Hi everyone,

Sylvia here to bring you some of the hybrid treasures I found recently in the hybrid gallery
We traditionally have lots of wonderful hybrid projects in our gallery but with our Hybrid Bootcamp going on in February even more gorgeous hybrid goodies are there to admire!
So it was really hard to show you just a few of many beautiful projects! So I would recommend to just pop on over to the hybrid gallery and browse through all the gorgeousness there, too

Ok… as said before here are only a few of the Hybrid Highlights uploaded in February:

Look at this super cute pillow box, made by leightheo – isn’t this the cutest gift package ever?

Or these super sweet Valentine’s pencils made by simply_j_studio aka ocmath:

And I’m drooling over these wonderful Valentine’s heart boxes created by the super talented Julie aka Juliemomof4
Even though Valentine’s Day is over now I think it’s always a nice package for a beloved friends treat, isn’t it?!

And -oh my gosh- look at these adorable pillow boxes from monsu – they are amazing!

markyzmom aka chelle’s creations created these adorable and unique blocks:

And last but not least, look at this sweet candy boquet Debra aka dbprc made *wow* – what a sweet(!) and unique idea:

Wow.. see .. I hardly can stop myself showing you more hybrid projects from our gallery :giggle: … our hybrid gallery is truly full of gorgeous, fun, unique, interesting, wonderful projects and cards!!!

And now I hope you are as enthusiastic about the hybrid projects as I am and you will try do do some yourself?!

If you have never done hybrid projects and don’t know where to start, maybe you want to head over to our HYBRID BOOTCAMP where the hybrid team shows you lots of basic and some easy advanced techniques to get you started

It’s not that difficult as it sometimes looks like! We have some GREAT hybrid goodies and templates in our shop to get you easily startet. I will list a few of them here.. but there are loooots more, just check out the hybrid section of our shop

I hope you have had the very same fun to gaze at all the hybrid goodies as I had and always have and hope to see some hybrid work from YOU, soon HAVE FUN!

Sylvia

Okay okay let’s lift a SM Girl!! For this GTL challenge I have chosen to lift snowdrop (Heather). Check out her gallery here . Isn’t it just FULL of inspiring layouts?!?! There is TONS to chose from!

I lifted this layout:

And this is the layout I came up with (using “I Wuff You” by Connie Prince, Glass Pebble Alpha and Say it with Metal: Fall by Sahlin Studios):

And now for some awesome creative layouts from the SM team…..

Wendy chose Heather’s “Glee” layout to lift:

And created this cute handsome layout (using “Layers of Love Template” by Denise Beatty Originals, “Worn Scuffed Chipboard Alpha” by Sahlin Studios, and “A Knights Tale” by Man In the Moon Designs and Britt-ish Designs):

Amber lifted Heather’s “Walt, Mickey, & Me” layout:

And she created this sweet layout (using “Wynken, Blynken & Nod” by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn, “The Only Date Stamps You’ll Ever Need” by Stolen Moments, “JH_Kari” by Jeni Hopewell, and “Get Real Shadow Styles” by Jennifer Barrette):

Jen picked Heather’s “Innoventions” layout:

And she created this fun layout (using “Just the Right Medicine Bundle” by Haynay Designs, “JH with a Marker” and “JH_Amber” by Jeni Hopewell):

Lori selected Heather’s “Gardens in Canada” layout:

And she created this beautiful layout (using “Love Blooms” by Jennifer Barrette):

Now wasn’t that some awesome inspiration???

A few quick SM guidelines:

- You will have until the end of February to complete this challenge. Please upload it to the GTL gallery and leave your LO image and Heather’s LO image (both linked) in the GTL 02/17/10 thread.

- 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 lucky winner (random) who will 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!

Looking forward to seeing which layout of Heather’s inspired you!

~Courtney (cnscrap)

It’s Tuesday Template time! Wendy here with another template! Hopefully you’re not sick of my templates!    The Tuesday Template challenge is my all time favorite!  It seems like the only time I can get any scrapping done is when I use a template!  Bad, I know!  At any rate, 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: “Lucky U” by Scrapmuss Designs & Stolen Moment Designs
“Behind The Scenes – V.1″ by Pressed Petals

Here is some inspiration from the ScrapMatters CT/DT:
Layout By: Stef
Credits: “Out of this World” by Jennifer Barrette and Hazel Olive Designs

Layout By: Suzanne
Credits: “Storytime” by Designs by Sarah Bennett, Lil’ Digi Bits by Jude, and Stacey’s Backdoor Designs

Layout By: Jill
Credits: “Always Kiss Me Goodnight” by Jeni Hopewell

Layout By: Amber
Credits:  “Everyday Elegance” by Stolen Moments, “So Grateful” by Sahlin Studio & Sugarplum Paperie, “Everyday” by Sahlin Studio

Layout By: Lori
Credits: “Celebrate Love” by Pri Rocha

Layout By: Jan
Credits: “Wintersong”  By Becca

Layout By: Gwen
Credits: “Love is everything” by Gwenipooh Designs

Layout By: Kim
Credits: “Love Bytes” by Britt-ish Designs

Layout By: Fiona
Credits: “Feeling Frosty” by Jennifer Barrette, “We’re Just Dating v.2″ by Brittish Designs

Layout By: Jen W.
Credits: “Better Together” and “Celebrate Love” by Pri Rocha

Layout By: Jenn
Credits: “Happy Go Lucky” by Happy Scrap Girl,  “Wordlilicious” by Andilynn and “My Ribbon Jar” by Britt-ish Designs

Layout By: Shari
Credits: “Plugged In” by Connie Prince and “Word-a-licious”  by Andilynn 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 the rest of February 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!!
Wendy

Good morning all.  It’s Cyndi, here this Monday morning to give you a little photography tip.  I’ll be addressing primarily the DSLR crowd for this piece.

For my last birthday I got a wonderful 55mm prime lens.  It had been on my wish list for quite a while.  I was so tired of dark indoor shots where my flash barely lit my subject and then nothing of the background behind them.  Not to mention the ugly palor it gave any living person in my shots.  Unfortunately, I have folders and folders of these pictures that I can find no inspiration to scrap.  The picture really does make the LO for me.

After receiving my new lens, I made it my goal to use only natural lighting (no flash) unless absolutely necessary.  The new lens has definitely made it easier to get light into these pictures but I’ve still had to learn a few tricks along the way to make sure I got the best shot.

Here they are:

1.  Increase the ISO.  I shoot comfortably at 800 with not a lot of visible noise.  But every little bit helps.  Just remember to turn it back down for outdoor shots.  I’ve made this mistake more than once.

2.  Shoot in aperature mode.  This allows me to control the amount of light into the shot and lets the camera decide how fast the shutter needs to open and close. 

3.  Assume the position.  That is… elbows or arms on a stable surface even if it is your knee or thigh or arms tight to the body.  It also helps to hold your breath.  Not too long, of course.

4.  Take more than one shot.  If you’re shooting people, you’re dependent on them to hold perfectly still.  If it’s a group, it makes it even tougher.  It seems someone (kids) always moves just a smidge and that’s all it takes to turn your perfectly sharp and wonderfully lit photo into a blurry mess.  I make it a habit to take 4-5 shots of the same pose in low light conditions just to make my chances better of getting a great one.  They’ll get used to it, believe me

Well, hope you learned something new today.  And if not, maybe I reempasized or reminded you of something you already knew and now you’re determined to use it too.

Have a wonderful week and happy shooting!!

Happy early Valentines Day everyone!!  I hope you all are doing something romantic this weekend! For this week’s Saturday Special I am going to talk about rounded corners.  Have you noticed that they have been popping up everywhere lately?  I LOVE the way they look but I have to admit I often used pieces of templates to get the look because I could never get them to look right in my program (I use PSE 6).  Well, now I know and I wanted to share it with you!

There are a few ways to do this – use the rectangular marquee tool or use the shape tool.  Today I am going to talk about using the shape tool.  I like it because the results aren’t permanent and I can change the shape around as I scrap if I want.  (I am a little indecisive!  LOL!)

So first open up the paper or photo you want to crop into a rounded corner shape.  Then..

For the radius setting, feel free to play around with it and see what creates the look you want.  I have it set to 100 here but I ended up wanting my corners more rounded so I settled on 150.

Now you are ready to draw your shape.  Create a new layer by using the menu or holding down Shift-Ctrl-N.   If you want the shape to be square you can hold down the shift key when you draw and it will make it stay symmetrical. 

Next, select and drag your paper layer on top of the shape and reduce the opacity so you can see the shape under the paper.  You can select the shape layer and move it around or even resize it if you want to.  Now we want to group the layers together and “cut” the paper.  You can use the menu (layer-group with previous) or press Ctrl – G. 

Voila!  Now you have your pretty rounded rectangle or square!  You can merge the layers together to make it permanent or if you are like me you can continue with your LO and link them but leave it unmerged so if you decide you want to change the shape again you can!

Here is my LO using lots of rounded corners:

Credits: Yummy Scrummy Love Bundle and Date Go Rounds by Stolen Moments Designs
And here is some awesome inspiration from the CT..
Wendy used “Day By Day – V.3 Templates” by WM[squared] Designs and “Innovation” by Sahlin Studios to create this awesome page!

Amber created this cutie using Underwater Escape by Erica Zane, Vellum Alpha by Sahlin Studio and P365=Everyday Life Template Set 2 by Happy Scrap Girl.

And here’s another cutie from Lori using Connie Prince’s Beary Sweet Boy Kit.

Liz created this LO with Juno’s Dessert, Britt’s White Christmas and In Stitches: Basics, Plum Dumpling’s Alpha-bits, and Jenn Barrette’s Basic Brown Alpha. Check out that fun title!!

Finally, Jenn created this pink beauty with Erica Zane’s Zaney Amy.

I think the Creative Team likes rounded corners as much as I do!!
You have until Feb 28th to complete an LO, upload it in the Saturday Special Gallery and link it back to the forum thread.  You’ll receive an extra point for using a new release in your LO (please remember to put that you used a new release in your post.) I’ll also choose a LO  at the end of the month that will receive one more point!
I can’t wait to see all your creative uses of rounded corners!

-Amanda (panders77)

This is my first time hosting a challenge here at ScrapMatters! I’m so excited! I figured since it’s almost Valentines Day we should make a heart shaped card!  Here is your template.

4 shared link http://www.4shared.com/file/21385689…files_zip.html

Here is the card I made using Pink Valentine by, Britt-ish

Look at some of the great cards our Creative Team Members made for this challenge!

By,  Jennifer (notes4theheart)

Credits:
Sweet Thing-Febuary Newsletter Kit by Jeni Hopewell and Chelle’s Creations
Sweet Thing Add-On by Jeni Hopewell and Chelle’s Creations

By,  Sylvia

using ‘Celebrate Love’ by Pri Rocha

By,  Jendavey

Credits: Heart’s Content collab kit by Denise Beatty Originals and Erica Zane

By, dbrprc

I Wuff You by Connie Prince

Join us in the ScrapMatters Hybrid Challenge Forum and make a card of your own!

And here are the rules:
To earn your Matter of Scrap points for the month you need to photograph and upload your card to the Hybrid Challenge – It’s in the Cards gallery and post it in the challenge thread **here** by the end of Feburary. If you use a new product within the week of it’s release please let me know so I can give you the extra point.

Julie (Juliemomof4)

Hi everyone!! It’s Kathleen (kv2av) here to bring you your weekly installment of the Grand Theft Layout challenge. When I was looking for a scrapper to lift, I noticed that there was one in particular whose layouts I have been adding to my favorites folder quite frequently, so I thought it was high time we lifted her. Wondering yet who it is?  I decided we should lift MrsDuke2U and you can find her gorgeous gallery here.

Let me show you some examples the CT and I have come up with….

I chose to lift this LO -

And this is my LO, using My Heart Soars and Best Before: Date Stamps by Jennifer Barrette.

Wendy chose this LO -

And here is her version, using “Falling For Autumn”, “Boy Meets Girl”, and “Behind The Scenes V.2″ by Pressed Petals, “Trash The Dress” by Pressed Petals & Man In The Moon Designs and “Whispers – Fall” by Sahlin Studios -

Amber chose this LO -

and made this one using Honeydew by WM[squared] Designs & Wire-Rimmed Alpha from Sahlin Studio -

Christine chose this one -

And here is her LO, using Template by Pressed Petals, Wild Oats by Chelle’s Creations and Sarah Bennett, and EZane’s AJ Attitude -

Stefanie chose this LO -

And here is her version, using A Different Kind of Love by Juno Designs and Sya’s Blueprints -

QuiltyMom lifted this LO -

And came up with this one, using Today’s a Snow Day by Designs by Tater and Tuesday Template 8/18/09 by Linz

LoriBear lifted this LO -

and here is her version, using Very Strawberry by Man in the Moon Designs

And last, but definitely not least lol, notes4theheart lifted this LO -

and came up with this one, using Trash the Dress by Pressed Petals and Man in the Moon Designs, EST Date by Sahlin Studio, and You Define me by Chelle’s Creations

Whew, that was a lot!! But as you can see, mrsduke2u has SO many lovely LOs just begging to be lifted!!! And now for a few SM guidelines….You will have until the end of February to complete this challenge. Please upload it to the GTL gallery and leave your LO image and mrsduke2u’s LO image (both linked) in the GTL 02/10/10 thread. You will receive one point for completing this 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 lucky winner (random) who will 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!

I think that’s about it! Have fun browsing through mrsduke2u’s gallery – I can’t wait to see your lifts!

Hello, all!  Tgmousechick Kim (Geeky Diva Designs) here, bringing you today’s Tuesday Template!  I’m going to get right to it:

Take advantage of that big block on the template!  Our Creative Team has provided a wealth of examples to inspire you!

Here’s mine, using Hawaiian Happy Hour by The ScrapMatters Team:

From Jen, using Storytime by Designs by Sarah Bennett, Stacy’s Backdoor Designs, and Lil Digi Bits by Jude:

Wendy (WM squared Designs) flipped it and modified it a bit.  She used 2 kits by Jenn Barrette, Chilled and Feeling Frosty:

Kimbytx went with its original intention, using Kiss the Frog, a new collab by Britt-ish Designs and DeCrow Designs:

SM_Amber (Stolen Moments Designs) was so clever!  She realized that the large spot was perfect for documents!  She used 2 products by Sahlin Studios- her Blessed kit and her Clear Pebble Alpha:

Next, QuiltyMom used Snowbound by Britt-ish Designs.  She used one of the photo spots for her journaling!

Finally, LoriBear maintained a lot of white space on this adorable layout, using Different Kind of Love by Juno Designs and Sya’s Blueprints:

I loved the sample layouts this week- such a display of diversity!  I can’t wait to see what you do with it!

A Reminder of the other Matter of Scrap Challenge rules:

Upload your layout to the gallery, and leave BOTH the image and a link in the challenge forum.

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!)

If you post a layout for this template challenge, you cannot use the same layout to complete another challenge.  You have until February 28th to post!

Have fun and stay warm!

Kim (tgmousechick) (Geeky Diva Designs)

Happy February Everyone!! Amanda here to tell you about our new Quickpage Exchange for this month!!  When you think of February, what comes to mind? LOVE of course!! Our kit sponsor this month is perfect for scrapping all of your February moments. The Love Ya Kit by Page Frocks is full of bold colors and amazingly unique elements that will make your pictures for this Valentine holiday month really pop! But if you don’t want to scrap Valentine’s day, this kit is versitile enough to scrap about anything in your life that you are passionate about! So work on one 12×12 page and get back a whole book of love themed quickpages!   The kit will be 30% off beginning February 8th through the end of the month. Check out the forum for more details!  Come and join in the fun!

And here is the full kit: