See ya later, Alligator!

I am absolutely loving the new Little Yellow Bicycle Splash collection and apparently everyone else is too! They have sold out of many of the embellies in the warehouse. If you see it in your LSS, snatch it up while you can!

I wanted to share a layout I did recently using a large photo, which I printed on my HP large format photo printer (I work for HP but I would still say how much I love their photo printers if I didn't work for them).  Anyway, I loved this photo and thought it needed to take center stage.

This is typical of my hubby. He can be quite goofy and we love him for that! 

I created the sun rays by layering them over each other nd anchoring them with elements from the paper crafting kit. I tied it out at the bottom with vellum tape (my fave thing from the new collection) and a dimensional sticker. 

Oh and I used photoshop to add the text to the photo before printing.  Thanks for stopping by today!

A Walk to Remember

Wow, 2 posts in one day. If you missed my news this morning check out my 1st post from earlier today.

I am SOOO happy to announce that I was selected to be on the Scrapbook Circle Design Team for the next 6 months. I loved their kits so much that when my girlfriend, Audrey, told me about the DT call I sent my application right in. I got my first kit, Happy Days, about a week ago and OMG it is AMAZING.  We have got some great things lined up for the month of February and I don't want to give too much away but be on the lookout for some HOPPIN' good opportunities to get your hands on your very own kit.  Until then, I'm gonna kick off the 1st project of February with something we like to call One Item Wonder.

Do you ever get something and WONDER what you will do with that ONE ITEM?  I am here to show you today what you can do with the transparency that came in February's Happy Days kit.  I also created this layout for the February Crop Suey Challenge, which is to use 9 different types of items on a project.

The dreaded transparency (actually, I am really fond of these but I felt it needed dramatic effect). The one I was given to work with is the yellow framed one on the bottom left with red metallic graph lines inside.

And now my layout:

Supplies: Pink Paislee Sweetness Pretty Lace Paper, Glitz Hoopla Polka Paper, October Afternoon Modern Homemaker Cheery Pie Paper, transparency, Basic Grey paper labels, Staz-On, Cosmo Cricket Alphas, Ribbon

 So, check out how I did it and then head over to today's blog post at Scrapbook Circle to see what Diana W did with her transparency (and to leave some LOVE):

1. I took my x-acto knife and cut out the inside of the transparency to make a frame and adhered it to the photo to draw attention to the cute little kiddos.
2. I stamped a swirly image using black staz-on to the leftover transparency.
3. I cut out 4 scalloped circles.  The transparency is SUPER thick and my punch would not penetrate it so I hand cut them. It doesn't have to be perfect because of what you will do next.
4. I took my heat embosser to them and melted away.  They ended up curling up A LOT so while they were still warm I just kind of scrunched them in my hands. Disclaimer: use gloves to avoid heat injury.
5. I re-heated them if I didn't like the way they looked when cooled and it worked like a charm. Some of the transparency turned white, I guess where I applied the most heat and I really liked the effect.
6. Once I was happy with them I applied them to my layout - 1 as an accent on the middle right and the other 3 are stacked on top of each other on the bottom left. 

Here's a close-up of the stacked "flower":

How cool is that?  And did you pay attention to what my 9 items were? I used Pattern Paper, a Photo Corner, Journaling, faux Lace Borders, a Transparency, a Label, StazOn Ink, Ribbon, a Button, Flowers, Alphas. Okay, so maybe I used more than 9 :) Make sure to head over to Crop Suey starting on February 5th to learn more about the challenge and how you can enter for a chance to win the prize from our fabulous sponsor.

And what are you waiting for? Lisa still has a few of the February Happy Days kits left so get yours hands on one while you can. :)

Photoshop Effects: Poster Edges & Opacity - Tutorial

This week I'm going to show you how to add some Photoshop effects to your photos. I had two beautiful photos that were almost the exact same. I could have scrapped them together but I really wanted to do something outside of my usual box with them. Here's what I did.

First I opened the image I wanted to manipulate in Photoshop. 

Original Image (photo permission by Allison Avenue Photography)

Then I added a Filter.  To do this I clicked Filter --> Artistic --> Poster Edges.  I adjusted it until I got the look I liked and clicked OK.

Double click the Background Layer in the Layers panel (if its not already displayed on the right hand side of Photoshop, you'll find it under the Windows menu).

Adjust the Opacity in the Layers window that opens. You may see a checkerboard effect. I adjusted the opacity on this image by 60%.

Got to Layers --> Flatten Image to see the result.

Here's the final result. Undo it and adjust Opacity if its not to your liking. Click to enlarge so you can see the poster edges along with the opacity.

Image with Poster Edges and 60% transparency

Original Image

Save picture under a new name so that you preserve your original photo.  If you make a mistake and save over the original you can remove the layers in photoshop but I highly discourage overwriting original files.

Check back soon to see how I use this in my traditional scrapbooking. Let me know if you try this and post a link in the comments section. Oh, if you need a great photographer with great prices in the Houston or Dallas area, contact Allison and tell her you found her on Heather Leopard's blog).