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Monday, February 28, 2011

Product Flashback

Hello! Shanell Here to bring you a Monday edition of Product Flashback! A few weeks ago when the CT was making the valentine project, I found the Homemade kit was not one in my stash. I quickly got it and fell in L.O.V.E! I couldn't believe all the little details that Chelle had put into this kit! It was so fabulous, that I knew I had to share it with all of you.

What I loved most were the little baking touches. There are cupcake liner flowers, cupcake liner rounds, the frosting flowers in three colors are adorable! Plus the muffins, cookies, and cupcakes! We all know how awesome Chelle's felties are...you will not be disappointed with these ones either! I also had fun playing with the Christmas Add-on...
Did you realize there were TWO entire FELT ALPHAS in this kit??? plus, can you even say how cute the polka dot mitten is??? I used these two kits, which coordinate beautifully, to make a two pager about some Christmas cookies

My girls couldn't get over the chocolate chip cookies and sprinkles. I loved all the baking elements that I could use. My favorite though, I mentioned before, the CUPCAKE LINERS! Seriously cute stuff! If you haven't checked this out, I would take a closer peek!

Kayla (keepscrappin) also used it in a layout not about baking, that was super cute of her little girl.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Gallery Standouts


Hi everyone! Tracy back with another installment of gallery standouts. I say this every time, but I am always SO inspired by the beautiful work in Chelle's gallery!!

This first project is by digiScrappingBetty. Wouldn't you just love to get this beautiful thank you card along with your Girl Scout cookies? Makes a yummy treat even more special.

This layout by msbrad is so soft and pretty. I love the repeated circular theme and the offset layered background.

And finally, this layout by scrappin5kids is deceptively simple. But look a little closer and check out the amazing shadows on the little cluster in the bottom corner! Beautiful!
Hope you've enjoyed this little bit of eye candy! Make sure you load up your projects featuring Chelle's work to her ScrapMatters gallery and you could see your layout or project in an upcoming edition of Gallery Standouts!

Friday, February 25, 2011

New Release Friday: Furry Friends plus Blog Freebie!

Hello, hello! It is Friday and Chelle has a whopper of a release this week. She is releasing two full kits plus a mini. The Furry Friends collection is a must for any animal lover or pet owner. Fetch has the perfect elements for your playful pup’s photos. And Here Kitty Kitty is spot on for those mysterious and kooky cats. And then there is a mini kit addon for birds and other animals! And there is wordart too! You can purchase the kits individually or in a big combo pack. Plus, you get the mini kit for free this week if you buy the combo!

And here is a look at the big combo: And the CT really outdid themselves!

Tracy:

Liz:

Janine:

Karen:

Janine:

Melissa:

Cara:

Jan:

Fran:

Melissa:

Kayla:

Fiona:

Kassie:

Shanell:

Whit:

Kelli:

And if you made it through all that, here is a little coordinating freebie!

Have a great day!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sneak Peek!

Hi everyone!! It's Kassie, and I am so excited to show you a sneak peek of what Chelle has in store for you this week. She has been a busy lady! I just know you are going to love these....
Make sure to stop by tomorrow with the product release and some layouts from the CT!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tips: Blending In!

Hi Everyone! It's Jenn again... here to share some tips about Blending. I've been scrapping about a year, and had no clue what blending was until I started playing with my software. There is so much to learn in Photoshop, these tips are just touching what we can create with our digital scrapbook layouts!


Layer blending modes have been part of Photoshop for years, but I didn't think they were easy to understand at first glance. I was stumped!


Photoshop and Elements allow for layer blend modes that change the way layers react with each other. Some of them you will use in every day and become your favorites; while others you may never like how it turns out. These blending modes are useful on photos and digital scrap supplies. If you have a photo that is too dark, for example, a quick fix may be to duplicate the photo layer in the layers palette and change the duplicate layer mode to Screen. If a photo is too light it can sometimes be corrected by duplicating the photo layer and changing the layer mode to Multiply.


How do you know what layer blend mode to choose? Let's take a look, and take some of the blending mystery away! (A little at least, lol!)




The Blend Modes

Blending is how pixels in two separate layers interact with and effect each other. It might be helpful to think in colors and effects: The base color is the original color in the bottom layer. The blend color is the color being applied by the upper layer. Results are from the blend of those two layers.


Normal mode is the default. The colors of the two layers will not interact in any way. What you see in the image window is basically what you get.


Dissolve makes the lower layer take on the colors of the top layer, and how much depends on the opacity of the upper layer. The layer 1 opacity is set at 50% here. Disolve only affects pixels with some transparency, which is why I lowered the opacity to 50% in this example.



Darken Categories

The key color for the darken modes is white. Anything white will have no effect on the layers below when a darken category mode is selected -- essentially becoming invisible.


Darken compares each pixel value of the upper layer to its counterpart's pixel value of the lower layer and chooses the darker of the two to display.

Multiply darkens the lower layer based on the darkness of the upper layer. No part of the image will get lighter. Any applied tone darker than white darkens the lower layer. White becomes transparent.


Color Burns in the color of the upper layer with the lower layer. No part of the image will get lighte

Linear Burn works like color burn, but more intense to the colors.

Darker Color isn't really a blending. Basically, whichever is darker wins. Of the two layers used, the color will vary across the image, and change according to which is darker at each spot.



Lighten Categories

The key color for the lighten modes is black. Anything black will have no effect on the layers below when a lighten category mode is selected -- essentially becoming invisible.


Lighten works with the new color, if it's lighter than the color, it replaces that color. If it's darker than the color there, it doesn't add anything.


Screen brightens by lightning the lower layer based on the lightness of the upper layer. The result is always lighter, and makes it a good mode for correcting exposure in photos that are too dark.


Color Dodge dodges the lower layer with the upper layer, resulting in a lighter image. No part of the image will be darkened.

Linear Dodge works like screen but with more intense results.


Lighten Color isn't really a blending. Basically, whichever is lighter wins. Of the two layers used, the color will vary across the image, and change according to which is lighter at each spot.



Contrast Categories

The key color for the contrast modes is 50% gray. Anything 50% gray will have no effect on the layers below when a contrast category mode is selected -- essentially becoming invisible.


Overlay multiplies the light colors and screens the dark colors.


Soft Light will multiply the dark tones and screen the light tones.


Hard Light muliplies the dark colors and screens the light colors.


Vivid Light will dodges or burn the lower layer pixels depending on whether the upper layer pixels are brighter or darker than neutral gray. It works on the contrast of the lower layer.


Linear Light is the same as Vivid light but it works on the brightness of the lower layer.


Pin Light changes the lower layer pixels depending on how bright the pixels are in the upper layer. It acts like Multiply when the upper layer color is darker than neutral gray, and acts like screen if the upper layer color is lighter than neutral gray.


Hard Mix mode enhances the contrast of the underlying layers when blended


Difference reacts to the differences between the upper and lower layer pixels. Large differences lighten the color, and small differences darken the color.


Exclusion uses the darkness of the lower layer to mask the difference between upper and lower layers.


Tonal Categories

Hue changes the hue of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and saturation alone.


Saturation changes the saturation of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and hue alone.


Color changes the hue and saturation of the lower layer to the hue and saturation of the upper layer but leaves luminosity alone.


Luminosity changes the luminosity of the lower layer to the luminosity of the upper layer while leaving hue and saturation the same.


Final Tip:

This is one quick tip that I discovered recently that can save so much time, and make looking at the blend modes so much faster! If you are working on a Photoshop layer and have the move tool selected then you can use the shift key with – or + to go through the layer blend modes, from Normal, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply … right through to Color and Luminosity.



I hope you learned a little more about those Blending Modes! try them with textures, colors, and mix up pattern papers! You never know what you will get unless you play and experiment with your software!


Thanks for visiting! Share what you would like to learn more about -- I'll try to help you out!

Jenn (aka jk703 or The Typative Scrapper)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tuesday Freebies - March 2011 Desktops

Hello everyone,

It's Kayla (keepscrappin) here on the last Tuesday of the month with a new desktop freebie for ya'll. I can't believe how fast February is flying by, but I'm glad that warmer weather is on it's way. Today's desktops are made with two of Chelle's fantastic products - Girl Power and Lucky Me Alpha.

You can download the desktops here at box.net

Check back in tomorrow for some wonderful Photoshop how-to tips from our resident tip guru - Jenn!

Monday, February 21, 2011

****BEEP*****BEEP*****BEEP****
It's time for a CT call! Check this out!

CT Call

If you love Chelle's products, and would like to be on her CT (trust me, it's A-MAZ-ING), then send in your application today!
Call runs from February 21st to the 28th. Announced on March 5th! Hurry! We can't wait to see all the great applications!

Journal Jumpstart



Hello Fans of Chelle! Karen (aka merchi) here to share an idea for journaling!

When I have everyday photos that are just too cute NOT to scrap, I struggle with what to write in the journaling... "I really love your smile today", "you were happy to be outside", "wearing your favorite sweater" etc., can sound, well, rather boring.

Here's another option... why not interview your kids and put those questions and answers on a page? Or have them create a list of something, such as - that day's favorite food, color, toy, etc.

I had two really sweet photos of my kiddos doing nothing more than smiling at the camera, and decided to ask them (privately) what they loved about each other! I asked for a list of five things and scrapped three of them! There answers were so cute, and I know these are pages I will treasure... glimpses into 6 and 7 year old hearts! To make it a bit more authentic, I journaled using a font that looks as if the respective child wrote it themselves.

2010-09-01-3Things-L

2010-09-01-3Things-R

I used Chelle's Tell Me More kit and her Doodles: Border It element pack, both available in her ScrapMatters Shop!

I hope you try my idea, and if you do, please feel free to comment here and let us know, we'd love to see it and leave you some love!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Valentine's RAK Winners Posted Here!!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated and shared the kits they would love to have with us all.

The two winners chosen by Random.org were

Lieve and jennshultz.

Lieve I need you to send me an e-mail to jlsallen at hotmail dot com with your ScrapMatters screen name so that I can get you your code.

Thank you again to everyone for participating be on the lookout for another RAK coming next month!

Janine

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Gallery Standouts

gallerystandoutsheader

Hi everyone! Fiona (canadianmommy) here to bring you this week’s batch of fabulous gallery standouts!

Look at this awesome page from terri24601 using Chelle’s Hole In One and Pink Lemonade:

untitled

Now have a look at this amazing two-pager from scrappin5kids using Chelle’s Slam Dunk, Slam Dunk Team Orange. and Let’s Camp S’more:

daddy-bball-camp

This page from jocelinsmommy using Chelle’s Homemade Christmas and Stamped Foam Alpha, has beautiful layering:

SantaCookiesWEB

And Chelle’s kit Holly Jolly Holiday is perfect for this gorgeous calendar topper by emileem:

01-Jan_12-web

If you would like the chance to have your page featured on Chelle’s Gallery Standouts, just upload a layout using Chelle’s Creations products here. We would love to see your creation!

Friday, February 18, 2011

New Releases: Happy Quickpages, Just One More Story, and Cu Skinny Alpha

Another fabulous Friday!  Chelle is releasing some amazing products today.  First up, some of the CT converted their Happy layouts into Quickpages.  Use these to quickly scrap your photos!

Next, Chelle is also releasing Just One More Story, a collab with Graham Like the Cracker.  A sweet kit for those nighttime moments.  I absolutely adore that teddy bear!

And finally, a little CU treat, Skinny Alpha Doodles!  This alpha is beyond fun!  I can just see the possibilities!

  And here are a few pages from the CT:

Shanell:

Krisi:

Jan:

Fran:

Kayla:

Kassie:

Jenn:

And that’s it!  Have a fabulous day!