Ladies I am running a day behind so I apologize!!

Hi everyone I am here to bring you this weeks Saturday Special. One thing that I am seeing a lot of right now is photo collages. So I thought that would be a great topic for our saturday speical.

An important prerequisite for creating a photo collage is you must ensure that you’ve got enough photos to be placed in it. I want to see your pictures take up a majority of your page. Here are just a few steps to help you get started:

1. Laying out your grid: Take a look at the size of your layout and how your pictures will fit best. You pictures don’t all have to be the same size, they just have to fit together on the page.

2. Get Creative: There are thousands of combinations you can do with a photo collage…use your imagination!!

3. Set Your Canvas: Choose your size, layout, and photo placement

4. Create Your Background: This will set the stage for your photo collage. Decide how many papers, mats, etc. you want under your photos.

5. Crop your photos: make sure they are the size you want them in order to fit with your other pictures. Or crop them all the same size. Totally up to you!

6. Position your photos: Place your cropped photos where and how you want them on your page according to the grid you had mapped out in the begining

and ta-da you have a photo collage.

Here is my photo collage I created for this challenge. And don’t worry there are MANY templates in the store that can help speed you through these steps.

I used the new Slice of Life Design Team collab kit and EZ templates #7 by Erica Zane

And here are some amazing photo collages from the SMCT girls:

AbAllen using WM[squared] Designs DSD Grab Bag:

snowdrop using Mermaid Lagoon, Fairchild, and Celery Alpha, all by Britt-ish Designs and ‘So This is Love’ by Sahlin Studio

and alamama using Denise Beatty’s – All Squared Away template, Chelle Creations – History Lesson, and Jeni Hopewell’s/bhafen – Elementary My Dear

Thank you ladies for the amazing inspiration!!!! Can’t wait to see what YOU create!!!

The Great DSD Grab Bag Reveal!!

A Hint Of Fall by Erica Zane

Fun Lil’ Alpha by Erica Zane

EZ Templates 8 by Erica Zane

Necessary Randomness by Erica Zane

Good Solid Fun by Erica Zane

5 A Day by Erica Zane

Tenderly by Stolen Moments

Tenderly Alpha by Stolen Moments

Scraps by Number: Scrap it Solo Vol. 1 by Stolen Moments

Doodley-Doo’s Vol. 1 by Stolen Moments

Clips ‘n’ Bits: Everyday by Stolen Moments

Pewter Finishes by Chelle’s Creations

Fall for You by Chelle’s Creations

Buttoned Up FALL by Chelle’s Creations

Brownie Alpha by Chelle’s Creations

Scrap like Lori Templates by Chelle’s Creations

Turkeys & Stuffing by WM[squared] Designs:

Fabulously Negative V.2 by WM[squared] Designs:

Just Sayin’ – Thanksgiving by WM[squared] Designs:

Date Stamped V.3 by WM[squared] Designs:

CU GRAB BAG
Ornamental Overlays V.4 by WM[squared] Designs:

Decorative Overlays V.4
by WM[squared] Designs:

Fall Shapes – Templates by WM[squared] Designs:

Life’s Bazaar by Haynay Designs

Life’s Bazaar Alpha by Haynay Designs

Life’s Bazaar Word Art by Haynay Designs

Together Forever Photo Templates V. 2 by Haynay Designs

I was Framed

My Pink Caprice mini-kit by Scrapmuss Designs

My Pink Caprice alpha by Scrapmuss Designs

Tree House Fun by Scrapmuss Designs

Make a rainbow: Shabby Whites by Scrapmuss Designs

CT Inspired Templates: Vol. 1 by Scrapmuss Designs

Happy Patterns Layered Overlays ~Vol. 2 by Happy Scrap Girl Designs

Worn Out Overlays ~ Set 4 by Happy Scrap Girl Designs

Hi everyone,

It’s Sharon (aka skyezak) here to give you a rundown of all the hybrid goodness that has been coming through our Hybrid Gallery!  All the images are linked, so make sure you leave our hybrid artists some love and you might even learn a trick or two to whip up something hybrid yourself

First off I found this gorgeous little card from Sara (aka livelys) using a kit from Jennifer Barrette.  I always love the little touches that Sara adds to her projects…in this case the raffia, the grungy inked up edges and the owl 3D’d off the card.

Next up, I saw a couple of amazing Chore Charts from canadianmommy and what great incentive for the kids to do their work!

And what about this fab Trick or Treat canvas bag with an iron-on transfer design from abhall76.

And this spectacular badge album from Kristie (aka kcherrie)

Look at this dollar chipboard purse album that dbrprc made using a kit from Trixie Scraps!  Make sure you check out the credits for more images of all the pages inside this fab album.

What about this amazing project from flutterbyefaery using Into The Night kit from Stolen Moments! Just adore the packaging and then all those cutely decorated onsies to boot!

And don’t forget to check out the wonderful hybrid designer’s stores here at ScrapMatters as we’ve got plenty of goodies to make your hybrid scrapbooking a whole lot easier.  Here’s a few recent goodies for you to check out!

Hey everyone! This is Kim(kimbytx) from the SM CT. For the November 11, 2009 Grand Theft layout, we will be lifting *Kelly*.  I am always  impressed with her creativity and composition. Her layering and clustering are fantastic and her photo work is always amazing. She often receives acknowledegement in Gallery Standouts and it is well deserved.
Check out her GALLERY and see what inspires you.

I scraplifted Kelly’s Baby Love:

Here is my layout using GG Designs DSD Grab Bag and glitter from Abbalicious:

And Here is some more inspiration from the ScrapMatters CT.

alansrock scraplifted Baby Michael:

and this is her layout using Britt-ish Designs and Sahlin Studio’s Land of Fantasy collab

emileem scraplifted one of my favorite Layouts Crazy for You:

and here is her page using Andilynn Designs Fall Frolic:

AbAllen Lifted Fall Tradition:

and here is hers using Jennifer Barrette’s Christmas Cheer:

cn scrap lifted Baking with Chef Kaydan:

and this is her version using Enjoy the Moment by Sahlin Studios, Miss Kitty by Britt-ish Designs, and Play by Sahlin Studios and Decrow Designs:

kv2av lifted July 6th:

and this is hers using the Hopeless Romantic collab from Sya’s Blueprints and Stolen Moments and Edge 2 Edge wordart by Britt-ish Designs

Jennamy82 lifted Perfect pumpkin:

and created this using Blessed by Sahlin Studio

Loribear lifted Sweet Baby Boy:

and came up with this using Jennifer Barrette’s Teen Angst

The rules:  You will have until the end of November to complete this challenge.  Upload it to the GTL gallery and leave your LO image, Kelly’s LO image and both links in the GTL 11/11/09 thread in the GTL sub forum. You don’t have to use SM products in this challenge, but we LOVE it when you do!

You will receive one point for completing the challenge. You can earn an additional point for using a NEW product from the SM store! (Please indicate that you used something new with your LO/link in the forum.) And, one lucky winner (random) will receive an ADDITIONAL point!

Remember no double dipping…you must make a layout specifically for this challenge ! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Kim(kimbytx)

It’s my FAVORITE Challenge!! It’s Tuesday Template time! Wendy here with another template!  It’s almost Thanksgiving!!  Can you even believe it?!  I can’t…I always find myself in awe of how time flies!

There is no specific theme or set of rules for today’s template, just have fun!! Use the template as is, or switch it up…it’s all up to you!

Here is the template:

Here’s *MY* LO :

Credits: ‘Hocus Pocus’ by Jennifer Barrette, ‘Simply Dated V.3′ by WM[squared] (available in my DSD Grab Bag)

Here is some inspiration from the ScrapMatters CT/DT:

Layout By: sm_amber

Credits: ‘Sweet Little Treasure’ by Gwenipooh and ‘Vellum Alpha’ by Sahlin Studio’s

Layout By: snowdrop

Credits: ‘Turkey & Stuffing’ from ‘DSD Grab Bag’ by WM[squared] Designs. ‘Land of Fantasy’ by Britt-ish Designs and Sahlin Studio. ‘Enchantment’ and ‘The Big Cheese’, both by Britt-ish Designs. ‘A Story of Friendship’ by Sahlin Studio.

Layout By: Cristina

Credits: ‘Breezy Holiday’ and ‘Take a Sweater Alpha’ by Britt-ish Designs

Layout By: jennamy82

Credits: ‘DSD Grab Bag’ by GG Digital Designs

Feel inspired?  Good!  Now go download the template –>   HERE! and lemme see what ya got!  I’ve included both the .psd and .png files for you!

The “Fine Print” aka the Matter of Scrap Challenge rules:

You have all of November  to complete the layout. Upload it to the gallery, and leave BOTH the image and a link in the challenge forum–>  HERE!

You will receive one point for completing the challenge. You can earn an additional point for using a new product from the ScrapMatters store (PLEASE indicate you have used something new when you leave us the link in the forum), and one lucky winner will receive one more point – I will be doing a random draw!

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

Happy Scrapping!!

Hi and welcome to this months hybrid challenge ‘Project reNEWit’.

Sylvia here and this month I’m challenging YOU to give your old, no longer working or advertising CDs a new life as a little piece of artwork
Turn them from trash to a decorative piece that you’ll love to look at

Here’s my ‘Altered CD‘ project:

And this is how I did it:
I used the wonderful ‘Winter Shimmer’ kit by Haynay Designs and Happy Scrap Girl Designs to create a 5×5” ‘layout’
I then layed the CD onto the back of the printed out LO and then traced around the CD
Cut it out and glue the paper on the CD
No matter if it doesn’t fit perfectly.. just sand away any overlapping papers and ink the edges
I then decorated the CD a little more using a snowflake sticker and a blue crystal gemstone
I punched a little hole on top and threaded through a co-ordinating organza ribbon
That’s it.. just easy

And here are some wonderful, not to say FANTABULOUS samples from our amazing hybrid CT:

Cristina made this gorgeous christmas ornament:

credits:
Tinsel Town by GG Digital Designs and Megan Turnidge

And now a stunning project created by our so outstandingly talented LuAnn (wildblueeyez):

credits:
More Fish Friends by Britt-ish Designs

And look at this oh so cute and gorgeous personal clock created by Kathleen (kv2av):

credits:
explore.learn.grow by Sahlin Studio

And here is the link to the challenge thread in the forum.

Now I’m so curious and can’t wait to see what YOU will come up with!!! Have fun and let’s see YOUR wonderful creations!

You will have until the end of the month (November) to complete your project!

Hope to see lots of YOUR altered CD creations

Sylvia

Thank you, thank you.  Andrea here and I amazed by the response to our DSD  sale and activities.  We changed servers and upgraded to a huge new dedicated server six months ago and our site has been moving right along since we did that.  Until our DSD 35% off PU/25% off CU sale started!!! I am so sorry for those of you who have difficulties with our site slowing down.  And I can tell that there are many of you still trying to check out before the sale ends at midnight tonight.  Well guess what…

This sale has been extended until 6 pm pacific time on Sunday, November 8th–that’s an extra 18 hours.  We know that the site is moving slow and there have been some glitches along the way.  Thanks for your patience.  Please don’t wait until tomorrow at 5:50 to check out though–pretty please!!!

For those of you waiting for your paypal payments to clear, I am doing my best to get these cleared up quickly and to get your downloads to you.  Again your patience in this matter is appreciated.

Don’t forget to hop on our fantastic blog train, see the post below for more details.  Lots of great quick pages and freebies.

Hello Everyone! Amanda (panders77) with your Saturday Special for this amazing National Digital Scrapbooking Weekend! I hope everyone is enjoying the festivities!! So for today I am going to teach you one of my favorite editing techniques. And it’s my favorite because it takes very little time and really helps! Have you ever noticed the eyes in professional photos really pop? Well, they do this by doing all sorts of fancy editing techniques that I am still struggling to learn..LOL! But if I have a picture that the eyes just need a little boost and I want to scrap it this is what I do..

First here is my original picture(the eyes are good here and these are the best pics to use this technique on. It really just brings a good picture from good to great!):

Okay, so you want to do all your other photo editing first. The eyes should always be your last step! So, take your lasso tool and loosely lasso around the eyes.. this doesn’t have to be perfect. It will look like this..

Then we want to get those eyes in their own layer so duplicate it by pressing control J (in PSE)..

Then..

Now we want to get rid of those scary eyes. So we will change the layer to an overlay.

See? Now the eyes look sharper and brighter! Magic! Now for this photo I decided I wanted them to be a little more sharp so I duplicated the layer for this final result..

See the difference? It is subtle but defintely noticeable.

Here is my LO. I used Erica Zane’s Woodland Fantasy, Brittish Designs and Erica Zane’s Sprite, Erica Zanes Border Dates (Clipped to a paper from Brittish Designs/Sahlin Studios Land of Fantasy) and an Inspired by Mellisa Template by Brittish Designs:

And some awesome inspiration from our Creative team!

Christina used Erica Zanes DSD Grab Bag to create this great Fall LO!

Here are her before and after shots:

Amber used Everyday by Sahlin Studio and **NEW** Clips ‘n’ Bits and Doodley Doo’s Vol. 1 in Stolen Moments’ DSD Grab Bag.

Her before and after shot is REALLY impressive!! She duplicated the layer 3 times..

Now for the rules:
Remember:
**this challenge will run through Nov. 30. At the end of the month I will pick one winner to receive an extra point.
**No double-dipping; your LO must be unique for this challenge.
**You will receive ONE point for participating in the challenge and an additional point if you use a NEW ScrapMatters Product (released within the last seven days). Please be sure to tell me in the forum that you have used a new product to get your extra point!

Can’t wait to see what you create!

Amanda

Kari (karistamps) here hosting the Grand Theft Layout for my very first time!!  One of my all-time fave scrappers here is abcmomof4 – Jen Wolff!!  She blows me away with every layout she does and her photography is jaw dropping!  With more than 100 LOs in her gallery you are sure to find something to inspire you.  Want a little help?  WM[squared] Designs has a set of templates inspired by a few of Jen’s layouts … you can check them out HERE!

I lifted THIS layout:

And here is my version:

Need some more inspiration?  Our CT can help you out!!

Li41 lifted Tea @ 2

And came up with this:

cnscrap lifted Urban Girl:

And came up with this using AnnaBV’s “Hot in Here”, Sahlin Studios “Worn Scuffed Chipboard Alpha”, Tater’s “Color me Cardboard Alpha”, and Britt-ish Designs “Stacked Templates” and “Leave the World Behind” kit (ribbon and staples):

chia lifted Motion:

And came up with this using Eat Your Veggies and Let’s Get Together by Denise Beatty Originals and Erica Zane:

snowdrop lifted No Doubt:

And came up with this using ‘A Knight’s Tale’ by Britt-ish Designs and Man in the Moon Designs and ‘Be Inspired – Jen W Templates’ by WM[squared] Designs:

jennamy82 lifted So In Love:

And came up with this using Sahlin Studio and DeCrow Designs Play:

AbAllen lifted First Day of 5th Grade:

And came up with this:

I can’t wait to see what you come up with using Jen’s layouts as your inspiration!!

A few quick SM guidelines:

- You will have until the end of November to complete this challenge. Please upload it to the GTL gallery and leave your LO image and Jen’s LO image (both linked) in the forum.

- You will receive one point for completing the challenge. You can earn an additional point for using a NEW product from the SM store! (Please indicate that you used something new with your LO/link in the forum.)

- I will choose one random winner to receive an ADDITIONAL point!

- You don’t have to use SM products in this challenge, but we LOVE it when you do!

- Remember no double dipping…your layout must be UNIQUE to this challenge!

Hi everyone.  Krista Sahlin of Sahlin Studio here to share my newest product at ScrapMatters.  Are you looking for that perfect holiday gift?

I know what you’re thinking… holiday shopping already?? It can be difficult to find that perfect
gift for significant others, parents, grandparents or yourself.

I have a great idea for a classic, timeless gift that will be enjoyed everyday.
A gorgeous piece of artwork. And by artwork, I mean a canvas print of your loved ones.
What is a canvas print? A canvas print is where a photo is blended beautifully with natural
textures, grain, meaningful text, custom images and color to create an image perfect for printing on canvas. Perfect to create the gift of a lifetime.

Custom Canvas Design by Sahlin Studio:

A custom canvas art design to display in your home, office or any place needing beautiful art work.

Here are some examples of my completed work:

There are other examples in the Custom Canvas product listing in my shop at ScrapMatters.

I will work with you to design a custom canvas art work beautiful enough to display in the finest of galleries. Whether you want a canvas of each child, your wedding photo, your family, the kids together or all of the above. These also would be beautiful done with photos of your home, cabin or favorite vacation spot. I’ve created a multiple canvas discount, because when I am working on a canvas I have all of my “tools” out and it is extra easy to just change out images and start working on my next custom canvas design project.
It is much easier to do two or three in a row, than it is to do one today and the others tomorrow.

Can you think of a better gift?? And SO original!!

Here are some more detailed pictures of canvas prints that are gallery wrapped. When a canvas is “gallery wrapped” the printed portion of the canvas continues around the sides and the back. No frame is needed to display your custom print.

Here is a picture of how several canvases look displayed in my home. I designed and printed them at 12 x 12.

Order your Custom Canvas Design TODAY! And get a head start on your holiday shopping!