the .abr file, and the brushes will automatically be added to your current list of brushes.

Photoshop tip: If you want access to the brushes through your Photoshop
Library, you can also go to "My Computer", then go to C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [your version]\Presets\Brushes and drop the .abr
file there.

If you're working in a different photo editing or design software, open your photo and the .png you want to use in the program.

Now is the fun, artsy part. Every photo program is a bit different, so take time to play with your program to familiarize yourself with it. If you have Photoshop, select the brush tool, then pick your frame brush, pick the color, scale the brush to the size you want in the Brushes window, hover it over your photo where you want it, then stamp. With other programs, you might have to open a collage option, or copy and paste the .png into the photo.

Here is the photo as if I just layed the .png on top of it.

If your program allows layers, I recommend putting the frame on a different layer than the photo. You can play with frame options better that way. With the frame selected you can adjust the hue (the color) the saturation (the brightness/dullness of the color) or the lightness, OR do a color fill if your program allows.

For this next picture, I set the lightness as high as it would go so the frame is white.

I want a softer look, so I'm going to adjust the opacity on the frame layer to 65%, and this is what I end up with.

Once you have the basics down, you can really set a mood with the right frames and effects. This picture is ready for my blog or facebook, or a scrapbook layout. Hmm... I think a scrapbook layout. I'll keep you updated.

Drumroll please...

With the help of Random.org, we have a winner in our Lettering Delights giveaway! Number 72:

Congratulations Sara Susy Bob, you get to satisfy your digital love! Could you leave a comment with a way for me to get a hold of you, like an email address? I have temporarily set up comment moderation, so no one else will see it. Congratulations, again!

Lettering Delights Giveaway!

The people over at Lettering Delights have been putting in a lot of long hours. They have totally revamped their website with all sorts of new features and products. I think one of my favorite new things is that the site remembers everything I've ever purchased from my account, and I can access it anytime, and save individual images from the "Try Me Now tool." No more downloading! And it will be WAY easier to search on their site than through my messy folders full of other folders of scrapbooking paraphernalia.

One of their divine new collections is the Oriental Garden Collection. I made this from it:

I love those papers, they're totally sazzy zen - if that's possible.

Well, on behalf of Lettering Delights, I am offering $20 worth of product for free to one lucky person! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog and tell me your favorite scrapbooking/crafting tool or supply. (Mine would have to be papers or fonts. I'm totally a sucker for cool digital or printed papers.) Leave your comment by Sunday, August 2nd at 10:00 pm Mountain time, and a winner will be randomly selected and posted on Monday. Happy commenting!

Usurped

In most of my scrapbook layouts, I think it crucial to mark the date. I'm all about the historical documentation. Maybe it makes me feel more important, I don't know. For about a year now, my favorite way to mark the date was with the Post Stamps. Love them! They easily were winning the race in the dating game.

My personal favorite was the middle "Good times" stamp with LD Post. It's irresistible!

But now there's another competitor in the field...

It may take a few more layouts, but I think DB Captured Calendar is trying to usurp the title of Favorite Date Marker. It's pretty close...

Goodness, there's so much design potential there, it makes me giddy!

What do you think?

Photo Tip: Add drama with off-center focus

I love taking pictures that tell a story. So often, it feels automatic to put the subject of a photo in the center of the frame. I've learned that you can add drama and make photos a lot more artistically interesting by putting the subject of your photo off center.

Imagine your frame is cut into thirds vertically, like a tic-tac-toe board. Take the photo so the subject of your photo is in the middle of one of those lines that are cutting the frame into thirds.

If you use automatic focus, put your subject in the center of the frame of the camera, then hold the button down part-way, until it focuses. Then, while maintaining the part-way push of the button, shift the camera so the subject is off-center, then click the button all the way to take the picture.

It makes for a more interesting and more dramatic photo! Try it! You'll look like a pro.

Here is a layout I made using the off-center photo centering technique.

I used Scrap Casual (LOVE this font, it's a current freebie on SNF), LD Carefree Black and DB Weather Doodles

Other Credits: Far Out Posie Paper Pack from Letteringdelights.com.

The power of suggestion

So during the week of the Parade of Products, I posted a blog about how American it is to celebrate food. Well, the next day I saw this pie baking competition for my city's Independence Day celebrations and thinking about how American I would be (and how fun it would be), I decided to try it! I toiled and cooked, and made pie crust from scratch (gasp!) but it was all for naught! I missed the deadline! I was so pleased with how my pies turned out, I decided to scrap about it.

The journaling says this:

When I found out our city hosted an apple pie contest for the 4th of July, I was super excited. I ran to the library and got an apple pie cookbook, then to the store to get all the ingredients. I found out about the contest just a day before the deadline, but I thought I had plenty of time. I started working on the two yummy Cherry Apple pies for my submission the day of the contest. When I was half way through, I realized I had badly misjudged how long it took to make a pie. Holy cow, it took me three and a half hours! So, I missed the contest deadline. On the up side, I had two delicious pies all to myself!

For the title, I used LD Grandpa and LD Petticoat Black. The journaling is LD Grandpa again.

Other credits: Cherrylicious collection, JDT Heartland Pride and JD Flag Post from LetteringDelights.com, background paper is In Living color from allthingsvisual.biz

- Britta