Lauren Meader from My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence created this beautiful Onesie card, and was then inundated with requests to explain how she created it.  She was gracious enough to post a tutorial to her blog so that everyone could create their own cards.  Her only request was that people remember to give credit to her for the tutorial and to use the cards for personal use only.  With that said, I have posted her card image with her permission, and hope that everyone who enjoys the tutorial will be kind enough to leave her a post and tell her how you found her.

Thanks for sharing so many great projects Lauren!

~ Jen

The lovely Ally created a gorgeous card that looks like a snowglobe. She was also kind enough to post a tutorial on her blog with the full instructions.

Here is Ally’s post from her blog:

Yup… apparently winter time is close.. well, according to this card it is!

I loved the 2 children out in the snow making a snowman stamp by Gina K. Designs’ called her “Got Snow?” stamp set! I paired it with the branch from the “Flowers for Daisy” set and I made it appear as if it were a snow globe.

First, I used my largest circular Spellbinder’s Nestability and embossed a large circle on to my card base. I ran a thin tipped marker along the embossed mark to make it stand out. Then I stamped the “Got Snow?” image inside the circle shape.

Then I coloured my image with Copic markers and chalks and finally added some liquid applique medium using a heat gun for some snowy dimension.

I then stamped 3 branch images on to a piece of scrap white cardstock, added extra colouring and shading using my Copic markers again and cut them out.

I adhered the 3 branches using a tape runner adhesive and some foam adhesive to help raise them off the surface of my card base. A few drops of cherry red Stickles for some berries and the card was complete!

Thanks for sharing your tutorial Ally!!

~ Jen

I came across a very helpful post today that shows how to animate a gif file in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I have to tell you that I was not even sure you could animate in PSE, and was very excited to find this tutorial and see how easy it was to follow. You can check it out here.

One of my favourite tutorials is one by Kate Rehmus. She shows how to make a stunning paper corsage. You can see the tutorial here.

If you create one of these, I would LOVE to see it. You can email your images to Tara at thynner@yahoo.ca or link it in the comments section.

Thanks again Kate for this amazing tutorial!

~ Jen

I came across this cute little card tutorial:

http://millymollytutorials.blogspot.com/2007/07/tiger-tiger-burning-bright.html

Hope you enjoy it!!!

For the font this week, I wanted to show you how you might use a particular font other than on your journaling.

1.  I first downloaded the “Typewriter Keys” font from dafont.com HERE.

2.  I opened my Photoshop program and created a new document using the same dimensions as a regular sheet of paper, 8.5×11.

3.  I created a black rectangle measuring approximately 4.5×5.5.  I’m going to be using my creation for a card so I only need a small piece of patterned paper.

4.   Then I created a new layer and clicked the text option.  I then typed in a whole line of random letters that spanned across the rectangular shape and off the edges.  I used a white font to show up on the black background.

5.  I then repeated step 4 and added multiple lines of font until the rectangle was covered.  Tip: You can add mini messages in your type, like “Happy Birthday” or “Have a great day”, or whatever message you would like depending on what you are going to use your paper for.

6.  Add any distressing or other digital elements and merge all your layers together.

7.  Print your page on cardstock and create using your piece of paper.

Here is my creation using the Typewriter Keys font:

Supplies:

Cardstock: Prism, The Paper Company. Stamps: Gina K. Designs.  Ribbon: Prima, Misc.  Flowers: Prima.  Arrow, Star: American Crafts.  Tools: Spellbinder’s Nestabilities.  Chalk: Craf-T.  Ink: Ranger, Copic.  Pen: Micron.  Other: thread.

I hope to see you make something using a font too.  Come and share with us here on the blog!

I searched for this wonderful tutorial by Heidi Brand the other day. I love the look of black and white and sepia pictures. I have been unhappy with the short cut options on my photo editing software and remembered the following tutorial:

Black and White Conversion in PSE ~ Heidi Brand

1. Open Image, and using the menu across the top, select IMAGE, this will give you a drop down menu where you will select MODE, that will bring up another drop down menu where you will select GRAYSCALE. It will then ask you if you would like to discard the colour information, hit OKAY. You should now see your image in black and white.

Now go back to IMAGE>MODE>and select RGB and hit okay.
2. This is a little flat, so you can now add some contrast to the picture. ENHANCE>AUTO CONTRAST or ENHANCE>ADJUST BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST, and play around with the brightness and contrast sliders so you see somthing that you like. In my example I have lightened it some and increased the contrast a little.

3. Now this is where it gets a little more complicated. From the menus at the top go to LAYER and select DUPLICATE LAYER from the drop down menu.
Now you need to go into the layers pallete, where you will see a box with a drop down menu. Currently NORMAL should be in the box. Click on the arrow down button beside Normal and the drop down menu will appear.

Now you want to select SCREEN, and adjust the opacity to taste. The box to the right where it says 100%. If you click arrow with the box saying 100, it will give you a slider to move so you can adjust to taste. I did a screen layer at 70%.
When you are happy with that go to LAYERS>FLATTEN IMAGE

4. Now to make the tones in the picture pop a little more, you need to go back to LAYERS>DUPLICATE LAYER and select okay. Now in the layers mode window, which should say normal, click on the arrow for the drop down menu and select the soft light layer, and go to the right and adjust the opacity to your liking. Once you are happy with what you have flatten the image LAYERS>FLATTEN IMAGE I used a soft light layer at 40%.

5. You can repeat the same instructions as in number 4 except using a hard light layer instead of soft light. Remember to adjust opacity to taste. I did a hard light layer at 50%, a little extreme but I wanted you to be able to see a difference.

You can repeat these layers as many times as you like. Just remember to flatten and save the image under a different file name when you are happy with it.
Also if you would like to add a bit of a warm brown tone to the conversion, once you have flattened the image hit CONTROL “U” check the colourize box and play with the hue and saturation sliders till you see something that you like, then hit okay.

^^^ I also wanted to let you know that these different layers, screen, hard light, soft light also work great to lighten and bring out different tones in colour pictures ^^^

I hope you enjoy this wonderful tutorial from CCAS gal Heidi Brand.

~Tara~

This week I’m going to show you how to make a card with a very simple iris folding technique.

Supplies:

• one card base (4.25×5.5 inches)
• die cut shape or exacto knife
• bone folder
• scoring blade or a Scor-Pal like tool
• tape
• tape runner
• patterned paper
• ruler & pencil

Step One:

Gather your supplies together and create a “window” of any shape in the front of your card.  I used a Spellbinder’s Nestabilities scalloped circle die to create my window.  You can also trace or draw a shape and cut it out using an exacto knife or use a large punched shape.

Step Two:

Cut your paper into 4 x 1 inch strips.  Fold them in half along their length.  Pass your bone folder over the folds to make them nice and crisp.  I used my Scor-Pal tool to create my folds.  For my shape, I needed approximately 12 folded pieces but this could vary based on the size of your shape.

You should now have enough folded stripes to cover your window.  For my example, I used two different coloured pieces of patterned paper, a yellow and an orange.

Step Three:

Open up your card to the inside.  Draw one straight line across the bottom of your window slightly longer than the windth of your window.  Using your pencil and ruler, mark up from the drawn line a series of eavenly spaced marks or dots up BOTH sides of your window shape.  You will use these marks to ensure your folded patterned paper pieces are straight and evenly spaced.  I spaced mine at every 1/4 of an inch.

Step 4:

Take your tape runner and run a line of adhesive around the top half of your design.  Starting at the TOP of your window, place your first folded strip with the folded edge pointing down, using your guide marks to ensure it’s level across the window.  I used some tape to hold down the ends.  I also trimmed some of the strips as I went.  The strips may not appear even from the back side of the card but they will be even from the front.

Step Five:

Repeat the process of added strips of paper until you cover the complete window shape.  Make sure to add more adhesive to the inside edge of the window as you get further down the window’s shape.

Step Six:

Cut a piece of paper to hide the tape and paper strip backing.  It should be slightly smaller than the front of your card.  Mine was cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  Adhere it over your finished back.

Step Seven:

Decorate the front of your card!  Now send it to someone special!

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: October Afternoon, Sassafrass Lass. Cardstock: Prism. Stamps: “You Are My Sunshine” set by Gina K. Designs. Ink: Ranger, Copic Markers.  Other: Craf-T chalk, Crystal Stickles, Liquid Applique and Ranger’s Glossy Accents.  Tool: Spellbinder’s Nestabilies, scalloped circle.

Here is an amazing themed mini album idea that was orginally posted by Jess Duerksen. I still look back at this fun and adorable album often.

Themed Mini Album ~ Jess Duerksen

We’ll be making a themed / shaped mini-book for our project today! So find your “theme” pics and all your supplies and we’ll get started!

Supplies you will need:

• a group of 6 - 10 pics on a similiar theme

• 4 - 5 pieces of two sided paper or cardstock

• good scissors or an exacto knife

• coordinating ribbon, fibre, etc

• matching embellies, rub-ons, etc

• beads and/or charms

STEP 1 : Choose a “shape” for your mini-book. I chose the shape of a barn for pics of my boys. You can get all kinds online.
Here is a link to give you some ideas for shapes
STEP 2 : Fold your double sided paper or cardstock in half and place your template on the fold (left hand side or top) and trace it and cut it out. Here’s mine unfolded…

Now do three or four more…depending on how many pages you want in your book..

STEP 3 : Put all your pages together (you may have to trim them slightly to fit once they’re folded together).
Punch holes through the fold so you can tie the pages together with ribbon or string….LEAVE A LONG END SO YOU CAN ATTACH BEADS AFTER IT’S TIED

STEP 4: Decorate the cover and add your pics, embellies and journalling…..here’s my cover…

Step 5: For the final step of your project, tie beads to the ends of your ribbon or string used to bind your book! It gives such a fun feel!

To see the entire album please check out the Resource section of the site!!

I plan on creating a themed album soon. I have some great pics in mind. If you make one and email your completed project to me at thynner5@yahoo.ca I will give you THREE ballots for this months Blog Prize Draw!!

~Tara~

This week I wanted to show you how to use those gorgeous Cuttlebug embossing dies in other way other than just embossing.

Supplies:

1. cardstock
2. ink
3. embossing folder
4. brayer
5. die cut machine

Steps to a Cool Effect

1. Gather your supplies together.



2. Evenly load the brayer with ink.  Try rolling it across the pad in multiple directions for more even coverage.
3. Roll the inked brayer across the surface of the RAISED side of the Cuttlebug die.  The brayer works great in this case because it gives you even coverage of the raised surfaces and doesn’t allow excess ink to drip into the grooves.

   

4. Carefully lay your piece of cardstock on top of the inked surface.
5. Send the sandwiched folder through your die cut machine.
6. Use the inked and embossed cardstock to create a card of your own design.

Supplies: Cardstock; Bazzill, Prism, Doodlebug.  Stamp: BasicGrey.  Inks; Ranger,  Tsukineko.  Pearls: Hero Arts.  Pen; Creative Imaginations. Ribbon; Must Be Sold-by-Spool.  Die Cuts; Spellbinders (Nestabilities).  Tools; Cuttlebug embossing die.

Since a new month has begun, don’t forget if you complete a challenge, use a spot lighted font, create a page using our word of the week or complete any of the other challenges during the month, link us up or send your projects to Tara at thynner5@yahoo.ca for a chance to win.

Good luck!  I would love to see what kind of creations you create with the technique.