Texture plates and digital scrapbooking paper:

Textures aren't just for changing the look of a photograph! You can also use textures to change the look of your digital scrapbooking paper.

I have just completed a new set of texture plates that resemble different fabrics and fabric patterns.

Available at Etsy

These are great to use in layouts and paper that you'd want to look like its been printed on various types of fabric! In the following example, I've used the texture "herringbone-distressed", with a blend mode set to "overlay". The 'before' looks like paper, the after looks more like fabric:

Original "paper" +

Texture Plate "herringbone-distressed" =

"After", digital "paper" now has a fabric look to it!

In this example, I've used paper from an add-on freebie from an earlier post, you can get it here.
I used the texture plate twice on this paper,  set at "overlay" and "soft light" blending modes. Doing this has given this paper more of that textured look. Since the texture itself has some distressing added, this transfers to the paper as well.

Original "paper" +

Texture Plate "Cotton distressed" =

 "After", digital scrapbooking paper that now looks more like fabric!

Thanks for dropping by,

Happy Scrapping!

Marlene

Using textures in photography, 3 easy steps to take your photo from commonplace to compelling.

A few of weeks ago, I took some pictures of blossoms in our beautiful Niagara region. My DD lives just outside of the city, and on the street to get to her place are many orchards. During blossom season, the trees are just exploding with colour! Every day just gets more beautiful, until they reach their peak, and before you know it, it's all over!
I took some time to slow down, stop at the side of the road, and take pictures! I made sure to take my camera's manual with me, because I knew I would want to play with exposure and aperture. I still have a lot to learn about photography, but the best way to learn is to do it!

I still don't know what kind of trees I was taking pictures of! I did know they were pretty, and I wanted to capture that. I also wanted to create a fine art print, using some the of the new textures I've designed.


3 Easy steps to go from commonplace to compelling:
     1. The first step is to open your photo in photoshop, or photoshop elements. Make sure that you do all of the editing, cropping, and adjustments that you want to do at this stage.
     2.  The next step is to add the texture layer. There are always several ways to accomplish anything you want to do in photoshop. You could (a) go to "file" and "place" the texture layer, (b) open the texture, drag and drop it onto your photo. Holding down the shift key while doing this will ensure that it will be centred over your photo, (c) open the texture, drag and drop the layer in the layers palette onto the photo, or (d) select the texture, go to "edit" and click "copy", then "paste" it onto the photo. Using keyboard shortcuts is great with this technique.
Once you have the texture layer over the photo layer, you will need to adjust the texture's size to fit over the photo. Go to "edit" and "transform", holding the shift key will keep the aspect ratio when pulling the handles on the corners, or just grab the handles on the sides, and stretch to fit.
     3. The next step is to adjust the blend mode and opacity. This is where it gets exiting! My favourite blend modes so far have been, multiply, linear light, overlay, and soft light, when texturing my photos. I have had some success as well with duplicating a texture layer, and choosing 2 different blend modes at different opacities.
Opacity will also make a huge difference in the final outcome. You will most likely need to adjust the opacity so as not to overwhelm the photo.

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Experimenting with the blend modes and opacity is fun and exciting. It's great to see how much the mood, colour and lighting are transformed before your eyes as you do this. I usually duplicate the layers I'm working on, try a few different blend modes, and see which layers I like and want to keep, and get rid of the ones that aren't working. Sometimes it's a combination that's works out the best.
In my example, I used 3 separate layers to make my texture. I used texture layers from my new "Summer Sun Kissed Texture" pack.

 Available at Etsy

The first layer is "lavender mist", which has the blend mode set at soft light, and opacity is at 100%. The second layer is "TexturePlate-painterly", it's blend mode is overlay, and the opacity is at 85%, and the last layer, is "Sun Kissed Edge". The blend mode is linear light, and the opacity is at 40%.

 

A few more examples:

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, and as always, please feel free to leave a comment, tell me what you think, or share a link to your own textured photos.
Happy Editing!
Marlene

Freebie Friday! Textures for Photographers and Digital Scrapbookers

The sun is shining again, and the promise of summer is right around the corner. That puts me in a good mood, how about you? I have continued working on some more textures, and I decided to share a small sample of these newest creations with all of  you.

 

download 

These are 12 x 12, 300 dpi jpg's. They can be used as digital paper, or overlays in scrabooking layouts, or photographers can use them to texture their photos. See the previous blog entry for more info about texturing photos.

If you download, please be kind, leave a comment. Designers work hard to bring you freebies, we really appreciate getting some feedback.

Please feel free to link to your layouts, or photos!! I'd love to see your creations!!

Happy Scrapping and editing!
Marlene

Using Digital Scrapbooking templates to show off my new grandson!

A little catching up, since it's been a crazy couple of weeks! What an exciting and tiring time we've had. Since Eli has arrived into our world, my DH has been working with my brother in London (Ontario) during the week. My DD struggled with mastitis again, our church's family night program has wrapped up for the season, I've helped with a fundraiser, I've been sick, and we had a crazy wind storm! Whew!!

Hubby's work in London has been going well, however, he's strained his back, and he's resting it right now.

Thankfully, the doctor that saw my daughter believed her this time about the mastitis. With her first child, they told her she didn't have it, and did not offer any other help. Normally, a nurse will come to the house to see how new moms are doing, and especially if she's having difficulties, but the H1N1 flu was going around at the time, and there was no help for her. She ended up giving up breast feeding. In the long run, it was better for her and the baby, the pain stopped, and the baby was happier too.

But this time, the doctor prescribed antibiotics, and she was back to normal in a few days. And of course, the timing was impeccable, as that was also the day of the wind storm. Many homes were without power, and their house was one of the unlucky ones to be without for more than 24 hours. The house was too cold for a new Mom and a new-born baby. Even better timing, it was her hubby's first day back to work! She came to our house to get warmed up, as our power was back on after about 10 hours.

With them living in a more rural area, they are on a septic system, and without electricity, their basement flooded too!

There was so much damage to hydro-electric poles, trees, houses, and roofs. I've never seen it that bad! You could hardly drive around anywhere with there being a tree or pole crossing your path.

We are very thankful that we had no damage to our own house!

Now that we are healthy again, and the Internet is back up, and life is getting back to normal, I can get back to scrapbooking!

Using templates for digital scrapbooking is a great time saver! You can still use a lot of your own creativity, and have a lot of freedom to choose papers and elements in your layout, but the big choices, the layout itself, is done by a "highly skilled professional" lol.

One of my very favourite digital scrapbooking designers had a recent freebie posted on her blog. She gave away this delightful template! I was just looking for a template to show off my new grandson, and there it was in my inbox! aren't newsletters great? Whether it was the timing of the newsletter, or the great photos in the example, I don't know, but I loved this one right away, and got to work right away too!

Sahlin Studio

This is the layout I've done with it, using some pictures of our new grandson. These were taken the day he was born.

 

 

This layout uses products that I've designed, for the most part. 

The ribbon is a freebie I grabbed from a blog train a while ago, called "grandma's quilt" It is by Valerie Steinkoenig @http://www.geniabeana.blogspot.com

I put together a kit specifically for photographers to use to design cards and birth announcements. Its called "baby soft"

Available at Etsy

And this one I did, using Sahlin Studio products, that I intend to submit as part of the May template challenge:

Don't I have an adorable grandbaby!? I love him so much already!

Templates are a great way to get some of those layouts done that you've been meaning to get to, but haven't got around to it yet!

Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Scrapping!
Marlene

Random Acts of Kindness Challenge for me: a freebie for you

Our Pastor challenged us to do a Random Act of Kindness this week.

Sometimes we don't even realize how many we do in the natural course of our day, opening doors for people, holding the elevator, letting someone in line in front of us at the grocery store. I guess those are all good and kind things to do, but I believe he wanted us to step it up a bit, and do just a little bit of a bigger RAK.

• Should we count picking up our uncle from the hospital, and rearranging his furniture, so he can move around the house in his wheelchair? Nope, we would have done that anyway!

• What about cooking meals for same said uncle? Nope, we would have done that anyway!

• Or cooking for all the good folks at church on Wednesday, (I think we had at least 70). Nope, we would have done that anyway! 

• What about taking our grandson to the petting zoo, even though the ground is all soggy, and there weren't any animals there yet? Nope, we would have done that anyway! Sure was fun!!

My DH is a youth leader at our church, they met the challenge by handing out Hershey's kisses to strangers outside of the Canadian Tire store, instead of doing the fun things they love to do as a group.
Funny how some people won't even take a free Hershey's kiss from those eager young people! What's up with that?

I have to admit, I was a bit stumped this week. What to do, what to do!?


I just finished 2 new kits. I decided that all the work I've been putting into designing birth announcements should be put to good use! I gathered up what I'd created, made a few more elements, worked on the psd files, to make them into templates, and made a bunch of papers.

This is a new idea, I put these together specifically to make cards or small projects. The sizing is a bit unusual. I'd love to get some feedback about that! Is it something useful to photographers? Is it too different for the digital scrapbook folks? I guess time and comments will tell!!

Here is the first one I completed, it's available for sale at Etsy. I just love these bright colours! Very springy!

 Available at Etsy

So I guess my RAK isn't really that much of a stretch for me, because I finally decided to give away a brand new kit! I think I'm crazy to give it away, it has a lot of goodies in it.

It will only be free for a limited time, get it soon, it will be listed at Etsy on Monday!

This one is specially designed for the DIYers out there. It's everything you need to put your own 5x7 birth announcement, thank you or promo card together in beautiful soft neutral colours. It's also great for post cards, or brag books!



This kit contains:

• 12 300 dpi papers, in jpg format, in 5x7 size (take note of the size, it's for small projects!)
  
• 24 elements, 300 dpi, in png format, including word art, and 2 photo masks 
• 2 complete alpha's
• 1 ready made template, fully layered psd file.
• colour swatches

Click on the links below the picture to download.

The first one is the kit, it has three folders in it,
1. the Alphas
2. The Elements
3. the Papers
The elements folder has the word art and photo masks in it.

The second link is to download the template.

*by downloading these files, you are agreeing to the Terms of Use

Freebie Expired

Available at Etsy 

Every good and perfect gift is from above! Although not heaven sent, I do hope you enjoy this gift!

Please leave a comment if you download. 

Designers work hard to offer these freebies, it's nice to know it's appreciated!

Thanks,

Happy Scrapping,

Marlene

Using digital scrapbooking kits to design birth announcements

Our daughter is expecting a baby in about 2 weeks! 
(update: baby Eli Thomas was born on April 18th 2011, and what a cutie he is!
Click here to see him!) 

We are excited to be grandparents for the second time, no doubt about that!

A while ago she asked me to design a birth announcement for her. She wanted one that was gender neutral, and that she could send as an e-card, after her new-born photo shoot. She'll be getting professional photographs done, and they will be perfect for a birth announcement!
I hadn't really thought about designing birth announcements before, but this got me thinking.
It's not that different from designing a scrapbook page layout. The same principals for design apply. However, what's great about a smaller overall size, is it's a little more focused, with fewer embellishments.
It's not necessary to overload the page with elements, for the focal point should be the baby's picture!

I started off by designing one in brown and green.

Available on Etsy

And then another one. This one more green than brown.

Available on Etsy

I just love the bright colours in this one, and my DD did too! She chose this one, but not for a birth announcement, but as a promo card for her Etsy shop, Koole Knits.

Koole Knits on Etsy

These I started from scratch, making the "paper", scanning some ribbon, extracting parts from the ribbon, and so one. (except for the "flower", I had that one already)

Then I thought that I should use one of my favourite kits that I designed, "Snow Day" as the starting point. The colours are very appealing to me. I didn't have to use all the "snowy" elements or paper, some of the plain papers would look great. This kit has some fun elements, flowers and a tag I thought could be useful here.

 

Available at Etsy

So this is what I came up with.

Available on Etsy

Available on Etsy

If you've resisted purchasing themed, or holiday specific digital scrapbooking kits, because you want them to be more useful for everyday projects, there is a way to stretch their usefulness. Many of the elements or papers can be used over and over again in your everyday layouts, or projects.

This fits into the category of "thinking outside the box"!

4 things to look for:

1.   colour: Sometimes I'm attracted to a certain colour palette in a kit. This is a great place to start. It's not necessary to overlook the entire kit because of it's theme, if the colours are appealing to you.

2.    basic elements that can be used for many different layouts, like corners, stitches, buttons, staples. Really, anything in the kit that's not completely specific to a theme or holiday. In my "Snow Day" kit, I have several elements that don't have snow on them, journaling blocks, buttons, stitches, frames. They match the colour scheme, so they can be used in all kinds of layouts, especially if the colours are appealing to you. I used a few of them in designing some of my birth announcements

3.   plain or patterned paper: A lot of digital scrapbooking kits will usually have some solid papers, and patterns that would look great in any project. Depending on the palette you are working with for your own project, adding a complimentary, or analogous colour from another digital scrapbooking kit can look fabulous, and add visual interest.

4.   elements that can add some interest, they don't even have to "match", but just add a punch of colour, or a sense of "hmmm, that's interesting" Using elements in a new way, something that would be out of place normally, but may have a dual meaning to it.

Update: I have created a digital card making kit that has been quite popular.

Available at Etsy

Use your creativity, I'd love to hear about some of the ways my fellow scrapbookers have used their digital scrapbooking kits in different ways, and for different projects besides a scrapbook!

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Scrapping!
Marlene

Photography related vendors give-away now in progress

 

This is my contribution to the giveaway hosted at Photography Related Vendors 

This can be used as a birth announcement, thank you card, or promo card. I will even personalize it for you! If you are the winner of this prize, please contact me at: FigmentGraphics

It is also available for sale at Etsy. I am also offering a 20% discount at Etsy, use the coupon code at checkout: BIRTHDAY2011  

I  have used elements and digital paper from my digital scrapbooking kit "Snow Day", to create this birth announcement, and I am very willing to work with you to custom design one for you!

There are just under $2000.00 worth of prizes being given away. If you love photography, props, backdrops and templates, and want to get in on the contest, head on over to Ginny's blog, or facebook page: Photography-Related-Vendors on facebook.

A give-away and a freebie

Memory Lane Digital, my facebook page, is featured in a give-away, starting today!
To get a chance to win a whole lot, around $1000.00 worth, of photography related stuff, go to the Tiny Feet Photography facebook page here
Or  Tiny Feet Blog
I'm giving away a digital birth announcement I just designed.

If you want to try digital scrapbooking, getting a bunch of freebies is a great way to start!

My inspiration for starting in digital scrapbooking came about in a round about way, as I was looking for a better way to put together a layout for a slideshow. I came across Memory Mixer, which was reviewed by top 10 reviews. (gold award in 2009) Have a look here
I decided to purchase this software, and it kind of took off from there.

There are a lot of "freebies" out there, I have some links on this blog to a few of my favourite sites, and some do offer great freebies.

If you don't want to spend money on software, if you are unsure if this is right for you, there are some great options there too.

1. first of all, you could use "gimp", which is an open source software, with many of the same features as photoshop, but completely free! Gimp

2. Photoshop Elements has a free trial, good for 30 days Elements

3. Story Book Creator, from Creative Memories, also has a free trial: StoryBook

The best thing about these, are they are compatible with both Mac's and Pc's. That's great for me, cause I have a mac, which I love! I don't think I will ever go back to using a PC! ...I don't do "windows"!! ha ha.

There are many more software options, Photoshop Elements seems to be the most widely used, and the most serious digital scrapbookers go for Adobe Photoshop CS5 (or 4, 3...)
Photoshop Elements is much more economical, and powerful enough for just about everyone.
I would think that there are a lot of people using Storybook Creator as well. I have not used either one, so I don't know how they compare.
Which is your favourite, or wish you had tried instead?
I'd love to hear any reviews you have.


I've also got a freebie for you to grab, a sample pack of the digital papers I've been working on.

download

It's great to be home again, designing digital scrapbooking paper!

We've been home for over a week already! Florida was great, so was Myrtle Beach. Oh, sorry, Myrtle Beach North! The weather was perfect for shopping and walking, we got some good bargains, and had a great time with family.

We spent a week in Florida, and I loved the new decorating scheme in the condo. Last year it was tired and dated, this year, we walked in there, and we were very pleasantly surprised!

So of coarse, that got me started with a new colour scheme for some more digital scrapbooking.
I've been busy all week, I started off with designing some paper. I was working with patterns, designing my own, and modifying some I found online. I didn't realize how much fun that was. I usually don't go for patterns, preferring things plain and simple.

I made so many, there are over 70 different papers so far. I'm going to sell them in colour sets, at least 7 different packs.
Here's the first one:

Ken and I came up with "Orange Fiesta" for the name of the colour scheme. Leave a comment, tell me what you think of it, and if you have a name I might like better, I'll send you the pack of your choice for free!
I'll be posting these on Etsy soon, so put your thinking cap on, and let me know soon!


My DD also asked me to make a birth announcement for the new baby, something she can send as an e-card. I made 2 different ones, put them up on Etsy for her to choose one. This has her first baby's pics on it, it will be updated with new info in about 5 weeks! So exciting!
The photographer she used is Christina Claus, she does some awesome work! Check out her facebook page: Christina Claus Photography

I'm going to be a vendor in a give-away by tiny feet photography, which starts tomorrow! One lucky winner will get a huge amount of photography related stuff, including one of the birth announcements I just designed! Look for Memory Lane Digital on their facebook page tomorrow.

Here's their facebook page: Tiny-Feet-Photography
And their website: Tiny Feet Photography


Happy Scrapping, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

According to legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people.
The day is generally characterized by the attendance of church services,^[3][4] wearing of green attire (especially shamrocks),^[5] and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on fasting and drinking,^[6][7][8] which is often proscribed during the rest of the season.<sup>[9][10][11][12]

(from Wikipedia)</sup>

So did you give up something for Lent? I guess it's OK to have it today!!

Snow Day kit is finished

I've completed the Snow Day digital scrapbooking kit! Yay, it's done! I'm very excited to share this news, I've been working very hard to get this completed. I've used a great colour palette,  with neutral tones, a lovely cool shade of blue, and a beautiful purple colour.

Thanks to M for sharing her layout of Willow in the snow!

Please go to Etsy to purchase this kit!

And a few of my own layouts:

My brain is already on vacation!

Here's a sneak peak at the Snow Day digital scrapbooking kit I've been working on. It will be available for purchase at Etsy soon!

If you would like to receive this kit for free, just leave a comment with your email address, or just email me at figmentgraphics@gmail.com. The only thing I ask in return is that you do at least 2 layouts with it, and email them to me, and I will post them here on this blog!

This is a limited time offer!

I'm super excited to get this done, and quite proud of this kit. I'd love to get some feedback!

Thanks for stopping by,
Marlene

Busy, Busy, Busy

So how has your week been? I can't believe how fast time seems to fly by!

We didn't have a snow day this past week, even though there was quite a bit more snow last Saturday night, weekly activities continued on as normal.
My hubby and I are blessed to be able to have our grandson come to our house every Tuesday, Wednesdays are busy for both us, Thursday was weird, not getting stuff done that I wanted to get done, and well here it is Friday again already.

I went with my daughter and grandson to "Books and Babies" at our local public library, a free story-time program, this morning. He loves it, it's a lot of fun, with songs, stories, and play, and making a few friends too.

I'm looking forward to getting my hair done later today, and then a quiet evening at  home, digital scrapbooking!

In between the busyness of everyday life, we also managed to finish a puzzle that's been on the table for a couple of weeks, it was a doozy!, and I also made some headway on finishing most of the new kit I'm working on.

I'll bet you're looking for a freebie! So as not to disappoint, here it is, a mini add-on kit for Snow Day

So how has your week been?

 Download