Hello & HAPPY MONDAY everyone! ~ Kylie here! :o)  I hope you all had a beautiful weekend…and for those that celebrated Easter, I hope you enjoyed a blessed time with family and friends…and a chocolate egg or two, or maybe more?!  I certainly had my fair share! ;o)

Today I’m here to share the Layout of the Week!…and I’ve picked an absolute beauty!!

Callie by lequipesorbe!

My oh my!!  A truly gorgeous design filling the entire page with HEARTFELT hexagon heaven!  The lovely flower clusters that weave down the page – sooooo gorgeous!!  The title and date details – precious!!  And those photos are as cute as cute can be – especially the middle one…MELT!!! :o)  And the contrasting black and white pics, well – that just adds to the impact this layout makes.  It shines!  Can I say a big WELCOME, and a big THANK YOU, lequipesorbe, for sharing your stunning work in our beloved little gallery.  For your first set of postings you certainly uploaded some outstanding layouts last week…and we can’t wait to see more!  If you want to check out lequipesorbe‘s gallery and say hello…just CLICK HERE!

CONGRATS lequipesorbe!  I’ve just emailed over a $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe…hope you have fun shoppe-ing! (Don’t forget to check your spam/junk mail folders in case you don’t see it.)

A big THANKS to EVERYONE that posted to the Shabby Shoppe Inspiration Gallery last week (it was lots of fun to look through them all…seriously, gem after gem after gem!)…and thanks for stopping by the Blog today, we’re so happy you did!  Kim will be here with you tomorrow with a very special product spotlight and some beautiful scrapping inspiration!

KylieLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Hello everyone!  Are you ready to dig into some scrapping inspiration with me (Rosy)?

When I design a scrapbook layout, usually my goal is to create something that is pretty, fun to create and yet keeps the focus on the photos and the story that they tell.  Have you ever felt like your photos were getting lost on the page?  There are many ways to ensure that your photos are the focal point and I’m going to point out a few of them today using none other than our very own Shabby Princess’ gallery to do so.  (I know that like most of you, I’m happy that SP is using her precious time to design new products for us, but also miss seeing more of her beautiful scrapping.)

~*~ Framing or Matting ~*~
Giving your photos a frame or mat will help them stand out from the rest of the page and not get lost in all of the embellishments. The wider and more contrasting your frame the more your eyes will be drawn to it.  Contrast brings visual appeal to your layouts.

In this layout the contrast of the red frame against the white paper makes the adorable photo quite eye-catching. 

Sometimes we want a main photo to stand out more than the supporting photos and framing works great for that as well.

~*~ White Space ~*~
Having white space on a page gives your eye a place to rest and also emphasizes the photo or grouping of photos.

Having a unique shape to your white space will create even more interest to your page, and this is one of my favorite SP layouts ever!

~*~ Elements ~*~
Your elements (flowers, butttons, leaves, etc…) should support your story and when layered around your photo, they can help draw your eye to the it.

In this layout, most of the embellishments are placed around the photo, giving it more emphasis, even in the midst of lots of color and patterns.

 Even when there are several photos, clustering the elements around them identifies them as the focal point of the page.

I don’t know about you, but I’m totally inspired just by browsing through these beautiful layouts!

Happy scrapping to all of you!  Have a blessed Easter weekend and we’ll be back on Monday with the LOTW!

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hello all :o) …Kylie here with a fun and new TEMPLATE CHALLENGE!  We are now beginning TEMPLATE CHALLENGE 22!  Awesome, hey?! :o)  Well, this template was a joy to put together…I love block designs…and mixing them with little clusters and miscellaneous ’stuff’ scattered throughout…always fun!  This template could easily just be a very clean, ad-style layout (just remove a bunch of the embellishments)…or, you could totally make it a very full and fun page!  I know it might look a little ‘messy’ or ‘busy’ at first glance, but when working with templates, remember that you have full control :o)  You can tweak and edit where necessary!  If you are not a fan of ‘clustering’ or ’scattering’…simply remove/delete a few of those layers.  Of course, if you like more…by all means – ADD, add, add! ;o)  Another way to really change the final outcome of this template, is by your paper selection.  Solid or tonal papers will give it a ‘cleaner’ and ‘calmer’ look…while adding lots of patterned papers and color will add ‘lots of interest’ and ‘busy-ness’!  No matter how you work with template 22 – just have fun…and I’ll be excited to see what you guys come up with :o)

To download…CLICK HERE (or simply click the preview image below)!

Now, let’s go over the GUIDELINES for our template challenges here at the Shoppe?!  Then be sure to keep scrolling for some sweet, sweet inspiration from our talented Shabby Artists!

The ‘deadline’ for this challenge is MAY 6th :o)  We will announce the template challenge winner on May 10th, when we share Template Challenge TWENTY-THREE!  As you probably know, we now announce the winner on the same day we debut a new template challenge.  The ‘winner’ of the challenge will receive a $25 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe!  Please note that for our template challenges… we select the ‘winner’ randomly (via random.org) – so everyone has a chance to win… beginners and experienced scrappers!  It’s a great way to jump in and give digi scrapping (and templates) a try :o)

In order to be entered into the template challenge – you must post your layout in the Shabby Shoppe’s gallery (in the SHOPPE BLOG CHALLENGES gallery) and then post a comment HERE at our blog (on this post only) with a link to your layout in our gallery.  This will enter you into the challenge :o)  Please keep in mind that all layouts must contain at least 75% SP product (purchased or free).  To be eligible for the challenge – you must scrap with the easy-as-pie layered template!

We also have several fun ways for you to obtain ‘EXTRA’ entries to the challenge (please note that in order to qualify for any EXTRA entries – you must first complete a layout with our easy-as-pie template and submit that to our gallery and blog) :o)

• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have one of our blinkies (available by clicking on the blinkies link in the sidebar) either on your blog or in all of your forum signatures (be sure to include a link to your blog or signature in your post).
• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have facebooked or twittered about our template challenge (don’t forget to include the link in your post).
• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have blogged about our template challenge (again, be sure to add your blog link to your post).

So, that means that you have the possibility of entering the challenge up to 4 times!  Just be sure each entry is a separate comment, as we will be using a random number generator to choose the winner.  Be sure to get your entries in by MIDNIGHT (eastern time) on MAY 6th, and again…the winner will be announced in early May (the 10th to be exact)!

So again…here is your newest Easy-As-Pie Layered Template! <–click this to download OR click the preview image at the top of this post :o)

Your download includes:

• 12×12 Layered psd template with drop shadows (you can opt to turn them off or use your own)
• 12×12 Layered TIFF template with drop shadows

In the event this is your first time scrapping with a layered template – SP has created a quick and simple tutorial on how to use our Easy-As-Pie templates in PSE and PS.  You can find it HERE.  We’ve tried to cover the basics, but if you have any questions, please let us know and one of the Shabby Team Members will do their best to answer it.

Time now for that inspiration!

I created two pages using this fab new template!  For this one I took a bit of inspiration from the new Heartfelt collection and some extra Shabby Princess goodies…

…and for my second page – I had too much fun using giggle box and friends!

Kim did an amazing job with her version…just look at all those beautiful details, and cutie-pie photos!

And Casharina’s page is sooo soft and pretty!  Hello Spring perfection!! :o)

How about Jenelle’s awesome birthday layout!  WOW – great use of papers and fun clusters…and what a sweet photo of her handsome lil’ birthday boy!

I love how Rosy rotated the template here…it is hardly recognizable and just goes to show that you can totally tweak and edit the templates to suit your needs (or just to make them stretch for more layouts)!  ADORABLE :o)

Thanks girls! :o)  Now that you’ve had a peek at our pages we so hope you have a blast scrapping your own versions too!  We can’t wait to see your pages hit the gallery!

{ Don’t FORGET to link up to this post only to enter template challenge TWENTY-TWO }

And, last (but soooooo not least) – let’s take a moment to celebrate and congratulate Template Challenge 21’s winner!!  SO FUN!!  The ‘lucky’ number this time was 46…and that means that ShirleyO’s super adorable Christmas Card Photo Shoot layout was selected :o)  How festive and TOTALLY cute is this page – just ADORE it!  Congrats, ShirleyO…you should have received a $25 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe in your email box (be sure to check spam folders) this morning…HAVE FUN shoppe-ing, and thanks for joining in the challenge with us!  It goes without saying…but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to say it for the millionth time, LOLOL – THANK YOU to everyone who joined in the template challenge fun!

Again, have heaps of fun with this month’s challenge!  We hope to see you back here tomorrow when Rosy shares a little scrapping goodness that’s sure to inspire!!  Bye for now! :o)

KylieFree (not desktops), Template Challenges, Uncategorized 35 Comments

Hello blog readers!  It’s Kim here today with a tips and tricks post inspired by a couple of questions from…YOU! I’ve noticed some comments left on the blog and in the gallery with questions about how a certain custom shape was made.  And that has led me to write this post today about a couple of the ways I use the magic wand and magic eraser.  I won’t cover even close to all that these tools can do, but I hope that these little tricks will help you as you work with shapes in your layouts.

First of all, let’s look at two of the questions that inspired this post.  The first was a question about this lovely beach layout by Jenelle:

I see banners being used a lot in layouts right now.  And here Jenelle has taken a banner from SP’s Goosebumps kit and modified it with papers from the Summer Cottage kit.  It looks great, right?  So… how could you do that?

The second layout that inspired this post is from Rosy.  She made this beautiful ad-inspired page:

One of things Rosy mentioned about her layout was that she got the inspiration for the notched corners from an ad.  I love those corners.  They turn an average square photo into something special.  So… how could you do that?

Let’s see if we can get answers to those questions now! Let’s start with the banner in Jenelle’s layout.  Here’s what I would do to recreate it:

• Open up the banner from Goosebumps and copy it into another file.  (I prefer not to alter elements in the original file.  If I were to accidentally save it, it would overwrite the original element.)
• Select the magic wand tool.

• Click on the grey portion of the banner that you would like to cover with a patterned paper.  The magic wand will select the area that is grey.  The portion that the magic wand has selected will have a blinking line around it now.  Holding the mouse over the selected area, right click and you will see the options of “Layer via Copy” and “Layer via Cut”.  Select the one you would like.  (I used “Layer via Copy” for mine, and I’ll explain it more below.)  You will now see a new layer that includes only the area that you selected with the magic wand.

• Open the patterned paper that you would like to insert into the banner, and clip it to the new layer you created (ctrl-alt-g in my version of Photoshop).
• You can add blending options to the original banner layer (Jenelle added a color overlay to make her outline blue and a drop shadow).
• Once you have the banner the way you would like, merge all the layers (you can find that option under the layers menu at the top). Now you are ready to copy your new banner into a layout!

:::there are a couple of other things you should know about the *magic wand*:::

• What’s the difference between “Layer via Copy” and “Layer via Cut”?  The first will copy the selected area as a new layer, but the original layer still keeps the selected area – you’re only making a “copy” of it.  Layer via Cut will make the selected area a new layer, and the original layer will not have the selected area any more – creating a “cut out” effect in the original layer.  For this banner, I chose Layer via Copy because I did not want the banner to have a cut out effect.  I wanted to be able to apply blending options to the original layer without worrying about the drop shadows looking funny.
• Another important thing to know about the magic wand is the option of selecting contiguous pixels or not.  When you have the magic wand selected, there is an option on the top bar for this.  In this case, if contiguous is selected, you will only be selecting one of the grey triangles (because you’re only selecting the grey area that is touching).  If you unclick the contiguous option, you will be selecting all of the grey triangles (because it selects all of the grey color in the layer).  In my example, I unclicked contiguous and have one layer with all the grey triangles to clip the patterned paper to.  If you wanted to do like Jenelle did and use different papers in the triangles, just make sure contiguous is selected.  You’ll repeat the steps for each triangle and have separate layers for each triangle that you can clip different papers to.

Now onto Rosy‘s layout! When I look at the notched corners in this layout, I think of it as a square with the corners “cut out”.  So how can I make a square and then cut out the corners?  I’m sure there are other ways, but here’s what I did:

• Draw a square using the shapes tool.

• Draw a circle using the shapes tool that is the size you want to cut out of the corner of the square.  Make this circle a different color than the square.
• Duplicate this circle three times so you have four of them to cover each corner of the square you want to notch.
• Line up the circles and the square where they intersect in the places you want to cut out of the square.  This is hard to explain, so please see below in my example!

• Select all the layers and merge them (this option is found in the layers menu).
• Now it’s time to select the magic eraser.  Again, this tool has a lot of options I’m not discussing here, but for our example you don’t need to know those options.  The simple version of how the magic eraser works is that it will erase the color you select by clicking on it.  Like the magic wand, you can erase only the contiguous area of color, OR you can unclick the option to erase all of the selected color in the layer.

• Click in one of the circles, and the circles will disappear. (If you have contiguous selected, you will have to click in each circle)
• What you have left should be a square with notched corners!  You are ready to copy this layer into a layout and use it however you would like!

Although these are two very specific examples, you can use these tricks to create and modify many shapes.  Of course, there are a lot of custom shapes that you can find and purchase to use.  SP has a set of custom shapes that I use often in the Shoppe.  But using the magic wand and magic eraser gives you the ability to create some of your own!  I hope this has helped some of you and I would love to hear your comments and see your layouts using these tips and tricks.  And a big thanks to Jenelle and Rosy, who let me share their layouts again as examples!

That’s it for today, but be sure and stop by the blog tomorrow as Kylie announces the winner of the latest template challenge.  Another challenge is about to start…. number 22, can you believe it??  Have a great day!

KimTips and Tricks, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hello everyone!! :o)  Kylie here and I’m just dropping by to let you know that SP is putting all her favorite Spring/Easter products on SALE (for a limited time)!  So please head on over to the SHOPPE…it’s only a click away!…and check all these pretties out!  Especially if you have plans to scrap any seasonal layouts soon, need to find some adorable ‘treat apparel’  and/or ‘hybrid projects’ to make gift-giving easy and economical for you, or need some piece-a-cake album options.  Here are a couple of peeks at what’s on offer…

Can’t get much sweeter than the Sprout and Spring Confection Collections…or can it?!

The Blossom and Barefoot collections plus all their piece-a-cake album sets just scream spring goodness!! :o)  But that’s not all…so be sure to check out what else is on sale!  And even though the leaves are starting to turn autumnal shades down here in Australia, I can’t help but love all these pretty, pretty Shoppe goodies…any time of year!!  Hope you do too!

So, that’s it for today!  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week…and that it is full of SUNSHINE and HAPPINESS!  Join us here tomorrow as Kim shares some valuable digi-scrapping tips & tricks! :o)

KylieShoppe News, Uncategorized 1 Comment