another grid layout

This time it was for the weekly challenge over at jessicasprague.com. It was a challenge which "required" us to use a (free!!) grid that LivE made. You can see it over at her blog. (Thanks, LivE!)
The only other elements I used on this page were the following fonts...century gothic (surprise, surprise), CK Ali's Writing (download it free, here!), Wing Dings 2 (for the numbers inside the circles), and the star was from the cookie cutter tool. A favorite spot of mine to look for colors is kuler.adobe.com...check it out!

a simple layout

Sometimes you just have a bunch of random photos, nothing that "needs" it's own layout but photos you still want to include in your album. This is one of those layout.

A little bit of Photoshop info

Just wanted to answer a few questions people have asked me recently. I have had a few people ask me if I have thought about teaching a digital scrapbooking class. I am by no means an expert but it is something I really enjoy and have spent a fair amount of time doing over the last year. So, Eric and I are putting our heads together how I can best teach a class (for this class I will be using Photoshop Elements). We are in the preliminary stages of this but I'm excited! What I am hoping to do is a class in my home once a week for a month on the basics of Photoshop and basic digital scrapbooking. If you do not live within driving distance and still want to "take the class" I will have information available to you somehow as well. I am no expert but do think I can help you get started! ;) For anyone local and going to Cheryl's crop, I will be introducing some digital scrapbooking ideas (on March 15) and maybe even try to start the class the next week since I know many are eager to get started and I'm eager to see if I can do this! So feel free to e-mail (available through my profile page if you don't have it) me any ideas you may have or what you want to know as I try to put this information together.
Here's a couple quick answers to some Photoshop questions I've gotten lately.
Karen had asked where to start now that she has Photoshop. If you want to open a new document, say a new scrapbook page, go to File>New>Blank File>Enter (or just hit ctrl+N). You don't need to name it just yet, you can do that when you save later. Just enter the size of the page you want. For example 12 inches x 12 inches. Make sure your resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch, RGB color, and your background is set to white, then hit enter, and you can start creating your first page!
Angela asked what to do if a .png file did not have a transparent background. One way to make a solid color from an image disappear is by using the magic eraser. The eraser tool is about 3/4 of the way down on the left hand side (the little picture of the eraser!) Select it. Now in the tool bar at the top, select the third "eraser in" (if you hover over it, it should say "magic eraser tool"), click on the part of your image you want to erase and everything in that section that is that color should disappear.
Hope some of this has been helpful. I'll keep you posted as to what we are up to over here!

School Is Cool

This layout started with a sketch Jessica Sprague has on a list she calls 100 in 10 from her blog (you can find a link on her blog) and it has tons of great ideas for scrapbook pages. The sketch was #99. The papers I used was from a free download this summer from Creating Keepsakes, called J.Strawberry Lemonade, the fonts were Marcelle Script and Swashes, and for the text I use Jessicas circle template (another free download) and Century Gothic.. I'll add some links to those items later.

A little feedback.

Not for me, but over at http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/. She's wanting anyone interested in digital scrapbooking to give some feedback about what specific Photoshop technique you want to know more about. As a bonus, she's giving away 2 of her brand new books, Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 2 (her 1st one is awesome and I havnen't ordered her new one quite yet). Just a little plug for Jessica, I can't quite say enough about what I am learning over there!

I have a thing for feet!

Now that class is over I've moved over to the general message board over at www.jessicasprague.com . They have weekly challenges and this is the first one I'm tackling. Part of the challenge was to use a cool effect called the Orton effect on the photos...thanks to www.kimikreations.blogspot.com.

fivesourlimit

This is a quick little photo for my new friends over at the Jessica Sprague playground. Some of you were asking about my username, fivesourlimit....these 3 would be the reason 5's our limit! :)

Got Valentine's?

We're just finishing up some Valentine's for Holly's class tomorrow. I couldn't resist putting these together after I saw the homemade play doh idea in Family Fun (and with a little help from my friends perfecting homemade playdoh).
1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. water
2 tbsp. oil
food coloring or kool aid

I boiled the water, then added the oil to water. I had all my dry ingredients mixed together and poured boiling water and oil over top and then mixed well. To get the pink play doh color I used two packages of pink lemonade kool aid. For the red we added lots of red food coloring to the water and oil before mixing it with the dry ingredients.
Then we rolled it out and used cookie cutters to get the heart shape. The celophane bags are from Michaels and the bag toppers I made up in Photoshop. The ribbon is from my local scrapbooking store (it's American Crafts brand).

Assignment #4

Week 3 Assignment

If you have ever thought of taking a digital scrapbooking class you HAVE TO take this one!! I can not believe all the fun stuff!!!