Like, why not scrap Easter in July? :) These are some photos that my parents sent me at Easter from Sweden. My dad, sister and two nieces at my parents' "summer" house. And I really loved scrapping with these bright fun Sassafras supplies :)
[Supplies: Fruitay - Melissa Bennett, Party Pop - Melissa Bennett (both from SSD)]
[Supplies: Fresh Beginnings - Anne deJong, Par For The Course - Kate Hadfield, Template Pack 9 - Kaye Winiecki, Springtime Collaged - Anne deJong (all from The Lilypad)]
(Sorry for the very poor photo of this, the layout does not look straight at all, which it of course is in reality!)
This is what I came up with. The title is a direct copy of Jessica's title and the photos we're some photos of my niece which I was sent the very same morning by mum & dad.
I designed this class as part of my on-line class work for A Trip Down Memory Lane. Please feel free to use these instructions to make your own layout. You are free to link to this page from any forum etc if you wish. Please do NOT copy this information and/or photos to use for your own classes/forums/webpages without permission.
Cut your Kraft cardstock so it’s 1 cm smaller on each edge than your main background (in my case: 19x27,7cm). Round the corners, chalk the edges and create “fake stitching” around the edge using a black pen. Cut the red and green strip from the “Scrap Strips 2” sheet.
Glue the Kraft cardstock in the middle of your layout. Add the red & green strip (chalk edges if you wish) starting 5 cm from the bottom of the layout.
Add your photos, at different heights, to the right of the layout trying to keep the spacing between them even. Then stamp the round scalloped journaling stamp, in red ink, onto some scrap white cardstock. Cut around or use scalloped punch. Journal and attach to the layout using the photo below as a guideline.
Make up your title using a mix of American Crafts Thickers stickers.
Cut out some word strips from the “Scrap Strips 2” paper and put these in the bottom right corner. Add some jewels to the edge of the red & green strip.
Finish by picking a sticker from the Sonoma sheet, add your date on it and place near the top left of your layout.
I hope you enjoyed my class! Wishing you lots of fun creating your own version!
I'm planning on re-reading both the Twilight and the Harry Potter series in the autumn. Well...I probably won't even wait that long actually. I have a few books in line first, but let's say August instead. I have read the Harry Potter series a few times now (in 2 languages) but I'm still itching to read it again...especially after seeing the latest film in the cinema at the weekend.
[Supplies: Little Tea House - Mindy Terasawa, Little Tea House Stickers - Mindy Terasawa (Designer Digitals)]
We went to the cinema yesterday afternoon and watched the new Harry Potter film - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The cinema was super busy and several shows had sold out. We'd originally planned to go to a different cinema but the showing we wanted was completely sold out.
You start off with just a normal photo. Preferably something with a bit of a "big focal point". Something like a landscape photo without a main focal point won't really get the same effect at all...
Then you remove all the colour from the photo and using a layering mask you "paint in/back" the colour on the selected part(s) that you want to have coloured. It's really, really cool. I have done this a few times in the past but not enough to remember how to do it off hand. So again it's a case of being reminded on how to do it before the technique comes back to you. Anyone get a feeling I have said this a few times during the class and maybe, just maybe, I should take some time to practice all these techniques a few times so I don't need to look up how to do it next time? I do!! LOL! It's just finding the time for it...
[Supplies: Scrap Pad Polly Love 2 - Amy Martin, Fun Land - Jaqcue Larsen, Dani Mogstad, Scruffy & Stripey Alphabet - Kate Hadfield, Spring Greens - Kate Hadfield, Cottage Garden - Kaye Winiecki (all from the Lilypad), Border Basics Squares -Libby Weifenbach (from SSD)]
And we then did lots of cool things to it. Going through the things that we'd learnt. Using clipping masks, textures, edge burn...playing with fonts etc. And this is the result:
I love, love, love how my photo (not thinking about the title/text) has turned from a definite photograph look into looking more like a painting! Seriously cool! I'd love to make an effort to practice these steps a bit if I can, because it's the typical thing (so many new steps to learn to get the finished result) that you really won't remember if you don't do it a few more times.
So I totally missed out on doing my class lesson yesterday. I have just caught up with yesterday's lesson this morning and I still have today's to do later. Yesterday was all about "edge burning". I have tried this before using a different technique (and I do like the look of edge burning a lot) but what we learnt yesterday was all new to me. So I really enjoyed this lesson :)
I played around with the edge burning technique both om colour and black & white photos. I think it works well on both types. It's a great technique to use if you have something in the middle of your photo that you really want to stand out and the background, the edges, of the photo is not so important. Of course, if I was going to print my photos I would have gone for a slightly more subtle effect than I have gone for here. But I think it's fun to take things a bit more to the extreme when you're just learning and playing. After all, that's how you learn what is good and what is taking something too far.
First we added a grungy paper texture to our photos. This gave a really nice but subtle effect on the photo that I had picked and I really like it :) The effect is most obvious on the sky part of the photo. Looks a bit like a worn and folded old postcard or something... Then we were adding type to the photo and Jessica included a link to a nice font for us to download. This is where the class ended.
I then decided to add in an extra (faded) brush effect behind my title work just to add that little bit extra. I'm really pleased with how it turned out...
So simple to do, yet it's just finding that little extra time to sit down and play like this...which I guess doesn't happen very often.
I used a very basic flower photo (above) as my start photo and the first step was to convert it to a black and white photo. We were adviced that landscape type photos work best with textures. I guess it's pretty obvious if you think about it - you might not want to add texture to someone's face for example :)
Having added 3 different textures, supplied by Jessica, and then got some ideas for how to play with blending modes and our photos had taken on a totally different look from the originals.
And as a final little bonus, she also supplied us with this cool frame with built in brush effect. I really love the idea of playing a bit more with textures, and I'm sure I will for the odd photo, but I guess it's just finding that time to sit down and do it. Also it's not something that you exactly want to do to most of your photos, just the odd one here and there which it might suit. :)
...and then added a clipping mask which gave it some great grungy effects with cool edges. Pretty subtle but at the same time a really nice option to a standard photo.
Oh and before I go...
[Supplies: Lil' Buggy - Traci Reed, Kristin Cronin-Barrow, Down By The Pond - Lauren Grier, Lliella Designs (both SSD)]
Oh this was fun! Day 3 of the photo editing class by Jessica Sprague and we learn how to add a vintage hand-tinted look to a photo (the frames that I have used have nothing to do with the class at all - just something I added myself).
Using adjustment layers (which is what to do to create this effect) is something that I have done before. But never to a point where I have really learnt in...you know, in a way where I would remember how to do it later. I've kinda done it, followed the instructions and then forgotten it all a few days later. So I really enjoyed this lesson. It's definitely the kind of thing I would like to take more time to learn more about. It's just finding the time in the first place I guess :)
It's not so obvious here because I have had to make the photos rather small to fit well on the blog, but... In real life, working with the full size photos, it's really amazing what a big difference a little tinting etc can make to the general feel of the photo...
Having done this lesson today, I'm really looking forward to what tomorrow's subject might be.
Again the subject is something that I'm already familiar with. I'm not an expert at all, and I would love to learn a lot more about it, but I know the basics for it at least. Rather than using the brush set that Jessica Sprague supplied for the class, I used some brushes that I downloaded a long time ago.
I think it's a fine line between what looks nice and what looks "too much" when it comes to brushes. The photo above definitely have the "too much" look for me. I was going to re-do it, but then I thought it might be a good example of what doesn't really work. :)
The photos that I have used to play with brushes on were taken mid May this year in the Oxford/Cambridge area. The one above and below are taken at a National Trust place. The weather was perfect and we went for some nice long walks :)
Right I'm off as I have some Creative Team assignments to work on...
Some of our pansies had seen better days so I pulled them out of out outside plant pots yesterday and off we went to the local garden centre to get something new. But it was pretty empty and we didn't really spot anything we liked... so we ended up going to a second garden centre and in the end we got this pretty fuchsia...
I've just been out taking these photos, this morning, to use for the first day of class. They fit perfectly, even if I had to recolour the supplied frame a bit to fit with the colours of the photo. I don't really think an orange frame would have looked quite so good :)
...and talking about looking forward to things, I'm also looking forward to Monday. Monday is the start of Jessica Sprague's "Photo Editing: Frame-Ups & Special Effects" class. It's a free two week photo editing class which I'm really excited about :) (I do believe that if you haven't signed up already, it's too late, the free registration was between June 22-28 only - sorry!) Anyone else joining me on this adventure...? :)
[Supplies: Summer Medley - Anne deJong, Messy Paints 2 - Amy Martin, Messy Sprays - Amy Martin, Epoxy Dates - Amy Wolff, Half Ripped Minis - Amy Wolff, The Weekly Gazette - Amy Wolff, Sprayed Alpha & Numbers - Jenna Desai, Rough & Rusty Papers - Jenna Desai, Newsies - Jacque Larsen, Sandy Toes - Kate Hadfield (all from the Lilypad)
I just love this kit by Amy Wolff. Both for the newsprint aspect and for the elements aspect. Flowers always, always works no matter what you do (and yes I totally believe in that you can have flowers on male layouts too!)
Kate's doodle kits. What can I say? They are amazing as always. :) For this BYOC she doesn't have one but two beach related doodle kits. Both equally as good. Also she's brought out a super cute stripey alphabet - go check it out :)
...and finally these great masks by Amy Martin. Great both for photos or as masks for patterned papers etc. So very versatile and useful :)
