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Free digital kit + online crop this Friday

free digital scrapbooking kit

Just a quick note — I have a free digital scrapbooking kit up this week (and also a new set of penned words brushes). The free kit celebrates the upcoming online crop at Two Peas as well as my love of The Cure.

The crop is on American time, so how I’m going to stay awake is still a question in my mind! But if the hours suit you, definitely stop by this board where Jen, Gen, Meredith and I will be hosting with games and challenges and prizes all evening. We would love to see you there!

xlovesx

More with this month's sketch (+ 2 free digi downloads)

hybrid scrapbook page
~Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts Thickers, Doodlebug letter stickers, Making Memories stamps and ribbon, Fiskars border punch.~

It was my turn to put forth a sketch for this month’s Sketch Collection column in Scrapbook Inspirations. My favourite thing about this column is just a little bit awkward: I always love the contributors’ layouts far more than my own! But the boss never lets me change my layout at the last minute, so I’m always stuck with that first page I made from the sketch. There are five additional pages in the magazine, but you can see pages by Lisette and Jen on their blogs to get an idea of their yummy pages.

If you read the fine print rather than just looking at the pictures, you’ll already know that we added the sketch in a digital layout format as a free download — you can find it here, even if you didn’t read the fine print in the magazine! That template is what I used for the hybrid page above — the middle section of the layout was created digitally and printed out on an A4 sheet of photo paper, then the paper embellishments were added from there. Even better, you can also download a second version of this template just from me by clicking here. The second template is a bit more suited to a full digital page I think, but you can use either for your digital or hybrid projects. Both templates are .psd files, ready to go in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Enjoy!

So this month’s sketch looked something like this:
sketch for scrapbook page
The space in the middle was the part I was most interested in when the pages started to come in. It can be filled with journaling, patterned paper, a border, a larger photograph…lots of options.

And since the article was done and dusted, I’ve been able to use it a few more times. Like this page that was featured on the Banana Frog Blog.

scrapbook page
~Supplies: Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, BasicGrey patterned paper, American Crafts Thickers (and these), Doodlebug border stickers, 7gypsies word stickers and Banana Frog stamps.~

And this fully digital page made with the layered template…

digital scrapbook page
Supplies: Study Hall kit by Jen Allyson, Swirls by Rhonna Farrer

So of course, I think there’s a need for a bit of a challenge, right? We’re always looking for layouts that our readers create when they’ve been inspired by something in the magazine, like the sketch. If you tell us about them, you might even find your page on the SI blog or on the pages of the magazine.

Your turn now: let’s see what you do with this sketch. If you upload your page online, make sure to leave a link in the comments. If you don’t upload your pages but still want to share, email me pretty please!

Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

VIP Party Guest :: Lisette (and a free digital download)

scrapbook page

First up of our VIP party guests this weekend is Lisette. I love her elegant-but-not-too-formal style. Her projects are beautiful! The little sneak peek above can be seen in full with notes and tips here on her blog.

If you love her page, you’ll probably like the first free party download! It’s a digital template for creating that fabulous circle with the photo and the patterned paper. You can download it by clicking here. Now, most of the things for download this weekend will be .pdf files you can print without any special software, but this is a .psd file, which means you need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. (You can download a free trial of of Photoshop Elements here if you would like to give it a try.) This file is a mask in three layers — a large circle for your background mat, a smaller circle for patterned paper and a partial circle for your photo.

If you’ve never worked with digital templates or masks before, this tutorial will show you step-by-step. The only difference is that the circular design has three layers, so you’ll repeat those steps an extra two times to finish the process. You can add a solid colour or a digital patterned paper to the bottom layer — it will become the outer photo mat. Then choose a digital paper for the middle layer — it will become the patterned paper that makes up the right side of the circle. Then add your photo to the top layer. Presto, just like Lisette’s design. What you’ll print looks like this, but obviously with the photo and paper of your choice:

The template is on an A4 sheet so you can easily run it through your printer on a sheet of A4 or 8.5×11 photo paper. Or make it smaller in the print settings and print it onto any size paper you like. Cut around the edge and create the rest of your layout with all the paper, flowers and embellishments you love.

Click here to download this free digital template.

Thanks Lisette for getting the inspiration started!

xlovesx

June: A Month of Colour


all photo masks in this post by Rhonna Farrer.

And now it all becomes crystal clear: welcome to June and a month of colour here at shimelle.com. Over the next thirty days, you’ll find challenges, projects, tutorials and articles all about colour. The projects cover a range of crafts and home topics, with pretty much everything coming back to a scrapbook focus in one way or another. Most exciting of all, there are some very special guests who will be sharing their ideas here, and I can’t wait for you to see what they’ve come up with. I hope you will join in too!

The jar of pencils and a few other colouriffic images will become pretty symbolic over the next few weeks, and today I wonder if asked to pick just one colour from this tin of pencils, which colour would you choose?

red hearts

As a little girl, I always chose the red crayon. It was the only crayon in my box that would be so short you couldn’t see it when you opened the box. If I used the sharpener on the back of the box, any other colours became streaked with red, since that was usually the only colour that needed to be sharpened. And I know I learned to write the word ‘red’ before I learned to write my name — I copied it off the label. I only remember because I then wrote it in every colour in the box and a grown-up looked and said it was confusing to write a colour in so many…colours.

green field

Out of crayons and a little older, my favourite colour changed. I discovered green, which had far more depth to its shades and didn’t seem to become an entirely new colour like how red turns to rose and then to pink as it gets lighter. Green is always green, whether light in spring or dark in winter pines. Maybe because of that early love of red, I thought green was a strange choice for a favourite colour, and I kept it to myself for a great number of years. One day it came up in conversation while choosing decorating colours for a school event and it turned out all three of us in the conversation had a love for green, and we all tended to keep it to ourselves. Over the next four years there were many suggestions that we our school change its official colours from purple and gold to purple and green, and at one point there were even swatches bandied about to show how the combination could work, even if it sounded repulsive. Of course the school colours never changed, but to this day I will add green to any purple-based colour combination…and rarely gold.

black and white drums

Somewhere in those first years of being out on one’s own, it seemed I was basing all my accessories on various shades of black, black and black. Hopefully I didn’t overdo it for too long — the combination of black clothes, pale skin and dark hair did make a few people surprised that I left the house during daylight hours. To be honest, the motivation behind this lack of variety in colour was entirely practical: it had to do with doing my own laundry and shopping on a student budget. For several years, I got by with a weekly load of black washing and saved all the other colours up for a trip to the laundrette once a month or so…and I can’t remember any incidents of accidentally turning my laundry red or grey or any of those other things that are supposed to happen when you start doing your own laundry. Soon the all-black phase passed, but I never really had any intention of giving up black classics, so I still value a black dress, black tights, black shoes and black eyeliner. And if I fail to add some colour to all off that, I find The Boy will comment on how easy it was to forget he married Emily Strange.

pink jellyfish

If you ask others to guess my favourite colour, I think most people would say pink. And I love pink. In my house, on my pages, in my hair — definitely all about the pink. But pink has a special status as my second-favourite colour of all time. Throughout all my phases of loving other colours of the spectrum, my second favourite choice has always been some shade of pink. (Strangely, I have the same system for films. My second-favourite film of all time has been the same since about 1993. The number one spot and all the other spots move around, but second-favourite is second-favourite: the perfect stalwart answer to any tough situation.) I am thankful that pink doesn’t seem to mind the lack of the top spot, and I’m pretty sure that second-favourite position will be hers for years to come.

green bicycle

So through all the phases, which colour will I say if you ask me for my favourite? It turns out my teenage self had it right: my absolute favourite colour from way back then right up to now is green. Not every shade, but quite a few. I got enough neon green in my childhood to shy away from that now…but lime is just fine. And I completely overdosed on preppy hunter green in the 90s, when I even owned hunter green denim jeans. But all other greens are pretty much fabulous in my book. If I could only own one colour of cardstock, it would be Bazzill’s parakeet green. Not at all practical, as surely white would be more adaptable, but parakeet has my heart. I buy it fifty sheets at a time and have to replenish more than once a year. I have parakeet coloured shoes…parakeet coloured cardigans…and let us not count how many parakeet coloured handbags.

scrapbooking colour challenge

Your first challenge in this month of colour? Celebrate your favourite colour. We did something similar in the first week of Scrap Like You Mean It this year atUK Scrappers. Except then the challenge was just to scrap with your favourite colour. This time, scrap about your favourite colour. Or colours! Why be decisive when you can include a dozen?! I started asking people this question a few days ago and it appears to be something many people don’t think about after childhood…but I reckon crafty types are different. So let’s see a little love for your favourite colour.

How you might complete the challenge…
…a traditional or digital scrapbook page
…a minibook of your favourite colours
…a photograph of you wearing or surrounded by your favourite colours
…a carefully arranged portrait of your crayon box
…a blog post telling the story of your favourite colour
or any other idea that comes into your head!

free digital scrapbooking download

To help get you started, you can download a free set of ‘my favourite colour’ photo overlays by clicking here. [PC users, try this download if the first option gives you trouble.] The download includes four .png files: my favourite colour and my favorite color in both black and white. The files are formatted for a 4×6 landscape photo, but you can move them around to fit any photo you like. (If you’ve never added an image over your photo, click here for a tutorial.)

There’s more to come later today: I’m telling you, this month of colour may change things around here! See you then.

xlovesx

Want to help spread the word about this month-long project? Add one of these logos to your blog or message board signature.

A Month of Colour logos: small medium large signature bar

…..

Two digital scrapbooking freebies for May

digital scrapbook page
Supplies: May Freebie by Carina Gardner, Gypsy Monograms by Rhonna Farrer, Spool of Stitches by Tia Bennett, Kawaii Cute Fruits by Kitschy Digitals, Naked Stamp Sheets 2 by Meredith Fenwick.

Oh, I do love a good freebie! Today I have two for you if you like your downloads to come for free — one from Two Peas and one from me. The first is Carina Gardner’s free kit for May, found here, with four papers and four embellishments all in lovely shades of pink.

digital scrapbook page
Supplies: May Freebie by Carina Gardner, Scrap Canvas 1 by The Queen of Quirk, Antique-It Overlays by Jen Allyson.

This page is almost free — I used the freebie kit plus a 99 cent template. The Queen of Quirk’s collection of templates is fab – I love how they are loaded with little extras like the scrolly swirl.

digital scrapbook page
Supplies: May Freebie by Carina Gardner, Peony Place Pretty Borders by Carina Gardner, page template from shimelle.com.

And because I love free and I love layered page templates, you can download this template free. Click here to download and it’s all yours. It will open in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, then you can drop in your papers and photos to make everything click into place! Enjoy — and share any pages you create with either of these May freebies!

xlovesx

Happy Birthday to...

scrapbook page

Happy Birthday to Two Peas! Two Peas in a Bucket is turning ten this month, and there are lots of things going on to celebrate. Things you might like! Things like…
...a host of lovely new things in the garden
...an online crop next Friday on the message board
...a real-live crop in Wisconsin at the end of the month—and I’ll be there, so come say hello!
...five free year-long classes, covering Photoshop Elements, seasonal layouts, creating an album of you, sketches, cards…lots of lovely stuff.
...a free digi kit for February.

So hey…it’s like enabling, except almost everything in that list is free, so there’s no negative about that at all. Free is my favourite price!

xlovesx