Tuesday's Tutorial & and Valentine's Day Special

I'm having a little sale starting today in my shop at goDigitalScrapbooking.  Just for this week, February 14-20, you can get these four products bundled for only $3.99: Words of: The Heart, Words of: Song of Solomon, Words of: God's Love, and Smitten.

And, I have a new word art pack, Under His Wing, available now and on sale.

I've actually done a little scrapping, too.

 

Both of these layouts use my Template Pack Vol. 5, Doubles.  

For Tuesday's Tutorial, I thought I'd actually have it on Tuesday this time!  Just for a change!  :-)  This is how to change a clipping mask to better fit your photograph.

And, now, I hope you all are enjoying a Valentine's Day with your loved ones.

Christian love is never theoretical or abstract; it is always practical.

Alexander Strauch

Friday Features: February 10 Edition (Or myabe the 11th...)

 The time just got away from me yesterday, so I'm a little late with this post.  And, then this morning, well, life happened today, too!


But, I was busy this week, designing and making all sorts of things.  I have three new items up in the shop at goDigitalScrapbooking.

The first two are Places in the Heart and Places in the Heart Word Art, made as part of a collab with Amanda of Outside the Box for her art journaling workshop.

If you'd like to know more about the workshop, check out Amanda's store.  Scroll down, looking at all the wonderful art journaling kits until you get to the workshop.  If you sign up for her workshop, you'll get a coupon for 50% off these kits, good until the end of the month.  I've made these to be adaptable to a variety of scrapping/art journaling styles, so you certainly don't need to be in her workshop to use them.

Next, I have a new kit, J'adore, French for "I adore you."  And, no, I don't speak French. (I lasted one miserable week in French class and transferred to German!)  I just like the sound and the sentiment and thought it fit the mood of this kit.

I've been wanting to design a Paris-influenced kit for some time now, and this this is it.  There are eight papers and 19 distinct elements.  Of course, you don't have to scrap about Paris to use it!

• For today's tutorial, I'm going to show you a quick and easy way to make your own digital stickers.

Here are your Friday Features:

• 10 Photoshop filters you should know how to use.
• Here are two really cute Valentine's Day ideas using photographs.
• Here's a tutorial for making pop art-style photos.
• Here's a great list for Valentine's Day photo ideas.
• Peppermint, of One Little Bird, has a great tutorial on making digital washi tape look more realistic.
• I love this post with practical ideas to encourage hearts of thankfulness in our children.  It's written by an old friend from years ago and far away who has a passion for leading our little ones to love and serve God.

So, that's it for today, my friends.  God bless you all.

In Himself, God is love; through Him, love is manifested, and by Him, love is defined.

Burk Parsons

Friday Features: February 6 Edition

Thank you, Anita, for the wonderful layouts you posted using my products! It is always so fun to see my products on pages!
Here's a layout Anita made using my Winter Photo Mask that was the posting bonus for the January Photography Challenge. Made me want to go put a coat on!

 

And, my friend Hannah made this great page using my Template Pack, Vol. 6:

Love the tuckered out boys!

I've finished my first layout for my 2012 album, using my Twelve x 12 album templates. I used Modern Marvel for the kit.

 I got only one comment about the palette choices, but it was my favorite, too, so I'm going with this one:

I think there's enough variation to keep me from getting bored!

I have only one new product this week, Digi Doodling, Vol.1:

Today's video is a short lesson on how to begin a layout by using a template.

And, for Friday Features:

• Here's a series of blog posts on using Instagram photos; I especially like the matchbook album.

• Over at Get it Scrapped, there's a great printable with journal prompts and lists for February.

• Sovereign Grace is having their annual February sale.  All their music albums are available for only $6. each.  It's a great deal.  

• Christian Audio's free download for February is the classic Jerry Bridges' Trusting God.

And, that's all for today, my friends; I'm hosting a breakfast for the ladies in my church tomorrow morning, so I must get to the vacuuming. God bless.

Faith is the flip side of repentance. 

While repentance speaks of turning from sin, 

faith is turning to the Savior. 

The object of saving faith is not a creed, not a church, 

not a pastor, not a set of rituals or ceremonies. 

Jesus is the object of saving faith.

John MacArthur

Friday Features, a Tutorial, and a bit of Catching Up

I have been down for the count.  The Male was so very kind to share his virus with me, and it hit me hard.  I'm still a bit stuffy, but at least I'm now functioning.  It was touch and go there for awhile.  Trust me, after the last two years, NEXT year, I'm definitely getting a flu shot.

I have just one new product up in my store (see above!), An Open Book.

In today's tutorial, I'll show you one way that you can add these to your layouts.  I think you might have fun with these!

For Friday's Features:

Here's a nice tutorial on How to Make Your Photos Look Vintage. 

These adorable pinwheels would make very cute hair clips. 

This is a nice little article about how to give your viewers a focal point in your photos.

And, lastly, how to hand-draw a frame in Photoshop.

God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner 

drain the sea of its water, 

or deprive the sun of its light, 

or make space too narrow, 

than diminish the great mercy of God.

C.H. Spurgeon

Friday Features; January 20 Edition

This is going to be a long post, so buckle up!

First up, I have a new product in my store, "Twelve x 12 Album."  It's a set of 12 double-spread, 24x12", templates, one for each month.  Each page is unique, but each double-spread has 12 photo clipping masks, with a monthly title or text box and a journaling box, too.  I've also included single page, 12x12", layouts if you find those easier to work with.  I think it's a fun product, and I'm going to be using it myself to document my "twelve in 12."

Over at the goDigitalScrapbooking forum, I started a thread asking for input about template design. If you'd like to chime in, here's the link.
I've decided that instead of bouncing all around the color wheel for my template palette, I'm going to choose a single color scheme.  I'm trying to go for a scheme that won't bore me by its repeated use, is colorful, yet neutral enough that it doesn't prevent my customers from seeing their layouts in the design.  Here are the swatches that have appealed to me the most, but I'd love your input, too.  If there's one that especially appeals to you, please leave a comment either in the forum or in the comments for this post.  Thanks!

 

  

  

  

  

  

All those pretty, pretty colors....  How will I ever decide and be happy?  So, I hope you can see where a little input from you might be helpful... 

Today's tutorial is a quick little tip for free transforming an item in PSE.

And, finally, here's your Friday Features:

• What to ask yourself before you take a picture.

• Tips for Designing a Photo Book; these can easily be applied to our scrapbook pages, too.

• If you have an iPhone, you might find this a fun read: 30+ Super Secret iPhone Features and Shortcuts.

• This is an inspiring post about prayer.  I'm working on a special project, and this made me want to hurry it to completion.

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised.

John Bunyan

Back Home and Deal of the Day!

I am back in my beloved home; The Male is sick and in bed, where I hope he stays put.  He has a tendency to try to push past illness. 
I'm popping in quickly today to let you know that I have the Deal of the Day at goDigitalScrapbooking today.  You can get my "Pick a Pocket" for only .99!  But, you might want to hurry, as it's only good for a day.

I'll be back tomorrow with a new post and tutorial and a new product or too, as well. 

In Houston...with the world's worst "high speed" internet....

I'm here in Texas with The Male, accompanying him on his business trip.  After all the craziness of the last month, we both thought it would be a nice break.  He also knew that I was way behind on my digital designing and thought that while he was in sessions all day, I could have some uninterrupted computer time. 
Which has been true.  I did finish a huge project that's been in the works for a while now, a whole album's worth of templates, "Twelve x 12."

There are 12 double-page layouts, plus a cover and back page, perfect for scrapping your 2012 quickly and easily.  I know that I'll be doing this!
The files will be in both .psd and .tif format, with .jpg previews.  I will also make each double-page into two single-page templates, as I know that for some scrappers, a 24x12 is just too overwhelming.
But, remember the awful internet from the title of this post?  There is simply NO WAY that I will be able to upload this until I get home, back to real high-speed internet. 
And, that's why there was no tutorial this week either.  :-(
We will be heading home tomorrow, so I'll post a tutorial on Friday's scheduled post.

So, until Friday!