Hello everyone! Dawn, aka winkasheart, here to give you an idea of what is in the store that we can use to create something wonderfully hybrid! As I was perusing the store last month, I saw this fab little ablum and couldn’t wait to try it out. This was created by GG Digital Designs and is called Halli Layered Mini Album.

Isn’t it fabulous?! And even better…it’s all done for us! All we need to do is plop in our photos, print it out, cut it out, attach to some chipboard, embellish, and viola! A gift for giving this holiday season, or keep it for yourself.

To create my album, that is basically what I did. I added photos to the pages, saved them as PNGs, but you can just save them as JPGs if you like. I happen to like having the transparent background so I can move them around on a 8 1/2 X 11 layer to print as much as I can on one page. And because I like to use what I have on hand, after I cut out the individual pages, I traced around one of each size onto the back of an empty 24 pk soda carton. And I used that as my chipboard. I figure it does’t really matter if it is acid free or not, because this is a gift for my niece, and will be handled and looked at quite a bit…so this particular album is not made to last forever.

Then I attached the pages to the chip board, punched holes, added the ribbon ties, and added a few embellishments where I wanted, and it was done! It only took me about a day, and I have another gift all done and ready for giving. Here is a glimpse of a couple pages and the whole album.

So even though the pages are all predone, I made it my own by adding extra things from my stash. So next time you are in a hurry and need a quick gift, be sure to check out the store for premade albums. And have fun with it!

Happy Wednesday! Mary (littlehiccup) here with our second Word Up Challenge. When I found out that I would be doing a Word Up challenge, I immediately thought of my dh. Not because he talks a lot and definitely not because he always knows what to say, but because he suffers from what we like to call Foot in Mouth Disease. For those of you who are not familiar with this disease, symptoms include making comments with good intentions but end up coming out terribly wrong. You may know someone who suffers from this condition, or maybe you have this disease!

Here are some examples:

“That doesn’t make you look fat at all.”

“I like your haircut; it makes your face look round.”

and there are many more!

So your challenge today is to come up with a LO that features one of those times when either you happened to put your foot in your mouth or someone else did.

You will have until 10/31 at midnight to scrap your layout, and when you complete it, you MUST post it to the Word Up Challenge Gallery AND in the forum to get credit.

Your completed layout will earn you one point in the new Matter of Scrap Challenge System.

In addition, you can earn another point by using a newly released product (you must scrap and upload your layout within the first 7 days of the products release – and remember, you MUST indicate that you used a new release). At the end of the challenge, I will choose my favorite layout and they will win an extra point towards their November points!

Remember, no double dipping…your layout must be unique to this challenge.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Hi everyone!  I am here to present this week’s template challenge.

Our family and close friends have been really into Rock Band lately, I mean REALLY into it!  We all get together and play any weekend night we get!  We have “dinner club” where once a week or so we all get together for dinner and trade off hosts between the three families, it’s become a tradition and everyone looks forward to it, the kids, adults, everyone, even the dog I think!  Now we’ve added Rock Band to the regular dinner club menu!  LOL

So, your challenge is to use the template and tell us what you do having fun with your friends.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Here is mine:

The Rules:

Complete the challenge with the above template and theme.  You have the rest of the month to get your layouts in.  Deadline is October 31 at midnight.  You will receive one point for completing this challenge.  You will receive an extra point of you use an SM new release.  At the end of the month I will pick my favorite layout from the entries and that scrapper will start November with one additional point!  ScrapMatters products are not required, but we sure love seeing them used!  And no double dipping allowed, one challenge per layout (can’t use one layout for two challenges).

Please upload your entries to the Tuesday Template Gallery.  And then link it up to the forum challenge thread here to receive your point(s).

So, go have fun telling us how you have fun with your friends!  I can’t wait to see all your entries!

Hope you all enjoy, I know I will love seeing them!  Any questions?  Just PM me, I am virginiajen.

Andrea (chia) here, pre-writing my blog entry because I’m leaving for vacation and return the day before this will be published. And when I get back I’m going to be busy loving on my children because I have a hunch that I’ll be missing them incredibly!

BUT I can’t say that I won’t enjoy the time away! I think we all need and deserve some time away for a bit of rest and relaxation. I found some great vacation/travel quotes as I was preparing for this trip (because every avid scrapper thinks ahead about future layouts, right?)…

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.
– Lao Tzu

A traveler am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.
– Kahlil Gibran

A trip is what you take when you can’t take anymore of what you’ve been taking.
– Adeline Ainsworth

A vacation is like love – anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.
– Author Unknown

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.
– Earl Wilson

Be an explorer. The universe is filled with wonder and magical things.
– Flavia

For travel to be delightful, one must have a good place to leave and return to.
– Frederick B. Wilcox

He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.
– Chinese Proverb

I can’t think of anything that excites a great sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
– Bill Bryson

I hoped that the trip would be the best of all journeys: a journey into ourselves.
– Shirley MacLaine

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one.
– Elbert Hubbard

No matter what happens, travel gives you a story to tell.
– Jewish Proverb

I’m sure some of these could inspire a layout or two. I’ve already got some brewing!

Here is one I threw together last night from my trip using Britt-ish Designs kit Enchantment…

There is a thread in the forum here where you can post vacation/travel inspired layouts that you complete this month. This won’t be for points or prizes (but I’m sure there’s a way you can incorporate it into one of the Matters of Scrap challenges). It’s more just for sharing with each other some of the fun and relaxing things we’ve been up to! Can’t wait to see and hear about yours!

Good Sunday morning! Judy (chigirl) here to bring you another interview brought to you by the SMG. Today we are going to meet one of the new designers at ScrapMatters, the fabulous JenLin.

I’ve been a fan of Jenn’s since the beginning and read her blog almost everyday so I am thrilled she has joined us here at ScrapMatters.
So grab your coffee, tea, whatever… sit back and read a little about Jenn.

1. Your screen name? Your real name? (Which do you prefer we use on the blog)
Screen name is JenLin, which is also my designer name. You can just call me Jenn though JenLin is a combo of my first & last names.

2. What is your main job/career?
First and foremost I’m a SAHM to our little boy, Bennett. I consider myself a part-time designer, as besides being a scrap designer, I also still take on graphic design projects from time to time, too.

3. Are you married? Children? Pets?
I’ve been happily married to my DH, Hunter, for 7 years. We have one little boy, Bennett, who is 2 1/2 years old. We’re also so excited to be expecting our second child next April!

4. Where is home for you?
Originally upstate NY, but currently we reside in Virginia. DH is an Army officer, so we tend to move every 3 years or so.

5. What are your 3 favorite foods?
oohh.. only 3?! I guess I’d have to choose any sort of dark chocolate, a real NY bagel (everything w/veggie cream cheese!), and Hawaiian pizza!

6. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
It’s always been mint chocolate chip – preferably from Baskin n’ Robbins.

7. Snacks…Salty or Sweet?
Definitely salty! or even better is a combo of the two like chocolate covered pretzels! You could definitely consider me to be a carb junkie.

8. Beverage of choice?
Pre-pregnancy was definitely coffee, and I probably drank way too much of it in a day. Now it’s decaffeinated iced tea, although I’d kill for a huge Starbucks right now!

9. What’s your least favorite food?
hmmm….. I guess I’d have to say asparagus. I keep trying it in different things, but just don’t like it.

10. PC or Mac? What program do you use?
I’m a PC girl. I use PSCS3 for scrapping/designing, as well as a little bit of Illustrator when I’m designing, too.

11. How long have you been digi-scrapping? How did you get started?
I started digiscrapping about a year and a half ago. I used to make a lot of signature tags for people with pictures of their families/children and such – and a lot of digiscrap freebies were incorporated into them. From there it was just a natural progression to doing full LO’s, and that peaked my interest in designing.

12. What was your 1st LO about?
My very first full-size LO was pictures of my son’s first time in the big bathtub, and he had such a great grin on his face (along with a shampoo mohawk!)

13. Do you have any other hobbies besides digi-scrapping (are there other hobbies)?
You’re right – are there other hobbies? LOL I do love to cook, so I guess you could call that a hobby. I tend to not stick to any recipes, but will create my own dishes out of whatever we tend to have on hand. For the most part they work out pretty well.

14. What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you?
It really takes me far too long to complete a LO. I think I’m definitely my own worst critic. The biggest challenge for me is to know when to stop I think. I tend to create a LO and like it – but then I can’t stop moving things around. I just need an ‘give it a rest’ button

15. What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking?
I definitely need to become more organized. I’m not exactly the best housekeeper either….lol. My main priorities are being involved in my family

16. What are your favorite movies/TV shows?
I hate to admit it, but we’re TV junkies. Thank god for TiVo! My fav. shows are LOST, Prison Break, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, The Office, and Heroes. I tend to TiVo quite a few trashy reality shows, too, to kind of have on in the background while I’m working.

17. Describe your “scrapping” environment. Music? TV in the background? Drinks? Snacks? Where?
Definitely TV is always on. I have a laptop, so I sit in a big overstuffed chair w/ my feet up on the ottoman and watch tv while I’m working. I don’t do a lot of eating/drinking while I’m on the computer though, due to an unfortunate iced tea accident a few years ago that fried my old laptop

18. If you only had 2 elements to use on a LO, what would they be?
Oohh that’s a toughie! I think I’d choose flourishes/brushes of some sort and ribbons.

19. Would you like to share a little known fact about you…?
Well, I think of myself as being very shy, and sort of introverted, but my close friends & husband say they’d beg to differ. Guess it depends on what sort of situation I’m in. I definitely have a huge fear of speaking in public, to the point where I’d probably throw up instead! LOL

20. How would you describe your design style?
I’m not really sure what my design style is yet. I think that it’s still evolving as I keep learning more. I do love kind of clean, uncluttered looks, and I’m a stickler for everything being usable if that makes sense.

21. Favorite LOs that you have done?
There are definitely a few LO’s of mine that I’m really pleased with for sentimental reasons. The first was very difficult for me to complete the journaling, the second tugs at my heart because my little guy has such a sense of independence in it, and the third is when we officially became a family.

Hi everyone, it’s Sharon here (aka skyezak) and I’m here to show you a technique in Photoshop that you may not be aware of – the custom gradient tool.  This tool has many uses but today I’m going to step you through how to create a vignette.

Just a reminder that the Saturday Special Challenges are now going to step you through a technique to help you improve your scrapping skills.

Remember that you will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.  When you complete the challenge you will earn 1 point!  If you use a newly released product (within the past 7 days) from the Scrap Matters store on your challenge layout, you earn an additional point!! How good is that - 2 points!

And my favourite layout at the end of the challenge will earn another point!

So let’s get started.  My instructions are written in Photoshop CS3 so I’m hoping they work in PSE too as it’s been quite a while since I used that program!  You can create a vignette a few different ways, but this is the easiest I have found.  For those of you who don’t know what a vignette is, it’s basically a soft, fading effect which I’m going to use around the edges of my photos.

Firstly, you’ll need to open your photo and edit it accordingly.  Once you’re happy with it, create a new layer and hit ‘D’ (or the small black/white swatch – see Screen Shot #1) which sets your default Foreground/Background colours to black and white.  Then select your Gradient Tool (see Screen Shot #1).

You’ll notice up the top of your screen, that you have all the Gradient options available.  Click the drop down arrow to select FOREGROUND TO TRANSPARENT if it’s not already selected and by default, Photoshop will select LINEAR GRADIENT which is what I typically use.  There are a few other gradient types that give you different effects, so you may want to play around with them.  Refer to Screen Shot #2.  All the other gradients are typically colour to colour rather than colour to transparent.  Once we get going, it will make more sense, but we’re going to try and create a shadowing around the border of our photo.

Next, if you roll your cursor over your screen, you’ll notice that it’s changed to a ‘+’ symbol.  If you click near the border of your photograph and drag in maybe a centimetre or so from the edge and let go of the mouse, you’ll notice that a nice shadow will appear.  This is your gradient running from black (your default colour) to transparent.  If you click from the corner of your photo, drag and then let go, it will appear only in the corner.  If you make sure you drag in a straight line, your gradient will remain straight or if you drag the cursor on an angle, the gradient will be on the same angle.  If you want a perfectly straight gradient, just hold your SHIFT key down while you click and drag.  Once you have a gradient down, you can then go over it again and make it larger and darker if you like.  You can even change the Opacity of the gradient on your Layer menu if you want it to be a bit more subtle.

Here’s my sample at 100% Opacity.  I went around the edges twice and in from the corners slightly too.

And here’s one at 50% Opacity.

Here’s a shot of my parents on their wedding day.

And here’s the same shot at 66% Opacity.

Here’s the same shot at 66% Opacity but this time I’ve chosen a dark shade of chocolate brown as the colour rather than black.

The differences might seem subtle, but they do give a nice soft effect.

You can also try this on the edge of your layouts to give it a burnt look.  Change it to a colour such as brown and you’ll get a nice aged effect like I’ve done in the photo above.  Have a play and see what you can come up with in your layout!  And here’s my layout that I’ve created using the gradients around the border of my pics. 

Credits for this layout:  Andilynn Designs – FLORA BRUSHES, Jen Lin Designs – RUSTICANA & Britt-ish Designs DATE STAMPED all of which are available here at Scrap Matters.

And here’s a couple of layouts from our fab CT members using gradients around their photos.  The first one is from Mary (aka littlehiccup) using products from Wide Open Spaces, Motor Mania, Artistic License, and A Halloween Nightmare all by Britt-ish Designs.

The second sample layout is from Kim (aka kimbytx) and she’s used products from Digi Keepsakes new Boy on Wheels kit and template pack 7.

You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products (but we sure love it when you do) and once you post in the Gallery, don’t forget to link up your layout to the Saturday Special thread in the forum here so we can leave you some love and get you your points! Don’t forget you have until the end of the month to complete the challenge and no double dipping – you must submit a new layout for each challenge to receive points. If you have questions about the new point system, check out this thread in the forum.

Happy Photo Phriday everyone!!

Maria aka Muss here! This is my very first blog post here at ScrapMatters and I have a little tip for you. It will make you think a little before you snap, but that’s good actually! It might help you to make your pictures more attractive!

My camera is Olympus C5050Zoom, so it obviously has a zoom in it. That’s what drains the batteries right away when you use it! LOL And today we will try to find out: to zoom or not to zoom… There is a difference!

OK, here’s the scenery: I have two toy cars standing on the floor and I marked the two shooting spots. I wanted to take pictures of my kids, but they just don’t know words ‘stand still’. Toys are much better models! LOL

So, I’m on spot No 1 and zoom trying to get a nice close up of my model. What happens? If you zoom, the objects look closer to each other, so they are pretty much in the same size. How can you use this effect? For example when taking a picture of people standing near each other… When you step back and zoom it seems like they are closer to each other, it makes the composition of the shot more compact.

Now move on to the spot No 2. That’s the place where I got the grey car the same size and… hey, what happened to another one?! Yes, it scaled down! It doesn’t look the same size anymore! It’s magic! So if you want your objects to look in proper correlation to each other, just like we see them in real life, you’d better not zoom and just make a step forward, come closer! It makes a difference!

About the focus… I was shooting in aperture priority mode (don’t ask, it’s another blog post LOL). So if you choose another or just shoot in automatic mode, you might have both of your objects in focus.

So… what are you waiting for? Grab your camera and have fun!! When you get to know you camera even a little more, you feel so powerful, don’t you?

Use your power and happy shooting!

Hugs,

Maria.

Happy Thursday! Kim (tgmousechick) here to bring you Thursday’s Renew-It Hybrid tutorial- we’ll be recycling chipboard to make nifty mini albums.

Chipboard is HUGE in hybrid and paper scrapping right now. Chipboard mini albums are being offered by many of the most popular manufacturers, including Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket (my personal fave), and Maya Road. Also, chipboard embellishments are also widely available in a multitude of shapes and themes.

What’s not to love about chipboard? It’s a wonderfully sturdy and versatile surface- great for a stable base for paper and cardstock pages, and easy to paint, ink, and distress. Chipboard elements pop right off the page!

However, these are days when I’m trying to mind my pocketbook a bit better, and saving my spending for goodies I absolutely can’t live without. Chipboard is one of those embellishments that makes it easy to be thrifty and environmentally friendly at the same time, since it’s in lots of places. The project I’ll show you today can be made from recycled chipboard- harvested from the backs of notebooks or packaging.

The first project is a mini album. I’d love to take credit for this idea, but credit goes to my friend AngieS. She arrived at a book club meeting I hosted a few weeks back with this great album- and every bit of it was made from paper and scraps she had in her stash, and the chipboard sheets used to protect patterned paper during shipment. So, I’m scraplifting her idea to make a photo/autograph book with a Disney theme.

You don’t need any fancy tools for this project, except for a paper trimmer. A Crop-A-Dile tool (or it’s beefier sibling, the Big Bite) is also useful to have on hand to punch binding holes. My album is 6″x6″ (15cm x 15cm), and cut from a 12″x12.5″ sheet of chipboard.

Next I’ll plan my pages. Your hybrid options are endless here- from making full digital pages and printing them out as 6×6 pages, to printing out out blank sheets of patterned paper and building the page IRL, to anywhere in between. For this project, I used kits by ScrapMatters’ resident Disney Goddess, Britt-ish Designs.

I resized my pages to 6×6, printed, and trimmed them. I then adhered them to the chipboard bases. I added my usual embellishments of ribbon, flowers, and brads. One twist on this album was adding slash pockets to a few of the pages, as a place to hold signed tags.

Slash pockets are super easy! Simply cut a right triangle of paper or cardstock, and add adhesive to the sides that form the right angle. I usually reinforce the corners with a brad to help the adhesive hold.

This is a super easy project to remember an event! The pockets can be used to hold ticket, small papers, and other goodies!

I chose to bind this album with binder rings, which can be found in office supply stores. They are inexpensive, and allow for easy expansion should you want to add more pages. Plus, binder rings look great when embellished with ribbon!

Since this is a Hybrid ReNEW it week, we have our friend Donna Sangwin, director of Recreate with a few words on working with recycled chipboard:

“Hi All – Donna from reCREATE here.

I have been visiting schools and talking to them about the environment – and the amount of trash that we generate as a country is mind boggling. Did you know:

• Each year, Americans trash enough office paper to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles to New York City.
• Americans toss out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times. (Source: Clean Air Council)

Kimberly has some amazing eye candy mini albums for you to check out. Would you like to add some transparent pages to your book? Ask your local school or Kinko’s for excess lamination (the stuff they trim off after it goes through the machine. )

Chip board is pretty easy to come by. If you want a quick way to make a mini-album, check out the drink coasters next time you visit Chili’s restaurant (or a local drinking establishment!). They are just the right size, are precut, and have rounded edges.

I got some delicious soft peppermints from Trader Joes in the past that come in a perfect round tin to hold a mini album. The “label” is only on the top and bottom – so it is super easy to decorate.

My challenge for this week is to find a tin – Altoids or any small previously used tin – and integrate it into your mini album project. I can’t wait to see what you some up with!”

One note on chipboard coasters- they are so much fun! However, my husband has come to hate them, as now he can’t take me to a restaurant without me stuffing a handful in my purse! He was mortified a couple of weeks ago when I asked the server for a few extra coasters! But Honey, they were a really cute 3″x5″ size! Also, for those of you now on the hunt, Cheeseburger in Paradise has some excellent round ones…

A few projects in the gallery using chipboard coasters:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/4489/ppuser/99- my “It’s a Girl Thing” Coaster album (to answer a question in the comments- this album was bound with a Bind-It-All binding system by Zutter- it’s a luxury item but so much fun!)

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/9943- Kari’s Boo Box from Hybrid Holidays last week

Considering how common it is to come across chipboard, I hope you are inspired to try a quick hybrid project!

Happy Scrapping!

Time for another Road Map to get your creative juices flowing!

We are going to take a scrapping journey, and in order to get to our destination, you are going to have to follow the map.

Here are the requirements that will get you from Point A to Point B.

1. Photo (as many as you want.)
2. Frame your photo, but don’t use a frame
3. A Shape, any shape
4. Stitching
5. Doodles
6. 1 background paper
7. ribbon (at least 3)
8. word art

In order to reach your destination, you must do all 8. You can of course do more than these 8 things…and the rules are open to interpretation. Be creative, for example, if you use something that meeting more than one requirement, lucky you!

You will have ALL month to scrap your layout, and when you complete it, you MUST post it to the RoadMap to Scrap Challenge Gallery AND back here to the forum to get credit.

Your completed layout will earn you one point in the new Matter of Scrap Challenge System…which you can find out more about here. And you can earn another point by using a newly released product (you must scrap and upload your layout within the first 7 days of the products release – and remember, you MUST tell me you used a new release).

Remember, no double dipping…your layout must be unique to this challenge.

In addition, at the end of the month, I will choose my favorite layout and that scrapper will get one extra point!

And, for a little inspiration, here is my layout.

And here are a few more examples from our wonderful CT. See how different everyone’s turned out and we all followed the same map.

by alamama

by ocmath

and last but not least,

by kimbytx

Have fun and I can’t wait to see what you all do!

Hello everyone.  Stefanie here to bring you my first Tuesday Template Challenge!  I’m so excited!

I want to thank Britt of Britt-ish Designs for this fabulous template for today’s challenge.  Take a look!!!!

Download here

Here is your challenge.  Use this template and scrap about a “first”.  We have many firsts in our lives…first birthdays, first cars, first home, maybe that first date…whatever it is I want to see it.  Add some journaling so I know what the first is about.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Here is some inspiration from the creative team.

From Cyndi

By Kim

By Sharon

By Krista

and one by me

Can’t wait to see what you come up with. You will have the entire month to complete the challenge!!  When you complete the challenge you will earn 1 point!  If you use a newly released product from the Scrap Matters store on your challenge layout, you earn an additional point!!

Remember, you don’t have to use Scrap Matters products (but we sure love it when you do) and once you post in the gallery, don’t forget to link up your layout to the thread so we can leave you some love and get you your points! You also have one whole month to complete the challenge and no double dippin’!!

**If you use a new product in your LO, don’t forget to mention it here in the forum, so you can get your extra point!!**