For Spacious Skies

Wow! What a week of fun at Scrap Girls!!!

We've been celebrating our "Staycation: Road Trip" with lots of gorgeous new products, games and prizes. My stop on the road trip was a National Park. Based on my trip to the gorgeous Big Sky Country and Yellowstone National Park, I created my For Spacious Skies Collection. Though it is themed on the Western United States, it is versatile enough for many other geographic areas. It's perfect for all types of outdoor adventure: hiking, camping, climbing, geocaching, and general exploring.

Embellishments included with this collection, OR available separately:

Paper included with this collection, OR available separately:

The Scrap Girls Layout Artists truly outdid themselves this time! Here is some gorgeous eye candy! :)

By Anna Burrows:

By Melanie Cockshott:

By Monica Lebsack:

By Sue Maravelas:

I hope you are pursuing many adventures as summer winds down here in the northern hemisphere. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Digital Art Journaling: Step-by-Step

Art journaling is not exactly new among paper and hybrid scrappers, but incorporating this style into a digital format is a relatively new concept.

It can be hard to know where to start, especially if you have never done an art journaling page project before (or, like me, you have never scrapped with paper!)

In order to make digital art journaling a little easier, I have created the first (in hopefully, what will become a series) Value Pack that is geared specifically toward digital scrappers who would like to try art journaling. It is called "Go Left" and is available exclusively at Scrap Girls:

I used only this Value Pack to create my art journaling page, "She Shall Determine Her Own Path."

 

It might look complicated, but it was really quite easy and fast (and fun!) to create. Here's how I did it:

FIRST: The idea
Recently, I ran across the saying "When nothing goes right, go left." So, I themed this pack loosely on that phrase. I wanted it to be about choices, decisions, life paths and journeys. I included a general pack of embellishments, including my Victorian ladies, a pack of word art with lots of arrows and then some masks and blenders.

 

When I designed the page, above, I was thinking about how far women have come in the last few centuries and how most of the women before us may have never dreamed possible the advancements in equality that women today enjoy. (Well, at least most women in developed countries...but, you get the general idea...)

SECOND: The background

I opened an 8.5" x 11" document. I decided to use the paper ephemera included in the pack to piece together a background. I changed the angles on some, flipped and rotated them, until I got this:

 

 

THIRD: The midground

Next, I added one of my Victorian ladies. I duplicated and resized them and converted the largest one to grayscale (SHIFT+CNTRL+U). Then I arranged them from largest to smallest and changed the opacity and blend modes. Here are the settings I used (left to right, largest to smallest):

Blend Mode: Darker Color, Opacity: 79%

Blend Mode: Darker Color, Opacity: 84%

Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%

 

This is my "midground" result:

 

 

FOURTH: Edge and corner masks

Next, I added some interest with an edge mask and a blender. (Specifically, JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-1 along the left side and JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-4 in the upper right corner). I sampled a white color from the paint splotch in the BG (already on the paper included in this pack) and clipped that color to the masks. Then I arranged them over the midground layer and it ended up looking like this:

 



 FIFTH: Word art
Then I added some word art in the corners (JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_WA_ThisWay). First I distressed the word art, by using one of the masks (JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-4). To distress it, I placed the WA in a layer OVER the mask. Then I clipped the WA to the mask and moved the mask around until it distressed the word art the way I liked it. Then WITH THE MASK LAYER ACTIVE, I CNTRL+CLICKED the WA layer. (Marching ants should appear around the WA). Then I inversed the selection and hit DELETE. This removes the excess mask and leaves only the distressed WA. Then I arranged the WA and my page looked like this:

SIXTH: Embellishments

Finally, I added some flowers across the top of the page. I resized them so they were quite small, added drop shadows and -- Voila! -- my art journaling page is complete!

 

This is just ONE way to use this Value Pack for art journaling. You could also:

• Create the background by clipping a fill layer to the masks/blenders and layering them.
• Use real photos, instead of the Victorian lady.
• Create a midground with styles applied to the embellishment templates in the word art pack.
• Create a midground by recoloring and layering some of the word art, like a collage.
• Apply styles to the mask and blenders instead of clipping them to a fill layer.
• Add more embellishments.
• Use no embellishments.
• Add your own journaling to the page with a pen tablet or handwriting font.

The options are quite endless! I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step journey through my art journaling page and I look forward to seeing how you incorporate an art journaling style into your digital pages.

 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

NEW: Over The Rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.

Do you love rainbows, poppies, emeralds and bluebirds, but hate flying monkeys and bad witches? Then this collection is for you! Inspired by the song made famous by Judy Garland, Over The Rainbow is perfect for spring and summer projects, and layouts featuring babies, kids, weddings and anniversaries.

Paper samples:

 

 

Eye candy:

 

 

 

 

 

Layout by new Scrap Girls Layout Artist, Monica Lebsack:

 

Thanks for looking!!! :)





Going Buggy AND Doing Good! :)

So, it seems like it's finally Spring here in Penn's Woods, which brings BUGS of all shapes, sizes and creepiness. My kids LOVE to collect all kinds of creepy crawlies, so I created this collection for bug-lovers of all ages:

 

 

 

 

 



 

AND, did you know that twice a year Scrap Girls creates a gorgeous collaboration kit for sale and donates every penny of its sale to a charity? Well, it's true!!! And the newest collection is ridiculously gorgeous and all proceeds are going to the charity, Food for the Poor.

 

The collection is called Simpler Times:

 

A layout using Simpler Times by April Martell:

 

 

You can read about Food for the Poor and check out the blog post on Blog for the Poor about our charity collection!

 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Think Spring with Tree Of Life!

Even though it is still FREEZING here in the northeast, my mind is on Spring. Spring makes me think of trees and all of the things trees represent: family, life, growth, strength and renewal.

 

It also comes with a coordinating solid paper pack:

 

 

With these two items, you can make tons of different layouts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And while you're at it, you might want to check out the entire SPRING category over at Scrap Girls digital scrapbooking.

 

Think Spring and Happy Scrapping! :)



Dreamy or Broken Hearted?

Valentine's Day brings a trove of love-filled collections. Hearts, love-birds, sweetness and lace are featured everywhere. That's cool -- but what about the other side of love? Sometimes love goes bad, and for THOSE stories, I created, Love Hurts:

 

 

 

 

But, I haven't forgotten the lovers and dreamers!!!! So, here is another new collection, called Beautiful Dreamer. It's perfect for many dreamy and romantic projects.

 

 

Here is a paper preview -- they are highly-textured painted canvas, some with large patterns.

 

 



 

 

 

Have you heard of Pocket Life? Visit the Scrap Girls digital scrapbooking blog, to learn more about Pocket Life and how it can make is SO much easier to preserve your memories!!!

First Collection of 2013!

Well, 2013 is here and I am still on a creative roll! Had a refreshing visit to the West Coast (which inspired some ideas for future projects) and now I'm ready to get busy creating!
My first release of the year is a collection that was truly a labor of love. It is very near and dear to my heart. Unbroken was born from the grief I suffered after the loss of my youngest brother to suicide in 2007 and my need (since my son was only 7 weeks old at the time and my daughter just 2) and desire to keep living.

The color palette of somber greys and whites represent the bleakness of that time. The reds -- a powerful color of our life's blood, of strength and also of love -- symbolize the fierce anger I had (and frankly, still have) for my brother for leaving us, as well as my utter love for him. Also, the love of my husband, my love for my kids and the support of our family and dear friends, which anchored me and provided the desire to go on. Teal, being a cool and often calming color, stands for the acceptance of a situation very far from my own choosing.

One of the ways I worked through my grief was digital scrapbooking. People who say that artful pursuits can be therapeutic and cathartic aren't kidding! It doesn't solve all of our problems, of course, but expressing our feelings in a creative and artful way really can help bring focus and closure in times of trouble.

This collection, while useful for projects focused on living through and surviving a seemingly unconquerable life change, is also versatile enough for celebrating life's happier moments -- most notably weddings and anniversaries. It can be used exclusively by digital scrapbookers, but it also can be printed and used in hybrid projects, as well, such as art journaling books.

Thank you for letting me share a bit about this work!

Without further ado, I give you Unbroken, a digital scrapbooking collection available exclusively at Scrap Girls:

Detail of the papers included with Unbroken Collection Biggie:

A layout for my brother, Joel:

A wedding layout for my other brother, Jonathan:

Talk about challenging -- martial arts IS! Yes, that's me. :)

The above layout also uses
ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Grunge Block by Brandy Murry, available exclusively at Scrap Girls.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial, New Products AND a Sale!

Need gift tags? There's a great hybrid tutorial on the Scrap Girls digital scrapbooking blog  showing you how to add a personal touch to your gifts.

Click image below to learn how to make cool tags like these:

Today is new release Thursday and I have two new collections for you! Preview images are linked.

And for those who celebrate Kwanzaa (December 26 - January 1), here is a mini collection just for you!

The 31%-off Santa Sale is still going (ends midnight on the 15th, so don't wait!), so you save big on all products in the Scrap Girls boutique.