Sitting Pretty

Whew - it feels like forever since I've scrapped - which isn't true - as I've been scrapping for my MoM club, but it doesn't feel the same because it isn't my kiddos smiling out of the page at me.

This one took a bit longer of course trying to get back in the swing of things - I got stuck trying to add a title and finally decided that maybe it just didn't need one after all.

This photo is just one of those sweet ones that makes me smile every time it comes up on my screen saver - the girls had just learned to sit without toppling over, and they looked so adorable in their little blue jeans. I finally used this kit I bought in April, but of course had to fiddle with it and deconstruct some of the bottom cluster, so some creative erasing and then using parts & pieces for the frame.



Kit - Bleu from the April Lucky Dip by Tracy Ann Digital Art
Font - Jane Austen

Template by Scraps from Sarah Belle Kit - Kayleigh's Kaleidoscope by Flergs	Template - Cookie Decorating #46 at Sweet Shoppe Designs Kit - Haute Spring by Zoe Pearn
Template by Yin Designs Kit - A Walk in the Park by Amy Sumrall Fonts - Kid Print, CK Journaling
Template by Yin Designs Kit - Happily Ever After by Kay Miller & Mary Fran Font - CK Journaling	Template by Yin Designs Paper from Colors of Cancun by My Digital Addiction (Joanna Cinnamon)

Love Your Smile

It's not often that I use only one kit for an entire LO - fortunately it worked out in this case. That's three LOs I've gotten out of this kit, so I'd say it was worth the cost. I did this LO for this week's scraplift challenge at the digichick.

Thought I'd share a few tips in case you hadn't run across them elsewhere yet. For the date text that is on the curve of the curve I used a text template since PSE doesn't do text on paths. But then I also changed the blending mode for the text to overlay which made it blend into the background paper - changing the opacity would have given similar results I'm sure. Blending modes are a neat thing to try if you haven't already.

For the labels I used the Embossing Tape font, but it's flat looking, so I used the emboss filter. I haven't figured out how to get it to be any color besides gray when I do this so I have to recolor the text when I'm done, but I like how it looks.

For the word smile, I found a new font - Soopafresh at dafont, typed in the text, simplified the layer and then covered it in a paper from the kit. Since it was also dotty like the white paper and I had the text exactly where I wanted it before I clipped the paper, the dots from the black & white papers match up exactly - I thought that was a cool effect. Then I added a drop shadow and a simple outer bevel to give it dimension.








Page Idea from Sweet Child of Mine by Kalli at the digichick
Kit Happily Ever After by Mary Fran
fonts - Problem Secretary, Embossing Tape, Soopafresh

Now for the conclusion of From a Little Baby. I won't make you wait any longer to get the final pieces, they are all here - Part 4, the Template and the Add-On. The Add-On includes some word art & an alpha. I've set the template up to be super flexible, so I hope it helps you track your child's growth. The size labels are available in 3 different fonts, and if you do a 2 page LO it will go from birth to 10 years.

Thanks for the comments - I can't wait to see some LOs!







Pick up Part 4 of From a Little Baby HERE (other 3 parts are available in previous posts)
Pick up the Add-On to From a Little Baby HERE
Pick up the From a Little Baby Template HERE

The number of downloads has dropped by about a 100 with each part, so there should only be about a handful that get these last two pieces. Interestingly to me, part 1 keeps getting more downloads each day, but not the others hmmmm???

Stayin' Cool at the Pool

This LO was inspired by the weekly scraplift challenge at The Digi-chick. Somehow have a deadline makes me more creative.

Challenges are aptly named it seems, in addition to getting me to create another LO, they also challenge me to learn new things - this week I was able to use the Distort-> Polar Coordinates to turn straight ric-rac into circular ric-rac, the trick is to make sure your object is 200% taller as somehow it shrinks when it turns into a circle. I haven't been able to really make it work with text yet. I'm also really pleased with the gel action that makes it look like there is water sploshes on the paper - at least I hope it looks that way to everyone else.








Page idea from I Love U by Jennilyn at The Digi-Chick
Kit Happily Ever After by Mary Fran
Stitching by Natali
Flowers from Funky Flowers by Flergs
Ribbons from Straight Set by Natalie Braxton
Split Splat Brush by Stephanie Shimerdia (obsidian dawn)
Graph Overlay from Basics Overlays by Pton Designs
Grunge Overlay from Grungy Overlays by Misschifis Scraps
Actions - gel by Atomic Cupcake
fonts - CAC Norm Heavy, Retro Rock Poster, CK Ali's Writing

Who Are You?

Bet you can't tell that this was a 3 nighter LO - yep, that's how long this one took. I found this great LO to scraplift and first tried to create the whole look from scratch. My scalloped edge action from Atomic Cupcake wasn't working right, so I spent a long time trying to find scalloped templates, and even after I bought some they didn't give me the look I wanted - so in the end I bought the Happily Ever After kit and it is quite fun.

So on day two I customized the striped paper to make it coordinate better with the hats, modified the border and the scalloped circle - just to go back to the original in the end - and spents hours trying to create flowers to go on the swirly. The kit came with flowers, but they just weren't tropical enough. I ran actions galore on some flower shapes that came with PSE, and finally created some that were passable, but I still wasn't pleased, they just looked normal, not like the tropical flowers on the hats.

So the search for custom shapes to download started and after much hunting I finally found some, then struggled to get them copied to the right folders. I think I did have it figured out, but didn't know it as the shapes are not in the shape menu but in the Artwork & Effects. I finally ended up using Graffi's Add-o-Matic, and for once it actually worked properly, which is how I discovered that I did have them in the right spot, but wasn't looking for them in the right place once I opened the program. So once I found a flower I liked and cut it apart to be able to create a 3D look, I ran some actions and put it all back together with drop shadows and the final result is more of what I was after.

I also played around with the texturizer and learned that you can create different layers in the filters area - now I'm starting to understand a little more about how the designers play around with the filters, the blending modes & brushes to make some of their papers. But I think the whole following a path that photoshop has would be critical. So for now I'll create a solid color background paper and leave the rest up to the "professionals". I might have to invest in some paper textures from ScrapGirls though. I did find the notepaper texture and discovered that it will take the background color and use that for the notepaper texture which is nice
touch for something different than canvas or linen.

Then for a journaling block - ended up just using a preloaded shape in PSE - it's from the crop shapes, but I'm hoping it looks like paint.









Page Idea from Cherish These Moments by MizAmyLou at the digichick
Background Paper from Tomboy by Angie Briggs
Other Papers & Elements from Happily Ever After by Mary Fran and Kay Miller
Stitches by Natali
Flower Shape by Scrap Stew Sue
Actions - Enamel by Atomic Cupcake
Font - CK Ali's Writing, 2 Peas Hot Chocolate

read some lovely comments from Sue here