Fashion Inspired Layout

Happy almost Thursday! :) Kelly N here with my fashion inspired layout. When I saw Kelly P's post yesterday, I was instantly inspired by the ruffle neckline on this shirt. I knew right away I wanted to try something similar on my layout.

Being the Mama to 2 boys, I knew the purple wouldn't work ;), but I thought I could pull off the "ruffle" look without it being too girly. I used my circle punch to punch a bunch of circles from various Elementary papers. Then, I simply layered the punches along the edge of the Window Seat paper from Documentary. Super simple to do and it's a really fun look. To make my fashion inspired page less girly, I added some masculine elements like buttons and an arrow. I added in the Sass banner and border stickers from the En Plein Air add-on along with bits of the Sass paper to finish the layout. Also, using more traditionally masculine colors lends a boy-ish feel to my page.

Don't forget to link your fashion inspired layouts to this thread on the message board! We can't wait to see what you come up with! :)

Neutrals continued.

Vee's Neutral challenge has got me in the Fall mood.

Mister Huey has stolen my heart. I adore the smaller size and matte finish not to mention the outside label matching the actual color of the mist. Helpful, no? My favorite colors are Classic Calico which I used above, Dark Calico & Warm Calico.
I first spritz water on my cardstock, then followed it with the Classic Calico mist to achieve the watercolor splatters.
Looks as though the Mister is available at Two Peas.
It will also be availalbe in the Studio Calico shop in November.
Other items used:
Woodgrain Star Rub Ons
Elementary Label Stickers
Both are also available through Two Peas.

I've created a little mosaic as my inspiration.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Be sure to get your challenge layout posted to the gallery by Saturday for your chance to win a $5 Studio Calico gift card!

Finding Inspiration Inside a Cereal Box?

Well, maybe not INSIDE the box, but certainly the design on the box itself can be a jumping point for your creativity! I thought I'd share one of my layouts from the Summer Camp gallery to prove my point... inspiration can be found everywhere!

The whole idea for this layout was born one morning while I was feeding Will his baby food. And while this is a fun milestone in your baby's development... you moms know that after a while feeding them little spoonful by little spoonful becomes quite the chore! Anyways, I was sitting there in between spoonfuls and glanced over at the back of the Cheerios box... and it hit me. THAT would be a great design for a layout! The big heart... filled with photos... oh my. Perfect. And fun! Here's the box with my little model....forgive the diaper showing because mama didn't bother snapping his romper shut after the last change. oops!

How fun is that box? Now, how did I take that box design and transform it into what you see below?

Well, I was going to do the photo filled heart idea. And I think I may at some time. But it just didn't work with this layout obviously. However I used the same idea in cutting out different squares/rectangles of patterned paper to fill in the heart shape. (This was a super fast technique b/c I didn't measure my paper scraps or cut with a trimmer... I just randomly cut squares and rectangles placing them in the heart as I went.) I also let my heart wander off the edges of my paper like the heart on the box. Finally, to make the heart shape more dominant among the mish mash paper scraps inside, I did some simple handstitching around it.

So, the moral of the story... be on the lookout for inspiration everywhere. Scrapbooking magazines are an obvious starting point, but don't overlook non scrapping mag ads, tv commercials, website design, product packaging, etsy, stationary/cards, etc. And if you're really organized you could create a little scrappy notebook to store all these great bits of inspiration. :)

(On this layout I used bits of the main kit, Summer Camp as well as bits from Footpath and Adirondack. And they are still available... so grab them quickly if you can! The Real Estate punch is also in the shop!)

Storage Solutions for your Memorabilia

Slightly sentimental? Check!

The memory-keeper’s son. That’s what I call my one year-old, Charlie. I don’t know if someday he’ll appreciate the newborn-size diaper in his memory box, or the hat he wore home from the hospital, but I like to think at least his wife will.

If you are at all sentimental, the memorabilia and photos from your child’s first year of life (and on) can become overwhelming – fast. I also thought some of my nostalgia might fade as my hormones evened out, but if anything the desire to remember my son just the way he was each day has become stronger as I’ve seen how fast he really does change.

Here are some things I’m doing in my life to help me reflect on Charlie, and hopefully someday have him look back on. Or his prom date.

We took 227 video clips the first year of Charlie’s life. Now what? Burn them to CD and stick them in one of these adorable sleeves from Owlbot. I punched holes in my CD sleeve and put it in my three-ring album (these are some other sleeves I had):

Invest in a good laminator. Might seem silly, but it will help those monthly checkup sheets from the doctor or random notes from the babysitter age well.

A large storage box. I figure at the rate I’m going, this will hold enough memorabilia until Charlie turns five. So I bought two. I try to put a tag on each item (for cards, I bundle them together with twine by occasion – all of his first birthday cards are together).

I hope this post gave you some ideas for how to handle the memorabilia in your life! Have a great day.

Laura

Inspiration: quotes, colors & happiness

Tumblr.....
(my own photo with a quote found on Tumblr)

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children's decor....
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and weddings...

happy wednesday!

Tuesday Tumblr Inspiration

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xoxo,
Steph W

Insider Tips : Create a White Wash on your papers

Hey there!

Today, I'm going to show you how to make a WHITE WASH on your patterned papers without having to use water.

Simply use GESSO and a plastic card (just like a customer card you get at EVERY STORE).

Take a bit of gesso on your card.


Apply randomly on your patterned paper.


Spread as fast as you can, as gesso dries pretty fast.

Now, hold your card tight and try to get rid of the gesso : the white wash effect is here!

You can also use your plastic card as a stamp : simply put more gesso on your card and draw shapes with it!

Here's one of my layout made with the Continental July kit.

and here, a mini album I taught in France. I used my card to apply both gesso and acrylic paints (I used Yellow, Turquoise and Red for this album).

Have a wonderful day!
:)

Tuesday Inspiration : we LOVE collage artists

Mixed Media and Collage artists have always been a passion of mine : I've been doing Mixed Media since I was 17 and I've been lucky enough to take classes with some of the most talented artists like Karen Michel, Lynne Perrella, Nina Bagley, Michael De Meng, and more...

This week, I wanted to show you and bring you some inspiration from FOUR artists that I truely LOVE : Lynne Perrella (my Mixed Media mentor), Claudine Hellmuth, Teesha Moore and Karen Michel.

Be inspired!

Art by Lynne Perrella


Art by Teesha Moore


Art by Claudine Hellmuth


Art by Karen Michel


What about you? Who are your favorite Mixed Media artists?

Enjoy! And don't hesitate to visit these artists' amazing websites for more inspiration!

Tutorial: Saving Your Favorite Splats, Splotches & Swoops For Future Use!

Tools needed:
Camera or Scanner
Paint, Ink, Mist, Tea... Whatever Floats Your Boat
Photo Editing Program
*this tutorial was done in Photoshop CS5 but will be applicable to all the CS versions and most Elements versions

I know that so many of you loved Tina's Paint Tutorial--myself included. I want to piggyback her fabulous tutorial with one that shows you how to keep those fantastic paint splotches for future use. Especially handy when you don't have the time or space to get messy.

It all starts with making some 'bases'. I took some mist, some paint, a marker and a cup of tea and made my shapes for examples. I tried to keep them simple for the basis of this tutorial. What happens next depends on whether you prefer to photograph your shapes or scan them in. I scanned each of mine individually.

(Scan at 300 dpi in RGB color)

I then opened them up in Photoshop and went to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>DESATURATE. My mist splat now looks like this:

I like to play around with the Brightness/Contrast at this point to make the splat fairly dark and the white pretty bright. To do this IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>Brightness/Contrast and move the sliders to your liking. As you can see, it will lessen the fine mist portion considerably, which will make the next step much easier.

Now, make sure that your layer is unlocked. If there is a little lock icon it is locked, in that case you'll want to go to LAYER>NEW>New Layer from Background.

The next step is choosing your Magic Wand Tool (with the setting for 'add to' clicked), and your Tolerance Level. I kept mine fairly low for the purpose of this tutorial--I believe default is 32, but I bumped mine down under 10.
Find a good dark place in your splat and using the Magic Wand Tool, select that portion, you should get your marching ant outline around your selection . When you have a little selection go to SELECT>Similar and you will see more area become surrounded by marching ants. You may need to do this several times.
If you go too far, you will notice your white area becomes selected. You can either Ctrl+Z to go back one step or Ctrl+D to lose the selection and start from the beginning.

Once you have a happy selection going you can go to SELECT>Inverse and then hit your delete key. You are now looking at only your mist splat and perhaps a transparent checkerboard background. This means...You Did It!! The hard part is over.

Sometimes, a good selection is a little harder to come by. That's ok, because you can use the handy eraser tool and do

some touch ups to anything you'd like to get rid of. Case in point, the tea rings--they had a lot of little bits that had soaked into the textured paper, so I used a middle sized round eraser with a hard edge and just erased out the parts I didn't want.

You're probably wondering the best way to save and use these bad boys. I prefer to save them as a .png file--because it will save the transparent background. 300dpi at the original scanned size is the way to go. This way you'll have a nice big image to work with.

Wait...how did I color them in? A simple and very useful trick, really. Down at the bottom of the tool bar where the color palette hangs out there are two boxes, foreground color and background color. If I select a background color and select my layer by hitting the SHIFT+CTRL+DELETE keys it will colorize my selected layer.

Now, when I'm ready to make a layout, I have all these wonderful .png files I can open up and drag onto my canvas. I can layer them, I can color them, I can basically print them onto my background. I can envision using them on tags, on cards, on journaling blocks...all with a few mouse clicks.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask or email me. I'd love to see you succeed with this technique!

Some helpful hints & reminders:

• Scan at 300dpi, save at 300dpi in .png format
• If you're photographing your splotches, import and crop to a large size that still retains quality at 300dpi
• Also, when photographing your bases, get nice and close with even lighting.
  
• You can make your splats/drips/splotches on smooth or textured paper. Paper with texture may be slightly harder to get good selections from, but the reward is a more irregular and natural looking digital.
• Keep in mind the type of paper/cardstock you print your final design on will have an effect on the look as well.
• By using different blending modes and opacities (see Emily's tutorial here) you can really vary the look and style of your splats and splotches. You can even use them on your photos for added texture and dimension.