A little dragon fall festivity for you! :0)

Hi, everyone! I'm here to announce the next Stamping with the Dragon Challenge Blog challenge. It's a sponsored challenge, and our wonderful sponsor this time around is none other than Stamping Dragon Designs! :0) We have a theme to follow, and this week it is Fun Things to do in the Fall, so bust out your fall coloring mediums, your leaves and apples and cider, and show us what you've got! :0)

For me, fall has always been filled with family time! With recently moving to WV, our annual trips to the cider mills and orchards that we were so accustomed to have halted (none of those near here!). This is probably one of the hardest adjustments of our move for me. I had a great time remembering our great times in the past, though, while I worked on these cuties! :0)

Click the Image to Enlarge

These cards use images that are currently available in the GRAB BAG for a HUGE discounted price (and there is one more image in that grab bag that I do not show here, so hurry over and pick yours up before the price increases on Nov 1!). The Grab Bag price is $3.00, and individual images are that, too.....so it's a BUY ONE GET TWO FREE DEAL!!! Woohooo!!! Janette also offers three other GRAB BAGS this month (again....only available for a few more days!) that include digital paper packs and one with her great decoupage items! 

Ahhhh....back to my cards.....hehehe....Here are some additional pictures of the cards, closer for a better looky-loo! :0)

Click the Image to Enlarge

This image is called Cart Ride. So much fun to go on a wagon ride as a kid! I love going on the BIG wagons, at the farms, and through the corn fields on farm tours. Nothing like the crisp, cool air and a wagon ride! :0)

For my card, I used a Meljen's Designs sentiment that was a freebie on her site some time ago. It is cut with Spellbinders Label Eighteen die. The Prima leaves are attached to the card with some ribbon tape, and the papers in the background are by K&Company. I colored my image in PSE (I've been really lazy about busting out my Copics, lately. :0(  )

My next card uses an image called Jiggy Leaves.

Click Image to Enlarge

I used the same Prima leaves on this, as on the other card. Jiggy is colored in PSE, too, and I used a lot of texture and effects on him. Here is a closer look at the coloring I did on Jiggy.

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Nothing too fancy-shmancy today.....I'm trying to make my cards so that they can be mailed easily, and I know I had been really working the 3D embellishes, lately, so I cut back a bit here. :0)

I just love dragons, don't you?! There are loads of dragon images available in the Stamping Dragon Designs Store, so be sure to stop by and check them out......right after you stop by the Stamping with the Dragon Challenge Blog to post your entry! :0) You have two weeks to enter......you don't want to miss your chance to win! The prize up for grabs for this challenge is a Four Images of your Choice from the Stamping Dragon Designs store!   :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Again, don't forget to stop over at the store to see all the Stampin' Dragon Designs images, and be sure to check out the rest of the highlights on my fellow DT's blogs for more great inspiration! (Their blog links are all located in the left sidebar of my blog for you! :0))

I hope you will join me next week for more Stampin' Dragon Designs eye candy! Happy Crafting!

Bugaboo is hosting a challenge at CDAC & PCP!

Hey, everyone! Do you like Bugaboo Stamps as much as I do?! They are hosting a Wacky Wednesday Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC) and also on Paper Craft Planet. You can win some images if you enter, but you only have until next Tuesday,  so..........HURRY! lol!

Here is my entry for the challenge, which is to create a card using NO designer papers and THREE buttons.

(Click Image to Enlarge)

This image is from the Ava & Deacon stamps that Jodie draws. I just LOVE this one! I used Stampin Up Card Stock, Garden Green, for my base, embossed with Cuttlebug's D'Vine Swirls folder on two ends. For depth, I inked over the swirls with SU Ink, Handsome Hunter.  My Deacon image is colored in PSE. I used some SU punches to make the scalloped sentiment layers, and the flower and bee shapes are from my Nesties. My bee has vellum wings, and the black is colored on the paper with my gel pen. The buttons I had in my stash: I was happy they match closely! :0)

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to enter your card in the challenges! 

A Mo Manning Image combo,,,

Hi, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the week, so far! I have been very busy making many baby shower invites for my sister! I'm excited, and looking forward to becoming an Aunt!! Yay! This will be her first baby, and she already knows it's a girl. :0) She even chose to use the name I picked  - Mikayla. (I like it spelled the traditional way, Michaela, but she decided to change it up a bit.)
Anyhow, I am making her some shower invitations and decorations, both of which I will post at later dates. I am still working on all the layer pieces for the thirty cards I'm making, and I get soooooo tired of repetitive crafting, but I am making progress! I took some time to play with my PSE program yesterday: I went to Mo Manning's site, Mo's Digital Pencil, and picked up this cute baby image at the beach (you can find it here), plus I bought her Beach Elements images. I guess all this baby shower stuff has my ooh-ing and coo-ing over the baby images! lol!! Well, I have been working on coloring in PSE, and I did some image combining and coloring with these two. Here is my result:

(Click on picture to Enlarge)

I played with lots and lots of layers in PSE to color this in. I wish I had a professional printer that captured all the shading and highlights better, but I am still pleased with it! It took me a looooong time! I used Mo's colored image of her beach as the inspiration for my colors, and I did my best to imitate her style of coloring. 

Here's the digital version of the image to show you some of the shading and highlights better (with my watermark on it to protect Mo's images)

(Click on picture to Enlarge)

I cropped the dash lines off the border when I used it on my card. The red and light blue paper strips were taken from my scrap pile (which needs desperate thinning, I might add!), and the sailboat bg paper I created in PSE. 

Well.....I really should get back to the shower invites; afterall, we can't have a party if no one shows up, right?! hahaha!

Happy Crafting!

Challenges I have entered this card into:

Card Makin' Mamas - Challenge #22 - With/For a Child

Floweret - Challenge #5 - Vacation

AiFactory Challenge Blog - Summer Fun

Paper Play Challenges - At the Beach

The Rubber Cafe - Summer

Playing with PSE

Hello!
I have spent the better part of my day playing around with my PSE! I learned how to create my own color swatch file, so I made a file with all of the Copic Marker colors....which I am too cheap (aka "poor") to buy! I was so thrilled when I figured it out!! Once I finished that, I played around by coloring in one of the recent Bugaboo Stamps freebie images with the colors. It looks awesome on the screen, but when printed, the printer ink does not pick up some of the color depth. It still looks good, but not as good as I'd hoped (hey.....a girl can dream, right?!). lol!
Anyhow, here is what I colored

(Click Image to Enlarge)

I can't take credit for the colors used because I copied Jami from Stamp Happy! (she's part of Bugaboo's design team, and I looooove her work!!) I love that she shows what colors she uses - it helps me - I'm a color dunce sometimes! I am working really hard at shading, so I played around with the gradients and angles more today than normal. I learned a few things (all "by accident! lol!), and had so much fun! I'm going to be putting this on a card, but won't have time tonight, so I'll post that then. 

Have a great rest-of-your-day! Happy Crafting!

For Leo, by special request from "Your Gang"!

Click HERE for the free download

Free for one week, and then the link is going to be disabled.

The Peanuts Gang is always in season in my book, so even though this is a Halloween themed pack that is a bit away, it was a request from someone on the SVGCuts.com forum. Obviously, the Peanuts gang pics are copyrighted, but please do not redistribute my file. You may use these for personal use only, and please link back to my blog if you wish to share with others.

Garden Veggies - Freebie DigiPapers

I love the new digicarts over at SVGCuts.com. Mary recently released two new packs of vegetable garden-themed SVG Cuts that you can use to create beautiful projects with your Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot programs. I didn't have any patterned paper to use for veggies, so I found some free clip art online and made some! You may download these files for free! Please be sure to read the Terms of Use included in each! Thanks for stopping by, and I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment!

You can download the corn papers here

You can download the pepper papers here

I'm not sure if this is a turnip or a radish (I think turnip, but I think I named the files as "radish" - oh well! You decide!).You can download these papers here

SOME INSPIRATION

Melanie is having a contest on her blog, and she posted this photo as inspiration to create an entry.

This photo inspired a digpaper pack from me. You can pick up this pack of papers for free for ONE WEEK only! After that, I will be listing them on my Etsy.com site (and if you like these, you should really check out my Etsy Store for more goodies, at super affordable prices! ~hint!hint!)

THE FREE DOWNLOAD FOR THIS PAPER PACK HAS EXPIRED, BUT YOU CAN PURCHASE IT ON MY ETSY SHOP FOR ONLY $2.00!

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think!

Here's my card for this photo. I'm a couple days behind in posting it! I loved the flip flop digi stamp that Melanie used, so I went and picked it up, myself, for this! Hope you like!

Free Precious Baby DigiPaper Pack

I had a request to make a baby digipack of papers, so I found some really cute clipart on the web at Clipart For Free and put this pack together. You can download this pack here:  Baby DigiPack Paper Kit.

Please note: Terms of Use - Personal, Non-Commerical Only. Not to be used for website design or for resale without my written permission. Copyright 2010 Cafexpressions.com.

Please leave a comment!

Seashore DigiPaper Pack

I'm having so much fun on my PSE program this weekend! Over the past two days I worked with a beautiful palette of color to create some seashore themed papers. It includes four soild colors, four textures, and nine patterned papers.  You'll find sea grass, seashells, sea horses, and lighthouses. All are a hi-res, 12 x 12 size.

Thee free download for this paper pack has expired, but you can still purchase these papers, and others I have created,on my Etsy site! They're super affordable! :)

Copyright 2010 Cafexpressions.com

Summer Melon Time, and another digipaper pack!

NOTE: THE FREE DOWNLOAD FOR THIS PACK HAS EXPIRED, BUT PLEASE VISIT MY ETSY SITE TO PURCHASE! (SEE LINK BELOW).

Please visit my Etsy.com Site to purchase them for a very affordable price!

Note: These are for PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY!

Do not redistribute, share or sell these files without express written permission from me.

Copyright 2010 Cafexpressions.com

Go me!!

I made my very first digital paper pack! Go me! Go me! Go me!
I used a color palette, that I created on Colour Lovers, and my PSE 8 to come up with this montone packet of papers. I'm calling it "Coffee and Cream". Yummy!

Please let me know what you think of my combo! I'm going to print some up to make a card this week. I'll be certain to post it! :)

Ring Ceremony Layout

Using the photo I edited in my previous post, along with some others, I made this layout for my son's book. This past weekend was when he received his class ring during a ring ceremony that is a school tradition. He is officially a senior now, and I wanted these memories to be captured on paper! :)

Material List

CTMH Emporium Paper Pack

CTMH Cranberry Brads

EK Success Tiny Flower Punch & 1" Circle Punch

Paper Piercing Tool

SVGCuts.com Scalloped Shapes Digicart

A little PSE fun today!

This weekend was my son's last weekend for school. every year there is a "Junior Ring Ceremony" held at St. James Chapel on the campus. This ceremony is when the Juniors receive their class ring. A senior presents the junior with his ring, and then the junior turns his ring around to signify the end of his senior year and the beginning of the senior year for the current juniors. So........Kyle is now "officially" a senior!

After the ceremony was over there was completed, several of the juniors hurried to "Senior Circle". This is the lawn area in front of the barracks buildings. There is a gazebo in the center of the circle, and there have been stone paths laid from four different directions to the center. Underclassmen are, under NO circumstances, allowed in this circle; it is for seniors only, and something that each and every underclassmen understands from the first day they set foot on campus.

I clicked a photo of Kyle at the gazebo that I just love - it shows his beautiful smile, and his face is beaming with happiness. It is as if I managed to catch the true feeling he had of becoming an "official" senior. I'm certainly not a pro photographer, so when I come home and see that shot that captured him best, I am thrilled!!

Because of the hype of the circle, others were present taking photos and I had to do some editing to make my pride and joy the focal point of this picture. I used Photoshop Elements 8 to work some magic. I outlined Kyle using my Polygonal Lasso Tool, and then "copied via layer" under the Layers Menu. I then hid the other layer and clicked over to the "Quick Edit" mode to brighten his cutout image a little bit.
Back to "Full Edit" mode, I showed all layers again, making sure that the cutout highlighted image was the top layer. I then hid the cutout image, went back to "Quick Edit" and darkened the bottom layer a little. (The goal for me here was to create more of a contrast between the background and Kyle). Once the layer was darkened to my liking, I went back to full edit, and while still working on the background layer, I chose the Gaussian Blur effect. This created a blurred, darker image for the background. I then flattened my image to the photo you see here! I can't wait to work on the scrapbook layout with this. I think I'll make it a 5x7, and after adding it to the other pictures, this will make a nice double page layout. :)

Review Parade Layout

Today I worked on a traditional layout for one of the "donation" albums. I had no idea where this page was headed when I started working on it, and I am pleased with the way it turned out; especially, because I had no final goal for it! :)

The photo doesn't really do the colors much justice. I used some older papers and colors that I have had in my stash for a long time.

Material List

Stampin Up Card Stock - Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders - Spots & Dots, Swiss Dots, Tiny Bubbles

SCAL Shapes File - Circle, Square

1/4" Brads

Misc Craft ribbon from my stash

MME Magnolia DP

Stampin Up ink - Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss

Sponge Daubers

Cuttlebug

Cricut Expression
Photoshop Elements 8

For the photo in the lower right corner I used a Gradient Map to make the photo black & white. Then I used a brush tool to "erase" the b & w on the areas where I wanted full color. 

Thanks for looking at my blog! Enjoy!

Boston Layout

It has been a while since I have posted: life has become increasingly busy at my house! Spring cleaning has kicked into high gear here, and it has managed to suck up most of my free time.
I do have books to finish, so I did sit down today and work on a double digi-layout. I used a freebie template from www.freedigitalscrapping.com for both pages. The colors are all chosen from the large photo of the two boys. I did make a minor alteration to the Fenway Park template (changing it to one large and one smaller photo from it being a three-photo template).
I did more journaling on this layout than I think I've ever done before, and I am so happy with it!
Thanks for checking it out!

Note: I use Photoshop Elements 8 on my iMac for my digital artwork.

PhotoShop Elements

Today was an exercise with my Photoshop Elements Program. But....before I can go into that, I have to back up a little. :)
For a long time I have wanted a new scanner. The one we had was a flatbed scanner, but it does not have a driver for my new iMac, and it doesn't work with Windows Vista, which is on my laptop, which is what I use for my Sure Cuts A Lot and SVG files. Well.......after a year or more of putting off buying one, I finally bit the bullet and purchased an HP Photosmart Premium printer/scanner. I LOVE it! It prints beautiful photos (in part thanks to the additional photo black ink cartridge it uses), and it has several nice scan features, including not taking forever to heat up the scan lamp!
Anyhow, I wanted one because I, like most others, have many, many, many (you get the picture) snapshots from "back in the day" before digital cameras were all the rage.
One of the things I wanted to scan in and work with on my PSE program is a photo from my wedding day (in 2002). We had a phenomenal pro photographer, and I have a GORGEOUS, albeit disgustingly expensive, photo book from images I paid dearly for, but I wanted to use this one particular photo that someone shot at our wedding, right after we finished the ceremony and walked outside of the chapel to be whisked away by the limo. It really captured the true joy on both of our faces, but the photo was definitely over-exposed and needed to be cropped, BIG TIME. Here is the photo, untouched:

And here is what I did with it:

I first created an adjustment layer, and then used my Cookie Cutter tool to create a feathered photo frame (there is also another layer added and merged to the cookie cutter to add the cream color).  Today I learned, after much poking around the filters options, how to warm up my image to help diminish the over-exposed colors. I LOVE that feature!! I have so many over-exposed images in my collection! lol! (You'd think I would learn to adjust the camera, right?? Sheesh - talk about poor usage of technology, huh?!) LOL! Anyhow, the end result made me so happy! What a huge difference, I think!

After I finished my photo editing, I used it for my scrapbook page that I was SUPER excited to make! You see, recently I purchased a new SVGCuts.com file, called Fairy Tale Castle. (I may talk tough, but really I am just a girly-girl at heart - I just hate talking like one. lol!) I know.....you're thinking, "What???".

Back to the scrapping........I used this file to make a page element for my page (because this was all born in my brain LONG before I even bought the scanner, mind you). I stamped my papers with a texture stamp that I have ( it's called "webbing") in three different pigment colors: Galaxy Gold, Platinum Planet and Cosmic Copper - all from Brilliance Archival Inks. I used some glossy copper cardstock that I had in my stash for the rooftops. I ran the rooftops through my Cuttlebug to make them textured. I left the flags hanging out the bottom of the embossing folder so that only the roof is embossed, and not the flags.

I used pop-dots to create the dimensions with all the layer cuts.

The roses on my page were a freebie SVG file from Mary (she's the whip! Seriously! Go check her out if you haven't already - www.SVGCuts.com!) Anyhow, I actually layered them with two additional bottom layer cuts, rotated a bit, to raise them a little more than just the two layers had allowed. I did some sponging on the edges of all the cuts beforehand, to add a bit of warmth and depth to them.

The vine and corner vine is a cut from a Cricut Cartridge called Storybook. This is also sponged, and I ran it through my Cuttlebug using my polka dot embossing folder.

I haven't made my title for this page, yet. I am still deciding what it should say. (This is almost always my last step, and almost always my most difficult decision when scrapping).  Here's the ones I've narrowed it down to :

"May 3. 2002" in the top right corner regardless of what else I choose from:

"Our Story Begins...."

"Happily Ever After Starts Now"

"Truly, deeply, madly..."

 I could really use an opinion or two on this - any suggestions???!

Here's the page! I hope you like it!

MATERIAL LIST

SVG Files - Fairy Tale Castle, Freebie Rose  - both from www.SVGCuts.com
Cricut Cartridge - Storybook
Papers - All Stampin' Up - Apricot Appeal, River Rock (retired), Blue Bayou (retired), Confetti Cream, Mellow Moss
Ink - Stampin Up, Not Quite Navy & Mellow Moss
Sponge Daubers
Tombow Mono Glue
Cuttlebug Machine
Cuttlebug Polka Dot Embossing Folder
Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles (I think this is what it's called??)
Texture Stamp "Webbing"
Brilliance Pigment Inks - Galaxy Gold, Platinum Planet and Cosmic Copper

Winter Bliss Layout Page with SVGCuts.com Collection

It has been a busy, busy season! My son has been home, I've been catching up with some of the greatest friends EVER!, and I've been trying to find some time to sit down and complete some scrapbook pages I've been working on, as well as learn my new Adobe CS4 programs!  I did manage to sneak in some time to work on this sgl page layout! :) (I bought a new SVGCuts.com collection called Winter Bliss, and I LOVE it!! So I had to pull up my SCAL this weekend!) 


I have been playing with my Adobe programs, and I used a gradient map to make my photo black & white, except for my husband, to help him stand off the busy background.

From the Winter Bliss file, I used the 12 x 12 Trees file (cut at 11.5" sq). I used SU Bride Specialty paper for the negative, and The Paper Company Studio "Snowflake Diamonds" for the frame. I matted my photos on three mats that are 1/4" increments larger than the 4 x 6 photo. I used Stickles "Icicle" on the bottom white mat.
I cut the Short Icicles SVG and shrunk it down to fit my picture - this also has Stickles "Icicle" on it.
I cut the title SVG in white, and then cut a blackout shadow at .5 setting in the SU Bashful Blue color to bring the page base color forward in my layout.
I used the Snowflake 1 and two of the Snowflake 2 SVG files and a blackout shadow layer (same colors as the title), along with some more of my Stickles "Icicle" to finish it off. The top left corner of the photo frame was layered so that I had to use two pop-dots, stacked on top of each other, on the part that isn't on the photo to keep it even.



I was pleased with the way this one turned out! I just love this picture of my hubby in his snow gear! To backtrack for a quick sec - this was taken outside our garage two years ago when we had snowmobiles. We had some friends over, and spent most of the afternoon riding. It was cold, but a "good cold" and it did snow part of that day. When us "old folks" were done, we hung outside to watch the kids while we drank our cocoa (it's actually Ovaltine - I'm a HUGE fan!!! Just ask my friends! hahaha - little inside joke, there). Anyhow, he looked like a big, cold bear in his Way-too-big snow pants, so I clicked this photo on my way in to be warm! :)