What an amazing collection of layouts this week! I saw some great techniques, fun new kits and amazing compositions!! Just when I thought I had it narrowed down I’d run across another spectacular page! So, this LOTW was a little harder for me to decide on than in the past! In the end I went with the layout that I kept going back to and really caught my eye in the gallery to begin with, so much so I had put it in the GSO’s!! The layering, composition and shadowing are all incredible and the journaling made me giggle, so congratulations to CAITS (Caitlin)for her Not my Family layout!

You just did an AMAZING job on this page!!!! Head on over to the forum or the gallery to leave her some love!

-Keslseyll

Yeah!! It is time for one of my favorite Sunday Spotlights…our Guest Designers!  This month we have Rachel of Captivated Visions and Mariella of Laitha Designs.

1. Your screen name? Your real name? My Screen name is Captivated Visions and my real name is Rachel Jefferies.

2. What is your main job/career? Digital Scrapbook Kit Design is my Full Time Job

I design with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, I’m currently using a Bamboo Tablet but when i move into my new studio (we are decorating our spare room and re-organising) I have a brand spanking new Intuos 4 Tablet which I’m itching to use! I occasionally use Artrage but I haven’t played in there for a while, it’s so fun to make glitter and use paint!

18. Favorite kit you’ve designed for Scrapmatters? My Everyday Stuffs Grab Bag

1. Your screen name? Your real name? My name is Mariella and my nick name since many years on the net is Laitha. Laitha is the Celtic name of Guenevieve of Camelot: I am very fond of the Arthurian legend .

2. What is your main job/career? I work on the Stock Market as a day trader.

3. Are you married/children/pets? Happily divorced since many years, I have no children. I am single at the moment and I have two siamese cats that live with me.

4. Where is home for you? Here where I am I am from Italy and I love my country, though I have been living in the USA few years ago.

5. What are your 3 favorite foods? Oh well .. I am Italian so I can’t live without spaghetti and pizza , even if when I can I love to eat sushi!

6. PC or Mac? What program do you use? I work with PC with Windows 7 x64.For designing I use Phostoshop CS5 and ArtRage.

8. What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking? I love to make creations with polymer clay but I have always few time to learn new tecniques and tricks …

9. What are your favorite movies/TV shows? My favorite series are Criminal Minds and Dr. House. Favorite movies? I have tons Anyway at first place I can put ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ and “Legends of the Fall”.

10. Describe your “designing” environment. Music? TV in the background? Drinks? Snacks? Where?
Oh well .. normally I have TV in the background that I listen here and there and always a cat near me that try to bring my attention on him/her And obviously I can’t miss my (big) cup of coffee

11. If you only had 2 elements in a kit, what would they be? I think that I can’t do without some grungy & glittered overlays and flowers flowers flowers!!

12. Would you like to share a little known fact about you…? There is no much to say about my life .. I am absolutely serene, enjoy my family and friends and I love to stay at home. When I go out I love to go to dance Salsa or to go shopping in big commercial centers. When I can, I go for a week in some islands near Italy, particulary I love Djerba that is in Tunisia: there are a wonderful sea, smells and colors that make me relax totally.

13. When did you start designing? How did you get started? I started around two years ago; my main job is very stressfull and I have to stay in front of PCs all day long. In some moments of the day, when the market is quiet, I started to play with some scrapkits to dress my photos. Then I try to make my own papers end started playing with photoshop in a deeper way and I discovered what was possible to do with it … In that moment I discovered to be more creative than I thought and I start creating my own kits and someone suggested me to try to sell them. And people liked them Since then I never stopped designing: I reduced my main job to part-time and for the rest of the time I design!

14. How would you describe your design style? My style is always realistic, shabby with a bit of vintage.

15. Where do you get your inspiration/motivation? Normally it’s a picture that gives me the inspiration for color palette: only after I choose the theme. Motivation is always very high as I love to make what I do

16. Which of your products in the Scrapmatters Store showcases your style the most? I think that ‘Natural Glory’ collection well represents my style.

17. What is your favorite color scheme to design with? I love natural colors and when I can I mix them with blue and purple.

18. Favorite kit you’ve designed for Scrapmatters? Midsummer Dream

Wowee!! I just love looking into the lives of  these fabulous guests!  It is so interesting to get know a little more about them!  Check out all of Laitha’s fab Designs here and Captivated Visions store is here!

Have a great week!

-Amanda (Panders77)

Washington, DC/Manassas, VA ScrapMatters Meet & Greet

Hey everyone–Andrea (Andilynn) here.  If you live in the DC area and you’ve ever wanted to meet me, Denise, Happy, Shari and Wendy please join us next Sunday, September 26th for a meet and greet at 5 pm.  We are having a potluck picnic–families are invited.  We just thought it would be fun to have an informal get together and one where our families can see that these people we are always talking about are real and that they just don’t live in our computers! We don’t expect anyone to fly in to meet us or anything fancy like that.  But if you live in the DC area we would love to meet you.  There will be door prizes and some other fun goodies if you come.  To find out the exact location in Manassas, VA you need to private message Denise (neeceebee) in the ScrapMatters’ forum, you will need to be logged into the SM forum before you can send a private message.   So register or log in, before clicking on the link!

ScrapMatters’ DC/VA Meet & Greet

If you don’t live near Washington, DC/Manassas, VA don’t fret, we are planning some more of these meet ups around the country.  However if there is someplace you would love for us to come visit please leave a comment and let us know where.

Happy Saturday!  I’m Kat (ktanker) of Kat Designed, a proud member of the ScrapMatters Creative Team and I’m here to give you a tutorial on Fixing Blemishes.  Many times, our photos come out great but there may be that one blemish that we’d like to adjust or remove.  There’s a wide variety of blemishes that qualify for something you might want to remove.  Today I have a video tutorial for you on how to remove a blemish.  I am using Photoshop CS4 but this tutorial may work in other versions of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

{Click here to see the VIDEO TUTORIAL}

Here’s the image I worked with in the video tutorial.  I removed the lip ring.

To fix a blemish/remove unwanted somethings from a photo… follow these steps:

1. Choose your CLONE STAMP TOOL (seen above)
2. This tool works as a brush. Hold down the ALT key to change the circle cursor to a circle with a + in the middle. This is how you choose your clone area. You want to choose an area near your blemish to help the skin tone(s) and/or color(s) match. Play with this some, don’t be afraid to choose different areas to help the tone(s) match.
3. Depending on the area, adjust the brush size and drag or “blot” the area with the blemish. Pay close attention to be sure your tone(s) are matching. If not, click undo and try again.
4. Once you have removed your spot, adjust your color, brightness, contrast etc… or run an action to fix up your photo. Using color correction on your photo helps hide the imperfections of the clone you’ve completed.

Seems easy enough? Any questions?

Here are the before, during and after shots…Special thanks to my younger sister, Jennifer for being a great model for this tutorial.

And here’s my layout using Rejuvenate by Sahlin Studio and matching Nail Polish No. 5 alpha

Check out some other inspiration from our creative team gals…

By Heidi {scrappurple}

Here’s her layout using Be Inspired – Melissa R – Templates by WM [squared] and Go Green by WM [squared] and Sarah Bennett

And one by JenD {jendavey}

And here is her layout using Vintage Vogue (Bundle) by Sahlin Studio

As a reminder here are the MOS Rules:
* Post your layouts to the Saturday Special Gallery & link us up in the forum.
* You will earn one point by participating in this challenge. You can receive an EXTRA point for using a product that has been released in the seven days prior to your post just make sure you make a note of that in your forum post.
* Your layout must be unique to this challenge, NO double dipping.
* You have until the end of the month to complete the challenge Thursday September 30, 2010.
* At the end of the month, I’ll choose one random winner to receive an EXTRA point.

Happy Weekending!

Are you ready for some hybrid inspiration?  Well, our gallery is full of amazing projects this month!  Here are just a few to get your creative juices flowing.

I *LOVE* this little Hybrid Camera Album by Sung1203!  Seriously, isn’t it the cutest?

Or how about this Grungy Gift Card Envelope by monsu? Gift cards are fun to give, but I think they’re even more fun when you have packaging like this to present them.

This Owl Domed Box by interstitchal is so much fun! What a great little box to use to hold some treats to share with a friend.

Another great box, just perfect for a little boy, is this Fire Truck Box by reboscraps. Love it!

Look at this AMAZING Art Journal Page by Cristina! Okay, now look again at the incredible detail. Isn’t it awesome? She used her electronic cutting machine to cut the pieces out! I think I just added a new item to my (ever-growing) wishlist!

My last (but definitely not least) pick for the hybrid highlights this month is this super cute card by tsmspt.  I love how she cute the card in the shape of the popcorn box and printed it on the front and back of the card!  I need to try this!

Post your projects to the SM hybrid gallery and they might just show up in next month’s Hybrid Highlights!

Jaime

__________________

Hello, everyone! It’s Lina of LDrag Designs here to bring you today’s Tuesday Template September 14th!

I based this off a layout that I did in June . You can use this template however you like. Turn it. Flip it.

Make it your own. Just have fun!

Here’s the template.

Here’s the LO I did with it using my “Diamonds Are Forever” kit.

Credits here

Here are some gorgeous layouts from the fabulous ScrapMatters team to get you inspired!

by Jami using Boyish Charm kit by Jennifer Barrette Designs

by Cathy using Love my Guy by Trixie Scraps
and Line it up Templates by Krisi’s Kreations

by Colson using Captivated Visions/Stolen Moments kit Second Spring

by Heidi using”Frosty” by Jenn Barrette Designs

by Claire using Earthy Delights by Connie Prince and Lorie M Designs

by quietangelsb using Krisi’s Kreations font- What a man and ScrapMuss Design’s Daddy, Fish and Me

and by Lori using Andilynn’s Rosalie kit

You can grab the template HERE!

Matter of Scrap Challenge rules:
You have today all of September to complete the layout. Upload it to the gallery, and leave BOTH the image and a link as a reply to this thread.

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 I will pick a random winner to get one extra point!

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

I can’t wait to see what you create!

Lina

Can you believe it is September already? The summer has flown by! With all the kids going back to school I thought the perfect kit for our exchange would be The Three Rs by Connie Prince and Bella Gypsy! This kit is enormous and is packed full of all the perfect elements and papers for scrapping all your school related pictures! Won’t it be great to have a ready made album for all of your kids’ accomplishments this year? (Not to mention all those first day of school pictures I know you took!) To participate in this month’s Quickpage Exchange, just create one 12×12 quickpage using The Three Rs and you will receive all the other pages created at the beginning of October! The exchange begins on September 13th and will run until the end of the month. The Three Rs will be 30% off during the exchange. Check out the forum today for more details! Come and join in the fun!

And here is the full kit!

Can’t wait to see all your pages!

-Amanda (panders77)

This weeks has, as usual, been a super busy week in the gallery. And of course there has been no shortage of amazing talent! After thinking long and hard, I chose this layout by mommy2boyz. She’s got a pretty amazing gallery and I’m so in love with this layout called Pure Beauty. The photos are so sweet and the layering and scatter of flowers just make this layout gorgeous! Go check it out by clicking the picture and leave some love while you’re at it!

Congrats again Jordan on your awesome LO!!

-Melanie (scrappymelly)

Hey scrappers! hope you are having a fabulous weekend!! Its Jenn here with this week’s Saturday Special Challenge!

Have you ever found a paper in the kit that you are working with that would look fabulous with another paper blended? Always wanted to know how to do this? Well its quite simple. Blend as many papers as you want, but I am going to start with two.

Here is what I do, in Photoshop CS4!

Step 1: Open the bottom paper you want to blend, then add a second paper on top of that layer that you want to blend with the bottom paper.

Step 2: Click on the top paper layer. Right click, choose ‘Create Clipping Mask’

Step 3: Click on the drop down list showing your blending modes, play with them. In my example I chose ‘Pin Light’. You may adjust the opacity, however in my case I did not need to.

This is how my paper came out!

Here is my finished layout!

CREDITS: Precious Memories Collab by Lathia Designs and Studio Manu
Also used Sahlin Studio’s Vellum Alpha

And a few more layouts from our awesome CT!

By Liz:

CREDITS: Lathia’s Midsummer’s Dream Kit and All that Glitters and Vellum Alpha by Sahlin Studio.

By Cara:

CREDITS: Captivated Visions new template set, Scrapmuss Designs kit Daddy, Fish and Me, some elements from Scrapmuss Designs kit Music of my Memories (recolored) and Chelle’s Creations alpha from Pearly Whites (recolored).

By Becca:

CREDITS: Second Spring by Stolen Moments and Captivated Visions. I also used Happy Scrap Girls More than Just Curves.

As a reminder here are the MOS Rules:
* Post your layouts to the Saturday Special Gallery & link us up in the forum.
* You will earn one point by participating in this challenge. You can receive an EXTRA point for using a product that has been released in the seven days prior to your post just make sure you make a note of that in your forum post.
* Your layout must be unique to this challenge, NO double dipping.
* You have until the end of the month to complete the challenge Thursday September 30, 2010.
* At the end of the month, I’ll choose one random winner to receive an EXTRA point.

Hi everyone, Sylvia here with our new IT’S IN THE CARDS challenge!

Your template:

You can download the template HERE

I’ve made a sample card using ‘Tis The Season’ by Man in the Moon Designs:

And here’s some great inspiration from our wonderful CT:
Cathy aka Scrappycath made this gorgeous pinwheel card using Happy Scrap Girl’s Sunshine and Showers

This beautiful card was made by Tanya aka TanyaH666 using Frolic by Jenn Barrette

And another wonderful card for your inspiration: Amanda aka Abhall76 made this super duper cute winter card using Winter Waddles by Belly Gypsy

And more hybrid magic from Heather aka interstitchal. She used Some Summer Night by Belly Gypsy to create this beautiful card

Aren’t these wonderful examples? I hope you are now ready to play along and can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with!

Remember: the rules of the challenge are:
*To earn your Matter of Scrap point for the month you need to photograph and upload your card to the Hybrid Challenge – It’s In The Cards gallery by September 22nd. Then come back here and post it in our It’s In The Cards Challenge thread (you can find the thread HERE). Make sure to let your hostess know if you used a new product within a week of it’s release – if you do, you get an extra point! One random winner will be chosen to receive an extra point!*

Happy cardmaking