How did Ms M do that?

Happy Times

2009-11-26T23:09:00.002-05:00

Happy Times

After lifting a number of these types of LOs I finally decided to try one on my own. There was tons of blending and using soft and hard light on layers, but the two things that are hard to see are that I put a sun burst underneath all the elements with only half of it on the page - radiating out to the middle of the page with opacity lowered to where it just brightened up the blue background. And then I put the bubble over the black and white photo to give it more of an ornament look. Both are elements in the kits that I used. They were SussieM's Happy Island and Take me to the Old World.

The quiet path...

2009-11-22T22:11:00.005-05:00

The quiet path...

I took this photo a couple of years ago when we were lucky enough to all spend some time together. Finally I found a kit to use it with. After I extracted the photo I made four copies of it. Bottom copy was hard light and the top three are soft light. Then I played around with opacity to get the feeling I wanted with the background paper. The light for the lamp is several copies all soft light with again opacity played with. Several of the elements in the cluster are also soft lighted. I made the frame by taking another background and cutting it out. To make it darker I used the burn tool - set at 50% and burned until I liked the color. There are three kits used here, Take me to the Old World - one each by SussieM, Lily Designs and Lotta Designs as well as freebies found on their blogs.

Autumn

2009-11-21T12:30:00.002-05:00

Autumn

This was just an assortment of elements and clusters. I did change the color of the word art by clicking on the lock transparency and then coloring with my brush. Also, made that layer soft light and lowered the opacity. Gave some of the single elements some soft drop shadows as well. Most of my time was spent trying to get the various parts of the LO to look the right depth through sizing. Kits used are Take me to the Old World by Lily Designs and Cozy Kit by Jofia Devoe.

By the Sea

2009-11-20T22:39:00.003-05:00

By the Sea

This one is very simple. A groupie with a couple of element additions. Photo in background is blended using soft light and the erasing around the edges with a soft eraser set at about 35% opacity. Font is Water Street.

This Moment

2009-05-06T22:58:00.002-04:00

This Moment

I just love the beach and I'm always looking for good beach kits. So when I saw Sea Side and the matching kit Playing with Overlays 5 by Natali Designs I just had to have them. I will be using these kits for other LOs and I may even scraplift something using this kit because I'm way behind on that resolution at the moment.

Age One

2009-03-22T22:16:00.002-04:00

Age One

Another lift for practicing! I used Lullaby by Birgit Kerr. I lifted the first example LO with a couple of minor changes. Ran the photo through the PhotoBlast Midnight Color Pro and made the title with Atomic Cupcakes Acrylic Action. Links for both on left side of this blog.

Easter '05

2009-03-17T07:51:00.004-04:00

Easter '05

This is a scraplift of an example given for this kit where it is for sale. (Click on the 9th page after the pop-up window appears.) The kit is The Grass is Green II by Jofia Designs. I'm trying to continue my scraplifting in order to add to my style...

Lovee Maxine

2009-02-20T20:24:00.001-05:00

Lovee Maxine

This LO just looks like a black blob in the gallery, but there's really alot going on and I'm looking forward to printing it. I extracted the kitty and since she was sitting on a tan floor I had a light outline going around part of her. So I used the burn tool around the edges until I got rid of the faint tan color. Other than that I was a matter of arranging elements and then working with the opacity!

Believe in love...

2009-02-16T22:49:00.003-05:00

Believe in love...

First thing was to fix the photo which was very overexposed. I played with the Enhance, adjust lighting, shadows/ highlights. And then I worked a little with the levels as well to bring back the facial features. After that I lowered the opacity on the photo to let the rays element show through just a touch. I also lowered the opacity on the red charm drop and the swirl of dots. The clock element I changed the layer blend mode to overlay and then duplicated it two more times and lowered the opacity on the top one until it looked the way I wanted it to.

Last days of fall...

2009-02-13T13:46:00.002-05:00

Last days of fall...

Took this photo and thought to myself that I'd probably never use it... but the colors just seemed to go so perfectly with the kit... Only thing that I did special to this LO was to lowered the opacity of the striped paper in the oval frame. Gave the LO a richer feel and made the photo pop more.

What lies inside...

2009-02-13T13:40:00.002-05:00

What lies inside...

Changed the little photos to black and white using the enhance option. Did that so that they would match because he was wearing a green pair of overalls. With the main photo I used the lasso tool with feathering set at 100. Drew around what I wanted to keep, inversed the selection and hit the delete key. Then I played with the opacity until I was happy. Also lowered the opacity on the vine frame a tad.

Time for love...

2009-02-05T22:22:00.002-05:00

Time for love...

First thing I did here was to make the ribbons under the red threaded ribbon out of the papers. I also put the white background paper under the blue one and lowered the opacity on the blue. Then I made the blue ring frame out of the blue background paper. Everything else was a matter of lowering opacity and adding drop shadows.

Maxine

2009-02-03T19:43:00.002-05:00

Maxine

First thing that I did on this LO was to extract Maxine's ear outside of the circle frame. I made an extra third layer of the photo on the bottom that I left color and then I made the top two layers black and white. Then I erased the kitty's face on the two black and white layers. This got rid of an annoying yellow color that was behind the kitty while still keeping the color of the kitty. I also did the double layer trick on the fish bowl and erased where the ladder was in front of the bowl.

Dream big...

2009-02-02T15:33:00.003-05:00

Dream big...

I added the tree to the background by changing the blending mode to Luminosity and then lowering the opacity. I also lowered the opacity on the scattered flowers and the leaf wreaths. Other than that I added elements and drop shadowed them to taste.

Imagination

2009-02-01T18:31:00.002-05:00

Imagination

This was fun to make! Things that I did on this one. First I added shadow on the blue background where the floor meets the wall by burning. I used a pretty big brush and put the opacity at around 2o something. I did two strokes arcoss the background where the floor meets and then one stroke across just above that. But you can eye it so that it looks good to you. I also lowered the opacity on the word art and I put the mouse into the balloon. The bubbles I made gradually smaller as they go up the page to give the impression that they were further, blowing away.

Maxine

2009-02-01T17:50:00.002-05:00

Maxine

First I took a photo of myself and placed it over the background using blending mode Soft Light. Then I took the heart element and made the red mesh using Atomic Cupcake's Mesh effect. I also lowered the opacity on the word art. Other than that I just placed the elements and added the drop shadows.

Dream little one...

2009-01-26T18:03:00.003-05:00

This one uses tons of blending into the background and then shadowing the elements that are being blown by the wind... I used two kits by NewLife Dreams. Dream Little Mouse and The Invisible World.

All you need is love...

2009-01-20T18:53:00.002-05:00

This is pretty much a direct scraplift of the Sydney example LO for the kit All you need is love by Natali Designs. There is just an amazing amount of detail in her LO too...

Heavenly Max

2009-01-18T20:44:00.003-05:00

Heavenly Max

The only interesting thing that I did with this kit was to combine two of the partial flowers together to make them one. I also did a lot of element interacting by making two layers of an element and putting another element inbetween them and erasing the desirable places on the top layer of the two... Then you add the shadow to the bottom layer of the pair...

Max's balloon ride...

2009-01-16T17:39:00.003-05:00

Another kit that I bought used... this time I looked through the scrapbook site's gallery and then tried to make my own LO. Used a couple of ideas from what I saw of course! The kits are The Innocent Imagination by Jofia Devoe and In the Pixie Forest by Nicole Young. You may notice that I also used Jofia's kit to make my current blog background too!

A new look!

2009-01-13T14:53:00.002-05:00

I tried out a new background for the blog here! And I have put the link under tools for where to go to get this blog background as well as a couple more. You can visit the Nicole link for the backgrounds and the tutorial for how to customize your own blog. I will probably tinker around and make my own background shortly, but for now I'm just happy to have this up and running.

2009-01-12T17:35:00.002-05:00

Some more kits that I have "collected" used in a LO... yay! This time I used Madeleine, Heaven Sent and Sweetness all created by Birgit Kerr. I was inspired by/lifted one of her quick pages found here. The quick pages are in 8x8 and I wanted to keep my 12x12 size, plus I just love this style and wanted to try to copy it. I also used Meryl Bartho's overlay for the antiqued look on the background.

New challenge...

2009-01-10T20:11:00.002-05:00

Yep... a new year and a new challenge to myself. I've been wanting to add to my style so I've challenged myself to take a kit that I love and then to scraplift or be inspired by a LO that I find made with the kit. I started with Thoughts by MK Designs. The LO I was inspired by is located here. I'm very excited by the idea of getting a new direction in my scrapping style!

Mason '98

2008-08-17T20:39:00.002-04:00

Mason '98

I cut the brown cardboard background paper using the tear frame as a guide. Then I cut the strips for under the photo just by using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Other than that it was a matter of arranging the elements.

Max '98

2008-08-17T19:34:00.002-04:00

Max '98

This one really is straight forward - all a matter of arranging elements. Only exception is that I lowered the opacity on the leaf stamps and the blue within the bracket frame so that it didn't blend into the blue on the frame itself.

Mason and Julie

2008-08-17T16:45:00.002-04:00

Mason and Julie

It's been a long time since I put this LO together but I know that I used one of the photoblast effects that lowered the saturation on the two photos. Then I put a copy of the original photo underneath and lowered the opacity on the filtered one until I got the amount of color that worked with the kit. I also lowered the opacity of the pink background paper on top of the QC white frames until I got a less patterned look. Other than that I lowered the opacity on the tabs and changed around the QC a bit in order to use the elements in the kit.

Dare to dream

2008-07-04T20:33:00.002-04:00

Dare to dream

First thing I did was to filter the photo - I believe that I used Photoblast Color Wash Pro. But the idea was to tone down the bright colors in the photo to match the more muted colors in the LO. Then I cut the strip out of one of the background papers. Feed the star strip through the heart cutout by making two copies of the star element and putting the heart cutout inbetween. Then I erased the part I wanted on the top star element and added drop shadow to the bottom one.

Looking cool....

2008-07-04T20:23:00.004-04:00

Looking cool...

This was such a fun template to play with. I cut the swirls out of one of the background papers. And the other things I did on this one was to lower the opacity on the "wish" button and put a dark blue stroke on the font to make the yellow pop a little better.

In front of the Spamalot sign

2008-07-03T17:46:00.002-04:00

In front of the Spamalot sign

To make this LO I did a fair amount of lowering the opacity or blending. First of all the star background paper had its opacity lowered and then I cut a piece of the darker background and lowered the opacity of the photo on top of it. I also lowered the opacity on the brown paper in the blue circle. I used the create warped text font tool to make the journaling inside the circle. Other than that I just arranged the elements after making the squares to frame everything on.

Playing Monopoly

2008-07-03T16:46:00.003-04:00

Playing Monopoly

Okay... this one was pretty much putting the elements into place. I wanted to do a LO with the large flowers and the photo smaller. I'd seen some like it in galleries. I also lowered the opacity on the shadow flowers in the background and the leaves and the smaller ladybug in order to make the yellow and white flowers stand out more.

Summer '95

2008-06-09T21:40:00.002-04:00

Summer '95

This one is very straight forward. The only thing that I did other than arrange elements was to make the glitter frame a little larger so that the really heavy edge isn't seen on the page... then I also lowered the opacity of it just a smudge. I also picked the color for my journaling text from the green glitter too, making it just a touch darker.

So fun...

2008-06-09T21:28:00.002-04:00

So fun...

Yikes! I hate falling behind! I decided to try to catch up on the challenges and now I'm behind on blogging and everything else!! Anyway.... I'll try to catch up over the next couple of days here! First off, I used two copies of the photo with the heart in between. Extracted the top of my son's head in front of the heart. There were some spots of the blue high chair still in his hair so I used the clone tool to make them the same color as his hair. Then I put a copy of the bling swirls on either side of the ribbon that I cut out of the pink paper and erased the ones on top that I wanted to look behind. Other than that I lowered the opacity on the little journaling tag.

Christmas '95

2008-05-27T23:11:00.002-04:00

Christmas '95

First I used Photoblast Sun Kissed Pro effect on the photo and I applied the paint by light feature twice on Mason. I then rotated the swirly element, lowered the opacity on it and added the flowers. Then I cut the background papers, using the templates and added the star overlay just under the side circles. I added drop shadows to everything except the swirly element and the butterfly.

Under the Vegas Sign...

2008-05-27T22:49:00.002-04:00

Under the Vegas Sign...

This LO was very straight forward. Mostly finding the elements to go together, tried to stay with the same designer for most of them. I did cut the circle out of the blue paper and then enlarged it slightly and lowered the opacity of it behind the circle frame. And I used a slight stroke on the journaling so that it was easier to read.

Katie and Margo '84

2008-05-21T17:55:00.002-04:00

Katie and Margo '84

I used a quick click I picked up on the internet so this was just a matter of picking which papers to use for each part of the LO. Stayed with the same designer when I went looking for additional papers. I also had to fix the photo because it was an old scanned one. Used the healing brush tool to remove the few dust particles. And I made the button to go into the center of the flower so that it was a little more different than the other flower that I used.

Killer Rabbit

2008-05-21T17:45:00.002-04:00

Killer Rabbit

First I used the Quick Selection tool to extract my son and the rabbit - I'm really getting to like that new feature of PSE6! Then I doubled the photo layer and put the frame in between them and erased what I needed to on the top layer. Then I doubled the vine/heart swirly element and put the top layer of the photo between it and erased what I needed to around the rabbits ear on the top layer swirly layer. Other than that I lowered the opacity on the elements in order to make the flowers noticeable. They were getting lost with everything that was going on in the LO.

Blackie

2008-05-18T21:59:00.002-04:00

Blackie

I began by selecting the bracket photo mat and then I cut the photo out of the selection. For some reason the result was rather transparent so I ended up making three of them to make the photo look normal. Then I made another copy of the bracket mat and rotated it a bit. Then I made the one behind the photo just a little larger. I put one of the backgrounds over the embossed one and erased around and behind the photo. The transition between the embossing and the regular paper was a little too abrupt so I made another copy of the erased layer and lowered the opacity until I liked the effect. Other than that I flipped the vine element horizontally and put them together and arranged the elements into the cluster.

My Garden

2008-05-16T13:54:00.002-04:00

My Garden

First thing I did was to make two copies of my photo and then put one under and one over the frame. Then I used the Quick Selection Tool to select the flowers on the top photo layer. Took some work using the plus and minus to get what I wanted and I worked my way around the photo - deleting sections as I went. Then I cut the bottom photo to fit under the frame. I usually link those three layers once I finish the extraction just to be safe. The background papers I blended the plain one on top of the diamond one because the diamonds by themselves were just too busy looking to me and competed with the flowers. Other than that I just sized and arranged the elements.

Cherish these moments

2008-05-12T21:13:00.002-04:00

Cherish these moments

First I made the border by selecting the square and then hitting the delete key on the brown paper layer. After that I made two copies of the flowers and placed on of them under the frame and one on top. Because of the heavy shadow on the element I ended up erasing all of the top layer except where it went over the frame on the edge. Other than that I lowered the opacity on the circle under the flowers and arranged the elements slightly tilting things so that they weren't so lined up...

Angel Max

2008-05-11T22:56:00.002-04:00

Angel Max

First I extracted Max from his photo. PSE6 has a nice feature where you can refine the edge after using the new selection tool. Takes a lot less time than all that old fashioned erasing of pixels. Then I put the two overlays on top of the background paper. I locked the transparency on the butterfly overlay and then selected a brush and fished around in the background paper until I found a color that was good for the butterflies. Then I brushed them the blue color. After that I cut the green background paper for behind the frame strip and lowered the opacity on that. Then put the wings behind Max and used the perspective transform tool and tried to get the wings to look good. I erased the butterfly antennas. After that I journaled and added a stroke of color on the text to make it easier to read.

Blackie in a box...

2008-05-11T22:48:00.002-04:00

Blackie in a box...

First I cut the strips out of the background paper. I lowered the opacity on the orange ones to tone down the color a little. Then I duplicated the inner shadow for the box several times until I liked how the photo looked under them. And I also lowered the opacity on the bow to give it more of a lighter feel. Other than that I just arranged elements and added drop shadows.

Hanging Out...

2008-05-08T07:55:00.002-04:00

Hanging Out...

First I cut the mats for the circle out of the background papers and cut the photo to go inside the circle. Generally I will use the magic wand to select the space inside the frame and then expand the selection until I like how the photo will look. Then I made a second copy of the photo and used Photoblast Chocolate on the top layer. After that I erased at about 15% opacity the top layer until I liked the way that the kitty looked against the sepia background. Other than that I just arranged elements and lowered the opacity a little on the lacy metal outer frame.

Precious

2008-05-03T15:48:00.001-04:00

Precious

First thing I did here was to cut the strip of paper out of the pink. Then I used Photoblast's Rustic Charm to tone down the colors in the photo to match the muted feel of the kit. After that I just layered and erased the bling that was over things I wanted it to appear under - like the hearts on the scalloped mat and the ribbon. I also lowered the opacity on the star border.

Fabulous freebie site...

2008-04-30T21:14:00.004-04:00

I found a wonderful freebie site -

it's Kubivet

When you find a kit that you like you click to download, then put the number you see into the box and enter and then wait for the clock to count down and your download will start. It's amazing how fast you can figure out a foreign language when there's a free kit that you want. And be sure to check out the fairies and the cat kit!!

Figgy 08

2008-04-30T21:04:00.002-04:00

Figgy 08

The Bella Rouge kit was a very dark red one and I thought about using a white background with the dark red strips of paper, but then I went looking through Kerr's kits for something else that might match and came up with this one and I really like the way the diamond background paper worked. I cut the strips of paper - using an odd number. Then I cut a mat out of another one of the papers and used it behind the photo. Then I just added the elements and lastly pulled the diamond background paper down and to the left! And this was the first time that I scrapped a photo that I took as RAW format.

Added Tools link

2008-04-26T10:38:00.003-04:00

I have added links to the tools that I refer to when I make the LOs on the left hand side of the blog. The Wow styles (drop shadows and others) are in the edition of the book that I linked to on Amazon. The other sites all have fun tools to play with if you're interested in browsing...

Cat with no name...

2008-04-26T09:47:00.004-04:00

Cat with no name...

Got to use the new magic selection tool in PSE 6 on this one. Surprisingly it works really well and I only had to round off a couple of jaggies when I was finished. Other than that I didn't put any drop shadow on the strips of paper behind the photo because I sort of wanted them to blend in and I even lowered the opacity on the flowered paper to get the look. I did add Wow drop shadows to the frame, lace, flower and bird however. I did use the healing tool to get rid of some of the lint that showed up in the cat's black fur!

Nifty new toy...

2008-04-24T09:55:00.002-04:00

I recently found a fun action/effect that makes your LO ready for uploading to the web. It's Paint the Moon's Resize/Perfect for Web action for PS or PSE and can be found at Oscraps. I found for PSE that I only use a sharpeness of 20 and no extra saturation, but it saves me many clicks everytime I need to get something ready for the web!

Blackie

2008-04-24T08:40:00.002-04:00

Blackie

I was off looking for a seamless tile filter (for free, of course) and I went to download the Redfield filter again because I wanted to make sure that it was compatible with Vista and what do I stumble across? This ultra cool Fractalius filter. And once I saw what people were doing with it I just had to have it! lol... One cool feature it has is a "dice" button that magically gives random settings that work better than my fooling around with it as this was one of the images it produced. As far as the LO goes I used the green background paper on the bottom and lowered the opacity a bit to let the sunflower paper show through. And I doubled the little sunflower by putting one on top of the other.

Beautiful Garden

2008-04-22T09:29:00.002-04:00

Beautiful Garden

This was fun and easy to put together. Picked the QC and the photos. The rich brown colors in the kit seemed to work with natural types of photos. In order to cut the photos into the squares I used the magic wand with contiguous checked and then selected the "add selections" button and clicked on the additional squares in the template that I wanted to include in the photo. Then I Control J to pull the photo into the squares and moved the photo squares to the top of the template. I also used Wow Metal styles for the garden and Belligio Hotel journaling and looked for one that sort of matched the Beautiful word art.

SPAMalot crown

2008-04-22T09:06:00.002-04:00

SPAMalot crown

The photo on this one had a bright red background and some other distracting colors. So I duplicated the photo and used Photoblast Rustic Charm Effect on it. Then I put the Rustic Charm layer on top and used a large fuzzy brush with the opacity set to 15% and erased the face, crown and clothing area until I liked it. I ended up erasing the face and clothing area entirely and the crown about 50%. Other than that I added the elements and lowered the opacity on the journaling a bit.

Paris Casino

2008-04-22T08:55:00.002-04:00

Paris Casino

First thing I did was to blend the circle background paper with the green one. Then I cut the circles out of the brown mat for inside the circle frame. Then I selected the circle frame itself and cut another one out of the green background paper, put it underneath the frame and lowered the opacity of the white to tone it down a little. After that I clustered the elements and rotated the frame a little and journaled.

Beautiful Becca

2008-04-21T11:33:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to mention that Marcee Duggar and Irene Alexeeva are giving away some free kits on their blogs. To get there just replace their names with my msmscraps in the url...

Beautiful Becca

Started this by turning the corners of the background papers. Used an action made by Claudia Campbell that works in PS as well as PSE. After I made that I tucked the heart into the fold and selected one of the rhinestones from the bling and used it to hold the corner down. Then I selected the viewmaster reel by Control right clicking on the image in the layers and Control J on the burgundy paper so that you can see it behind the hearts. Then I selected the inner circle and Control J to get the green back in the middle. Other than that, it was just a matter of selecting the other elements and arranging them and, of course, adding drop shadows as necessary.

Blue Man Mason

2008-04-21T10:41:00.002-04:00

Blue Man Mason

I just loved this photo and wanted to make it the main focus of the LO so I made it large and worked around it. Nothing really special done here except tinkering with the drop shadow distance and opacity.

Summer '97

2008-04-21T10:27:00.002-04:00

Summer '97

Had to remove the noise from this really old photo - I use Imagenomic's Noiseware Professional. Then I made duplicate copies of the flowers and reduced some of them and erased the ones that went too far onto my photo. Made two sets of the butterflies as well and used the flip layer horizontally feature and then reduced the size of the top layer. To journal on the tabs I turned the entire LO 90 degrees to the left and then turned it back when I was done.

Blackie's garden

2008-04-21T09:53:00.002-04:00

Blackie's garden

This one was such fun to make! Very simply I cut the paper by using the square selection tool and hitting Control J. Then I duplicated the vine element and erased the copy over the photo and frame - erasing the parts I wanted under the photo from the top layer. And then I just added the accent elements and pulled the top background layer down a little from the left corner.

My guys...

2008-04-21T09:28:00.002-04:00

My guys...

There is a subtle frame around the edge of this LO just to give it some definition. And then I threaded the elements through the ring by duplicating the wire ring and placing one of them behind the elements and then I erased the top one so that it only went over the elements where I wanted it to.

Back to Blogging...

2008-04-20T13:27:00.002-04:00

I must admit... it's been way too long since I last posted an entry here, but I've decided to pick back up and get going again. I'm going to post everything that I made in April and then move forward daily. And I have added a new feature where you can automatically have the postings sent to your e-mail. You'll only receive one e-mail per day and only if I add something to the blog on that day. I've been using this service on other people's blogs and I enjoy it very much - so I decided to add it here! Happy Scrapping!

Turning back time....

2008-04-20T13:23:00.003-04:00

Turning back time...

I had come across some edge groupies and wanted to try making some myself. So I pulled together lots of flowers and other elements and put this together. I stayed with the same designer for the most part to keep the feel of the LO as uniform as possible. Other than playing around with drop shadows and opacity the LO is pretty straight forward.

Contemplation

2008-04-20T11:55:00.002-04:00

Contemplation

Blended two of the background papers together by lowering the opacity on the top one until I liked the effect. The photo had some issues so I used Photoblast Midnight Color Pro Action on it (I'm nearly positive that's the one I used) which enhanced the photo so that its problems looked intentional. I duplicated the glitter line a few times and flipped one of them so that they didn't all look the same. And I cut a circle out of the glittery background paper and used it behind the photo after I lowered it's opacity so that it didn't stand out so much. Also used two layers of the leafy vine - one under the frame, one over and erased the top one so that it looked like the vine was under the frame and then went over it.

Becca

2008-04-20T11:04:00.004-04:00

Becca

Basically cut the frame out of the papers and used the frame that came with the kit on top of that. I did the out of bounds on the ears by using two photos - one under the frame and one over the frame. Erased the extra from the top photo, being very careful around the ears. Then added the white butterflies and made the smaller yellow butterflies with an action from FafBr. Only other thing was adding the Wow shadows and then I backed off the opacity on the top yellow butterfly to make it seem a little further away than the others.

Dream my little one...

2008-04-20T10:54:00.003-04:00

Dream my little one...

Extracted Mason from the photo using the magic extraction tool and then built the ribbons for him to lay on. Then it was just a matter of arranging the elements. Also, lowered the opacity on the star overlay down to about 50% and lower the words to around 85%. Broke the words out of the frame that they came in!!

Figaro

2007-06-05T18:15:00.000-04:00

Figaro

First thing I did with this photo was to work on the levels... before I started it was just a sea of black with some eyes and the white markings. By adjusting the levels I was able to differentiate the black of the cat from the black background. Then I put a stroke around the blue frame and also around the font on the title. I pulled the colors for the title out of the pink flowers.

True Friends

2007-06-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

True Friends

This is my first try at a Fandango layout. I put the dark green paper over the green grungy paper and made it slightly smaller to give the LO the ragged green border. Then I selected the inner color in the photo frame and hit Cntl + J on the photo layer to make it fit perfectly into the frame. I also added a stroke to the font layer for the journaling and then just added some word art to finish the layout.

That look...

2007-06-05T17:56:00.000-04:00

That look...

This was a straight forward LO. The complicated part was weaving the various element through each other. I did this the way that I have described before... having two layers, adding drop shadow to the bottom one and erasing the part needed on the top layer with the object being interacted with inbetween. I also lowered the opacity greatly on a flower swirl that is underneath the journal tag...

Take time...

2007-05-23T17:24:00.001-04:00

Take time...

Selected the flower layer on the QC and then made another layer and filled it with the color that I liked. Then took another one of the background papers and used it as a texture for this layer. Then I used the dark green color of the butterfly to stroke the edge. Did the same thing with the butterfly using the lighter green color of the flower layer to stroke that edge and did not add texture. Enlarged the background layer a tad bit to get rid of the erased white part. And I used two different sections of one photo for the two photos. For the journaling under the title I also used the dark and light green to stroke the font.

Quebec '07

2007-05-23T17:11:00.000-04:00

Quebec '07

Pretty straight forward layout here. I did lower the opacity on the border layer and the upper left corner overlay. Then I cut the title out of the beige paper and beveled it. The date I used DSP carved text style on.

Kitten Becca

2007-05-22T09:08:00.000-04:00

Kitten Becca

The only trick that I did with this one was to blended the two purple papers from the two kits together by lowering the opacity on the top purple one. Also played with the opacity of the two carved items so that they matched each other in intensity.

Nana and Mason

2007-05-19T18:48:00.001-04:00

Nana and Mason

Started off with a white background. Put the lightest background paper in the kit on it and lowered the opacity of that layer. Put the ribbons where I wanted them and then cut strips out of the lined paper for behind them. Cut the two circles and then the photo mat. Removed the strip of paper behind the ribbon ring by selecting and then deleting. And then added the two journaling boxes.

This photo was taken 12 years ago... seems like it was just yesterday. Nana came to visit and she combed Mason's unruly hair... so I took a photo with everyone looking all spruced up!!

Purrfect!

2007-05-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

Purrfect!

Lowered the opacity on the flower borders that go around the edge of the layout. Used atomic cupcake's chalking action on the photos and the journaling tag and brackets. Used the action and then Control clicked the thumbnail of the layer in the palette and then cut and pasted the chalked layer over the original and lowered the opacity on the chalked version until I liked the effect. Locked the transparency of the word art and then brushed the brown color onto it.

Becca is so old now that she really doesn't care if I take photos as she goes about living her life. So when I got the camera out one afternoon while she groomed she didn't miss a beat and I got these photos.

Lilacs

2007-05-19T18:30:00.000-04:00

Lilacs

This was a very easy layout to make. Used a template that I had for quite a while. I did use Wow chrome style on the word art and lowered the distance and opacity a bit of the drop shadows. Removed part of the hat pin to make it appear to go through the paper. And I used DSP carved text on the date in the corner of the photo and lowered the opacity on that layer as well...

This year it has rained nearly every day that the lilac bush has been in bloom. I was able to take a few photos as the flowers were opening up about a week ago...

Cherry blossoms

2007-05-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

Cherry blossoms

The background paper is the light one with the faint flowers in the lower left corner. Put the photo in the upper left and drew a selection around a triangle section of it with feather at 150... reversed selection and deleted. Then took the striped paper on top and drew a selection in the center of that with the same feather and deleted that. Still had to erase any hard lines at the photo's edge with opacity at around 20 percent. Then reduced the opacity of the photo to around 20 percent and duplicated that three times and put those three layers on soft light at an opacity of around 50 percent. You'll have to play with that to get the effect that works with your photo. Then used the hydrangea strip at the bottom and the circle lace element behind the word art and reduced the opacity to where you can barely see them. Locked the transparency on the word art and colored it blue and then added a stroke of darker blue to it. Lowered the opacity of that as well and moved it below the striped background paper.

Spring

2007-05-14T16:30:00.000-04:00

Spring

Cut the ribbons out of the background papers and then used the ribbon in the kit on top of them. Other than that I just lowered opacity and distance on the drop shadows and used Wow Chrome 5 for the word art - adjusted the properties a tad bit too!

Nap interrupted...

2007-05-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

Nap interrupted...

The quick click that I used was an 8x10 but I hoped that I'd be able to use it within a 12x12. Ended up working alright, but I felt compelled to put something in the top and bottom space and try as I might - I just couldn't work any pure white into the LO... so it's different than I envisioned in my head when I started. I lowered the opacity on the bottom background paper with a layer of white behind it. Added a rectangle of the darker red paper behind all of the photos as well. And I recolored the word art and accent swirls above and below the photos and then gave them a little bevel - also lowered the opacity on the swirls just a touch. The word art I used Wow Metal 07 style and played around with the drop shadow settings a bit.

Languishing loudly...

2007-05-12T18:13:00.000-04:00

Languishing loudly...

This is one of those new plopper pluses; where they sell you a layout and you pretty much just plop your photo in, but you have control over the layers. So I did things like adding drop shadows and playing with the settings until I was happy! Also added some word art instead of an additional photo! This was fun to play with - will definitely be checking this type of product out more!! Oh yes, used one of the Wow Chrome styles on the word art and played with the drop shadows here too!

Boys Rule!

2007-05-12T18:06:00.000-04:00

Boys Rule!

Very straight forward LO! Only things I did here was to erase the photo corner from the spider; lower the opacity on the word art and I have two layers on the font - top layer is DSP carved text with the opacity lowered on it as well until it sort of looked like writing in the sand!!

This is one of the photos that I have hanging around gathering dust on my puter. I did a little restorative work on it, by using the healing brush to get rid of dust marks and the like! Had to adjust the shadows on it as well to bring out some of the detail in the shade!!

Act Natural

2007-05-11T12:45:00.000-04:00

Act Natural

This was a very straight forward LO where the only things that I did extra were to make the black swiggly lines into a selection and then to cut that out of one of the background papers. Then I put that layer under the black lines. I also lowered the opacity of the swirl element.

Bright Vegas Lights

2007-05-11T12:39:00.000-04:00

Bright Vegas Lights

I found that since things were so big in size and so far way on the Vegas strip that it was really hard to get a photo of a person and the object and have both of them in focus. So I would take two photos - one of the person in focus and another of the landmark in focus. Then I just photoshoped them together. Other things that I did in this LO are to change the circle grunge frame into a Wow metal style, made the photo a little larger and used the same font to match the word art for my journaling. Also lowered the opacity on the gold corner elements.

Figaro

2007-05-11T12:28:00.000-04:00

Figaro

Used PhotoBlast Chocolate action on the photo. Then I lowered the opacity on the girl, the blue butterfly and Chinese character elements. I cut the flowers out of one of the background papers and used the circle element as a center button for them.

I just love this photo of Figaro - once I ran the action on it to sort of antique it he looked so serious and formal.

Joy blooms...

2007-05-11T12:16:00.000-04:00

Joy blooms...

Only different things I did here was to put a slim mat frame on the photos and then I added a ribbon and the brads to the LO. I also sort of threaded the word art through the photos and added Wow metal style to it with no drop shadows. Used DSP carved text style on the date.

These photos were taken last year. I'm still waiting for them to bloom in my yard this year - mostly so that I can prune the bush - it's over a story high at the moment and is trying to take over the landscaping!!

Turning three...

2007-05-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

Turning three...

Took three of the backgrounds and reduced them down to small squares and used them as elements. For the stars, used one from the kit and then made one from a background paper - the other three I pulled the color from the background papers using the color picker. Pulled the colors with the color picker for the square frames too!

This is one of my favorite photos! It was taken by a dear friend and had to be somewhat restored - lots of dust particles. This was the first year that we were able to get my DS to eat cake. He was an incredibly picky eater the first few years of his life...

My dreamy little one...

2007-05-11T11:57:00.000-04:00

My dreamy little one...

First I reduced the size of one of the papers and used it for one of the squares. Went looking for more papers and found another one by the same designer that matched fairly well. Used Wow Chrome style for the two word arts. And I reduced the opacity a little on the ribbon drop shadow.

This kitty has always slept like this, but when ever I would try to take a photo of her she would wake up. Now that she's getting much older she doesn't hear me as well or she doesn't care as much and I was finally able to get a photo of her doing it.

Trip to Mt. Sakurajima

2007-05-11T11:52:00.000-04:00

Trip to Mt. Sakurajima

The special things that I did to this LO was to chalk in a light blue the large round photo with Atomic Cupcake's Chalking action. I also chalked around the two journaling mats with a gold-brown color. And I lowered the opacity on the fan.

My DH went to Japan and was taken on a day trip over to Mt. sakurajima. He was able to see the mountain from his hotel as well. He had a fabulous time and I got to have these wonderful photos!!

Simple Nature

2007-05-07T23:36:00.000-04:00

Simple Nature

First I cloned the green paper over the botanical description of the flower on the background paper. Then I horizontally flipped the paper. Then I cut the two squares out of the photograph and cut another rectangle shape just a little larger than the two square together. Put that layer underneath and lowered the opacity on it so that there was just a hint of it for continuity. Added a long rectangle strip under the three upper squares as well and then added the word art and used Wow metal style. Also added the vine overlay to the upper left corner and lowered the opacity a little on that as well.

This photo was taken of one of one of the crocuses that my DS helped me plant a couple of years ago.

Shin Buddhist Temple

2007-05-07T23:25:00.000-04:00

Shin Buddhist Temple

Selected the inner part of the background paper with the "frame" and then deleted it. Selected it again and modified it by contracting until it was inside the frame with a feather around 75 then inverted the selection and Gaussian blurred it at a radius of 250 pixels. In between those two layers I put the photo and then the ribbon on top of the layers. Used Wow metal style on the word art and DSP carved text style on the temple name.

DH said that volunteers pulled up in buses and worked in the gardens. Then they all went to this court yard and broomed the ground for a little while. When they were done they returned to work in the gardens.

Imperial Gardens

2007-05-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

Imperial Gardens

This one is incredibly straight forward. Just used the template to cut the shapes out of the papers and then used a Kanji character and a dragon on the photo corners.

My DH got to go to Japan for a business trip and my souvenir gift was a smattering of photos. Well, the photos were one of my gifts... lol...

Somebunny loves you...

2007-05-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

Somebunny loves you...

Where to start on this one? Took the brown background paper with the bunnies on it and made it smaller. Cut the yellow paper to frame it and the photo. Then I cropped the photo into a square. Took the bunny vine frame, removed the bunnies and then colored it to be almost what the brown paper color was. Colored the word art and added a slight bevel to it. For the title I used DSP carved text style.

This was the last time that the two of them slept together - two days before he passed on. He had been pushing her away, but as often happens, had a day where he rallied and allowed her near him. She still looks for him in his favorite spots and misses him terribly!

THE Hotel

2007-05-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

THE Hotel

This one again uses a template. Picked a photo where most of the interest was through the middle for the main photo. Used the word art to cut the title out of another background paper and then beveled it. Also used Wow metal style for the journaling.

The elephants aren't real but they sure look realistic. This statue was along the driveway of the main entrance to the hotel. THE Hotel was part of the Mandalay Bay property. And was located at the very end of the strip.

Without Envy

2007-05-06T20:30:00.000-04:00

Without Envy

This was a template as well - been using alot of them lately - and the only special thing that I did on this one was to use Atomic Cupcakes Chalking Action. I chalked the lighter layers with a tannish brown and the red with a little darker red. Just seemed to give everything a finished touch. Also used Wow Metal Styles on the word art and the title.

These flowers were taken last July in my summer garden. There were so many of this color that I really just wanted to take a photo of the group rather than one up close.

Mason's Photos

2007-05-06T20:09:00.000-04:00

Mason's Photos

This LO is very straight forward. Used a template and the only change that I made was to add the word "son's" to the title.

It was fun to scrap someone else's photos. And to see the same things that I had photographed through another person's eye!

Shabby Becca

2007-05-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

Shabby Becca

The only trick to this one was using the mat and photo layers of the template for papers and then adding the elements to it. And then I used the vine element to frame the photo inside the edges. Other than that I just adjusted the drop shadows alot to make the elements look alright.

Dealing in Pastels

2007-05-06T19:49:00.000-04:00

Dealing in Pastels...

I rounded the corners on the mat and the photo by making a rounded rectangle shape with a radius of around 50. Then I cut both the paper and the photo with that shape. For the word art I selected the bottom half and then moved the selection down until it worked with my photo and LO. Then I used Wow gold as a style on the word art and lowered the opacity a little on the ribbons, butterfly and the flower. I believe that I also added one of the swirls to the bottom and lowered the opacity on that as well.

Touching toes...

2007-05-05T23:41:00.000-04:00

Touching toes...

First thing I did was to select the child in the tag and then Control + J to make a new layer of it with the orange. Then I spent a great deal of time cutting the sun element out of the orange as well and put it behind the bookmark. After that I realized I could have just put an orange square back there and would have gotten the same effect! Used the DSP carved text on the top of two font layers and then had the lower font layer in the same orange color...

At Hoover Dam they have these amazing large statues and they tell you that if you touch the toes it will bring you good luck... You can see that the metal is getting worn down a bit from everyone rubbing the toes. In this photo Mason was making a run for touching the toes and had just turned to look at his father...

Vegas baby!

2007-05-05T23:22:00.000-04:00

Vegas baby!

Took this Quick Click and flipped it for a horizontal photo. Didn't use the journaling strips; instead added the word art. Used a Wow Chrome style for both the word art and the journaling around the corner. Played around with the drop shadows on both as well.

My son was running down the stairs as we were taking the escalator. He was trying to beat us down. This is the beach area of Mandalay Bay where you go to pick up your car.

May Dogwood

2007-05-05T23:12:00.000-04:00

May Dogwood

Made this by cutting strips of paper out of the backgrounds... The word art style was a Wow style - one that has a stroke around the edge. Fooled around with the drop shadows on the word art as well.

I'm really getting anxious for the weather to turn warm and for my garden to start blooming. These photos are from last year.

Spring Snowdrops

2007-05-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

Spring Snowdrops

This was also straight forward, but I had to move the two strips of paper at the bottom up a bit so that the title would fit properly. I used the S from the kit and then added the text; using Atomic Cupcake's Chalking Action.

Finally some sunny warm days and I went out and sat down next to these little flowers and got some shots of them. I love these little flowers because once I see them I know for certain that Spring warmth can only be a few weeks away!

Taking photos

2007-05-05T20:48:00.000-04:00

Taking photos

The only trick on this one was taking the Quick Click and moving the parts of it around. I had a horizontal photo and needed to change the orientation of the template. Other than that really nothing other than straight forward digital scrapping.

These photos are of my son on the Hoover Dam taking photos of a plaque that was there as a dedication to those men that had risked their lives to build this wondrous structure. In the main photo he is standing in front of one of the windows in the middle of the dam and you can see the newly build visitor's center in the distance behind him.

Bellagio - Las Vegas

2007-05-05T20:39:00.000-04:00

Bellagio - Las Vegas

Pretty straight forward LO here! The only trick on this one was to use two layers of the opaque butterflies and then to reduce the opacity on the top layer to around 50 percent. Also lowered the opacity on the flower itself.

These flowers were inside the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas!! There was an entire garden with every bloom at the peek of perfection. We went to the Bellagio to see the water fountain show out front but it was too windy for them to have it that night.

Sleep and let sleep

2007-05-05T20:28:00.000-04:00

Sleep and let sleep

Tried a new extracting technique on this one. The dark cat was against a light pink background and in order to keep the fur I first drew around the cat with a feather of about 50 and then deleted the background. Then I used the burn tool to darken the pink and erased what I could using about a 30 percent opacity. I also cut the word art out of another layer of the flowers and then beveled it. Other than that just played around with the opacity of the layers for the swirls and the overlay.

I've fallen very far behind but I'm going to try to catch up here. Sometimes life just gets in the way of good intentions!

Season's Change

2007-03-18T15:05:00.000-04:00

Season's change

This is a pretty straight forward LO. I used all the drop shadows included with the Quick Click except for the middle box on the top where I used my own. I stayed with the same designer when I needed more papers for the layering on top and tried to find ones that would match the photos and the kit. Tried to match the font from the title for the date and pulled the color for that out of the green background paper and then darkened it a bit. Other than that I used levels to correct the larger photo as the snow looked like a different color in it from the other photo.

I've been wanting to take snow blowing photos for many years, but usually the storms are at night or the wind is whipping around or it's in the middle of a storm. Everything lined up this time so that I could get some decent photos.