Dashing and da Punch :D
Posted on | November 30, 2007 | 2 Comments
I received my SU order the other day and I just had time to play with it. What did I come up with? After a good 30 minutes (yeah, a long *** time, creative block, really), here’s what I got:
You can’t see the paper piercing on the scalloped paper. But they were pierced. I like how the embossing is making the card sparkle a bit. I think the next card I make I’m going to add some sparkles to it. I’m not big on sparkles but I should try something new.
Creating a Watermark in Photoshop
Posted on | November 29, 2007 | 4 Comments
Ok, so there are many tutorials on how to create a watermark but I haven’t found one that’s really clear from just reading it or a video that has what I want to show you. Plus I just installed this new software at work and thought I’d try it out really quick on something fun.
You’ve seen those fancy girls (I love those fancy girls, btw :)) on SCS’s gallery or blog where they have their card and their fancy signatures on the top, right corner, left top, etc. Watermarking is not just for signatures but also for photographers or anybody who wants to protect their work or give some sort of disclaimer. If you’re ever wondering how to do that, well here’s the scoop:
First there are many ways of doing this, first from the manual mode to the more fancy Photoshop action. But my favorite is by creating a brush and then reusing this over and over and over and over again where ever I want. So, although this tutorial is on how to create a watermark, you’ll also learn how to create a brush! How nice is that :D
Let me explain a few things. Since my end goal is to create a brush, in my example I started out the process by creating a new file with the following settings:
Since it’s only going to be for the web, the 72 resolution is fine and for a brush, the Grayscale color mode is just dandy. You can’t make a colored brush anyways. The darker your brush the darker or harder or the more prominent your brush will be, the grayer/whiter/with some sort of color your brush the lighter your brush will be. I’m using gray for this video but usually when I make a brush I use black or #000000. Also, I set my width to 640 pixel. The reason why is because I’m showing you two different ways of saving and reusing your watermark image. For the first method, it’s important that you create your watermark using the right size. For a brush, it’s more flexible since you can increase and decrease a brush size easily.
NOTE: To create a brush for digital scrapbooking, make sure that your resolution is set to 300 dpi, this way you can have a brush stroke that covers your whole 12×12 page.
Also, although the video was created using PS CS3, you can use the same method for Elements and previous versions of Photoshop. CS3 does look a lot different than the older versions but in essence I was just using the regular menu options and layers.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions!
The Holiday Season
Posted on | November 27, 2007 | 3 Comments
I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was quite nice: fun and relaxing with the family.
Now our favorite holiday is coming up, Christmas. It’s not all about the presents but it’s all about the atmosphere and that during this time, we somehow think less of us and more of others that we love. This year we decided to buy less but do more and even our little girl was on the same wave length as us. Here’s what we asked Emma, she’ll be 4 in February:
Mom: What do you want from Santa, Emma?
Emma: A pink sleeping bag, a pink cash register, and a pink laptop
M: Is that it?
E: Yes, I need to share with the other kids
M: That’s nice Emma, it’s nice for you to share and not want everything
E: Uh uh
M: What do you want from mom and dad?
E: I want mommy and daddy to buy something for another little girl that has no toys
Ok, how can you beat that? We’ve asked her over and over again the last few weeks and it’s the same answer. Now ever year, ever since I had my first real job actually, I have a habit of picking a child off the angel tree. One year I didn’t because my work decided to adopt a family and I took responsibility for the gift of one of the child, but besides that, it’s a habit I’ve always had. This year was different though, Emma was really into picking out the little tag, asking me who the child was and what he/she wanted, and deciding on one. So this year we’re going to shop together for a nice package for this 18-mo-old that we picked out.
We’ve done all sort of different things throughout the year to help others. We don’t do yard sales, we’d donate our clothes and toys to either the church or the Big Brothers Big Sisters. Even Emma will go through her toys and clothes and she’ll put a bag together herself. The same with furniture, we’d take them to the Salvation Army. We donate dry goods to the local food pantry and help the United Way or Children’s Miracle Network. This year we found some other ways of helping, and spreading the ways we donate, and you can see that in our Charities link.
I know that we’ve had one year where we spent thousands of dollars on presents, I know one year at 7 mo pregnant I was pushing a 6 speaker system Onkyo system into the house, but those were the days. Christmas isn’t about how much we buy but it’s about Jesus’s birth. This is something that we need to work on with Emma since Jesus is not at all in the picture, it’s just Santa and gifts right now. But at least she’s got the giving idea right.
Hope you can share your blessings and joy with others who are less fortunate. I don’t need that extra stamp set, the $25 can go to Kiva.org :D
See You Next Week!
Posted on | November 20, 2007 | 3 Comments
I’m going to be offline for a few days, or if I am online, it’ll just be to check my email really quick. I want to spend this time with my little family and being thankful that we are alive, healthy, together, and blessed in many ways.
I did make a quick card last night but I can’t remember what stamp set it is and for some reason I didn’t stick the sticker on. But for this, I think any simple geometric stamps will do the trick.
The card’s super easy to make. I used Real Red on White paper and glued the size 40 beads. I thought I was going to have to sew them on but the glue, the Stampin Up liquid glue, really did the trick. I am going to make a few of these for my friend who is a minimalist for her whatever cards — just blank cards.
I think I’m coming to a conclusion that I’ll never be those fancy dancy artsy fartsy card or scrapbooker. My layout or designs are usually very simple or if I do get a bit complicated there’s still a lot of white space. I guess it’s just the way I am and maybe I’ll change and maybe I’ll stay the same. Who knows. I’m quite happy with most of what I’ve done but have been unhappy with projects where I try to be more complicated or more fancy than what I’m used to or what I can do.
Crimped Love
Posted on | November 17, 2007 | 4 Comments
Well, I’m trying to be creative. I was going to try a challenge from Splitcoast but I ended up making this. There’s one thing that really bugs me on this card, that it’s crooked. When I was folding the paper, I wasn’t very consistent so it’s sloping down a bit. But I figured that it’s my first time and it is handmade, that the little imperfection should make the card more unique, ha! I might be right or I’m just trying to talk myself into liking it and not worry about the crookedness of the crimped paper.
For the XOXO, I cute (eyeballed it) some thin strips and cut that into the length that I want my X to be, I think for the X it’s about an inch. For the O just wrote the letter O for about the size that I want, cut, and used my bigger paper puncher for the center hole.
Hope you enjoy!
All material are from Stampin’ Up!:
Cardstock: red, brown, 2007 wasabi and light blue, and white
Ink: red and black
Accessories: red, chocolate chip, and black gingham ribbon and hemp
keep looking »
