On the 10th Day Of Christmas....

... We bring a new gift to thee.....

Come on sing it with me now??   Who has carols pumping through the house and their tree up?  Now that we are in the spirit let's round the bend and get our cards done and out the door!


I'm BACCCCKKKK!!! And today I bring a quick tutorial on how to add and change out drop shadows!  In this tutorial I am using CS6 version, in PSE you can follow along in most versions until I separate the shadow onto a new layer.  In older versions of PSE you cannot put the shadow on it's own layer but you can still change the color... and of course I will show you how!


To get started open up the template for the card #10 given to you in the email.

1) Choose a chunky or bold font to type out your title.  Here I used Cooper STD, which is free.

2) I typed each letter of "merry" on it's own layer, so that I could change the colors or add pattern as I desired without changing the whole word.

3) Use the tutorial on alignment and distribution from Dec 2nd (here if you missed it).

4) Now I used papers from the kit this card was made from because I like the texture added in.  But you can easily just change the color of the letters to suit your needs.

5) Now that each letter is complete with pattern paper, you can merge it and make it into one word.

6) First you need to rasterize the type and then make them all one layer.  Select ALL the layers of the word you are working with.

7) Add a stroke to the word.  I used size of about 20 here.
Layer --> Layer Style --> Stroke

FOR PSE USERS... HERE IS WHERE YOU CHANGE YOUR COLOR TO MATCH YOUR CARD.  CLICK JUST TO THE RIGHT OF THE SIZE LINE AND THAT IS YOUR COLOR CHANGE OPTION.

8) Put the stroke on it's own layer by clicking the word "Stroke" on the layers panel and using the drop down menu that says "Create layer"

9) Once it is on its own layer you can manipulate the color and or add another pattern to it as well.

10) Finally I decided I needed a little more oomph to the word so I added a SECOND stroke to both the "merry" and the stroke outline... only at 7 this time and a green to make them pop.

11) Add in a small drop shadow and you have a beautiful title on your card.

Note:  You can do this for more than just words.  I repeated this WHOLE process to add an exact matting around the rectangle in the template so I wouldn't have to guess size or alignment!  Give it a try!  Here is my finished card... Be sure to share yours with us!  ENJOY!

It's not to late to share the fun with friends.. get them in on the 12 Days of Christmas cards and envelopes by signing up here. 

For this card I used the "Christmas Wishes" Digital kit that can be found in my shop on Etsy here. 

Dear Santa,

This year I have been a very, very, VERY good girl and I want.....

Does this sound familiar?  Well let me help you jump start your letter writing for the kiddos with these hand crafted one of a kind "Dear Santa" stationary.  Each of them print at 8.5 x 11 and are usable over and over again!

Be sure to send your friends and share the fun.... also post pics of your letters using #dearsantachristmaswishes for your chance to win the WHOLE "Christmas Wishes" kit that I used in creating these letters!

I have had some requests to change titles and dates... so if you are interested in something like that leave a comment and I will do my best to accommodate you as soon as possible!

Download here for Letter 1

Download here for Letter 2

The whole kit can be found in my Etsy store here:

Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas Cards

Hello!   Today I am here with my Christmas card for sketch and template #2 on the route for the 12 days of Christmas Cards and Tutorials!   Here is the card I made using CS6 digitally with the template and then I printed it out both the card and envelope so they are ready to send off!

In this tutorial I will show you how to use one of my favorite techniques to align your elements and perhaps photos and mats perfectly and quickly every time!   I will show you screen shots from PSE 10 since that seems to be the most common program ... enjoy!  

We are going to add stars to the circles in the template.  

1) So once you open the template and clip your pattern paper to the circles merge the layers for easier movement on the card. (Shortcut CMD + G for Mac  Alt + G for PC)

2) Now add the star and drag it over near the circle.  As you can probably tell it is pretty difficult to get it to line up perfectly and evenly inside that circle.  So here is the secret...

3) Select BOTH layers, the star and the circle embellishment.  Now for PSE go to the top where it says "Align" and select the option to "Align vertical centers" from the drop down menu.  Repeat and select the "Align horizontal centers" option to make sure it is centered completely inside the circle.

VOILA! 

4) Add a little drop shadow to each of the two layers and it is perfect!

*Quick tip:  You can do this as well if you have embellishments that need equal spacing.  By using the option right next to "Align" the "Distribute" function.  This is perfect if you are adding in buttons or something.  You can Align them so they are all even along the bottom or top, and then distribute them evenly along a certain space!   Great tools for making things even and spaced!

For this I just duplicated one of the circles and made it three.

1) Choose the "Align" menu and align the bottoms of the circles because as you can see they are not even after I copied and moved it.

2) Select the distribute menu now and distribute centers:

EASY right?   I love this little trick for adding in buttons or sequins and having things spaced for me so I don't have to do all the zooming and guess work!

For this card I used my brand new "Christmas Wishes" kit available in my Etsy store here.

Thanks for stopping by... if you have friends that want to join in on the fun be sure to have them sign up for the 12 Days here! 

Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies

WOW!!!!  December already?!!??!  I cannot believe how fast 2014 has flown by!

This year I am so thrilled to be invited to participate in the WWCSF event!  I have a new kit releasing today, Cyber Monday and I am here as part of the blog train freebies to share with you a preview of the kit and a mini sample!   I hope that you enjoy it and will check the whole kit out at my brand new Etsy shop here.  Please enjoy the freebie and don't forget to leave some love for the other designers as well!

If you get lost the master list is here:  http://dschristmasaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/

Have a great holiday season and happy scrappin'!

Christmas Wishes Mini Freebie

The whole kit includes:

-16 Papers 

-1 Gold foiled Vellum paper 

-8 Journal cards

-6 Polaroid frames (and matching cut files!)

-1 Hand drawn font (which is mobile ready)

-26 Embellishments from flair and washi tape to cork and gold foil goodies 

-7 Cut files in SVG format 

Here are a few pages made from the whole kit:  

By Chelle BB

By:  Karen Fitting

by Karen Fitting

By Hannah Wilde

Letting go go Perfection and a Little Gelli Printing

Okay, so for years I have been that "perfect" scrapper.  You know the one... 90 degree angles, balanced embellishments, matchy matchy papers and core elements.  I loved how some of the pages in the galleries looked all mish mash and messy but I could never allow myself to add that feather embellishment from the package on my page because "What did a feather have to do with my page?"  Oh the anxiety...!  Then came all of the sprays and inks and water color painting... I thought I did good with the distressing on the edges (what was that soooo 2002?) Oh the insanity!  How could you just willy nilly spray and add drops on to a perfectly designed page that took you HOURS to complete?  What if you messed up or the drops got on your favorite picture or you hated it... NO THANK YOU!

....And then I met this group of girls who I do a stash swap with, and over the last few months we have chatted and traded ideas and encouragement.  Lately a few of us have pondered whether or not to change the name of our little clique from "ScrapHappy Stash Swap" to "Enablers Anonymous."  The reason I joined the group was to get rid of exactly this stuff I had and wasn't using.  Then it happened YouTube videos, Spreecasts, and the constant *blip* of my Facebook chat that told stories of amazing discoveries and opened up questions like "Does any one have deli paper I could trade ____ for?"  Wait...  "WHAT is this deli paper and WHY do I NEED it RIGHT NOW?"  (See "Enablers Anonymous" for sure!) That is the moment I jumped in and won't ever look back.

There used to be something so freeing about cutting up beautiful pattern paper, that you never want to admit you spent more than your kids' allowance on, just to turn around and glue it all back together to result in this perfectly planned page or card that was a work of art.  Then this new version of messy came and the word art took on a whole new meaning and a whole new level of fun.

Finally after weeks of chatting about it I dove in last night for my FIRST messy experiment... it went like this:
-Step one:  Procrastinate and look on FB, IG, watch TV.... too scary.
-Step two:  Take a deep breath and get out the supplies.

-Step three:  The kids see you and look interested so you show them the YouTube video.  They ooh and ah, so you know you are on the right path!
-Step four: DO IT!
Not even one whole swoop in my son decided he had to replicate the YouTube video and pushed me out of the way... how can I say no that bonding time?   Other than the fact he is stealing my new toy!
   

Proud Mommy moment ahead.  As soon as the boy got done with his 6 step project, he decided that it was a good night note for his sister who was at a sleepover a few houses down... so we walked at 920pm to deliver the first ever made Gelli print!  (I know the pic isn't great but it is something I wanted to remember...) 

So once I got back the Gelli Plate and had my turn on it....I WAS IN HEAVEN!!  Colors, and messes, and papers everywhere.  You really can't go wrong here!  It is just one creation after another with paint all over, but so worth it.  

Although there are no rules to this here are some things I learned: 

-Sometimes it is hard to know what you are going to create but try to keep your darker colors early on in the process.  It all ends up weirdly "sandwiched" and you can see all the layers but the darker colors cover up some beautiful work.

-Acrylic paint is awesome!  It comes off of everything BUT the paper!  We had it all over the table, our hands, the brayer had it caked on it, and all we needed was some warm water and baby wipes. 

-The video shows some cool circles cut out of plastic and I couldn't for the life of me couldn't find my transparency sheets so I just cut from the plastic packaging of the stencils and it worked great!!! We did this for leaf shapes, and squares, and letters! 

-You can use anything to add texture and create shadows and texture to your images... paper towels, tissue paper, bubble wrap, cloth. 

-The paint dries on the brayer and after several layers it wasn't a smooth application on the Gelli Plate so I did have to stop and clean that off before I could go on. 

-I personally LOVE the shimmery look that the videos show and they are transparent enough that you can see all the cool layers under as you add more and more.  BUT they are NOT good for words or letters, use a darker or more solid paint for that. 

-I used the brayer to get a good solid impression.   I did just like the video and added the paper then brayered over it all. 

-The glitter paints do not work for patterns. 

-Some of the best results are the ones you weren't even creating!

Here are just a few of last night's projects: 

The top left are 4x6 cards and next to that 3x4 cards

The bottom with the pink is our "smoosh sheet" 

 Another of our "smoosh sheets" I will use for something!!

An up close view of the shimmer from on of the 3x4 cards.  This was also a card I just kept adding all the negatives to from the plate after I was done with that stencil. 

Now get out your paints and Gelli Plate and own your mess!  What is your experience?  Any favorite recipes?