Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s Grand Theft Layout Challenge!
Today’s choice is Yolanda aka y_baros. Her gallery is a big inspiration for me and I hope you’ll love it, too!
Soooo, your challenge this week (and the whole next month!) is to browse y_baros’ gallery, find a layout you like and come back here with both the page you picked and the page you scrapped!
And because our designers here at ScrapMatters love Yolanda’s work, too, there’s even some more help for you all in the shop!

This is the page I picked:

and turned it into:

Credits: For the Love of the Boys by Stolen Moments Designs & Jady Day Studio

And more inspiration from our wonderful CT ladies!

Tracy (sunshinetk) used one of Yolanda’s inspired templates to create this all boy page:

Credits: Be Inspired – Yolanda templates by WM2, It’s a Boy Thing by WM2 and Haynay Designs

Melissa (prettypeaches) picked this page:

and created this wonder which is actually a double pager!

Credits: Hitting the Waves By Jady Day Studio, Basic Bits By Inspirations from Day

Tamara (tsmspt) decided to use the templates and this is her page (gotta love the doggy pic!):

Credits: Basically Black Alpha by Plum Dumpling Designs, First Flight by Down this Road Designs, Be Inspired – Yolanda – Templates by WMSquared

Carina (cinna) picked:

And this is her scary lift:

Credits: After Midnight by Jennifer Labre

Jacqueline1976 found inspiration from this page:

And this is her sweet creation:

Credits: Serenity by Happy Scrap Girl, Words from the kit In the History of ever by Amy Stoffel, Tag from the kit Merry Around by KimB, Paper Flower from the kit Letting go by Amy Stoffel

Isabel (Leandi) picked this one:

And made her own version:

Credits: Window to Happiness by LDrag Designs
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Challenge reminders:

-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Grand Theft Layout Challenge gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!

-You have until the end of September to complete this challenge to earn MOS points.

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

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.

Download here.

Here is my layout with this template using Andilynn Designs A Boy’s Treasures and Words Matter: A Boy’s Treasures.

And here are pages created by the wonderful CT.

Amy used Love This Boy by Amy Stoffel.

Here is one from Chel using Jady Day Studio’s Hitting the Waves, Band Geek Designs’ Under the Apple Tree Alpha & Dream Big Designs’ Cabin Critters – Graffiti.

Cami used First Flight by Dream Big Designs.

Carina used Country Time by Forever Joy.

Tamara used Imagine If by Erica Zane.

Challenge reminders:

-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Tuesday Template gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!
-You have until the end of August to complete this challenge for August MOS points or wait to post in September for September MOS points!
-Remember no double dipping…your layout must be unique to this challenge.
-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product.

It’s “just another Manic Monday” at ScrapMatters.com!!! Monday ONLY!! Select items for $2 or 50% off!! Visit theScrapMatters Shop for more details!!

*Manic Monday sales go into the shop early Monday morning and will “disappear” around midnight! HURRY! What are you waiting for!?! *

My Sidewalk Art

Late September by geniaBeana Scraps

Well, I don’t know about you, but my summer has been fast and furious and I’m just NOW getting to posting last month’s winners for Layout of the Month (LOTM) and Project of the Month (POTM)!!  My apologies!  Congratulations to our finalists for their outstanding work!!!

LOTM:  scrapper@heart’s Paradise LO (image is linked)

POTM: NikkiFB’s Play a Little Uke Tee (image is linked)

Awesome job, ladies!!!  Thank you for sharing your inspirational work with all of us!

Lisa (kelseyll)

My pick for LOTW is Jonas 9 months by meagan.
I love the clusters, the gorgeous paper stacking, the awesome title work, and the way the sepia pictures just complete this magnificent layout!! She seriously rocked those shadows too!

This image is linked if you’d like to leave meagan some love!! =)

Melissa (missi_me)

My pick for POTW is Magic slider card by cznycstr713. I love the unique look of this card and the adorable matching envelopes.

If you’d like to leave love, please click the image above!

Melissa (missi_me)

Happy Saturday to you all! Becca, aka becca372 here. Whew, I’ve been busy this week with all my back-to-school prep (I teach Kindergarten)! I know many of you have had children go back to school recently, and we’re almost ready to go back here in Michigan. Today, though, I have a lesson just for you!

I love to blend papers for backgrounds, because I L.O.V.E. patterned papers, but sometimes they can overwhelm a page, so I like to subtle them up…and then the reverse can be true-sometimes I love a solid background, but it just needs a little more texture to work for my layout…so, there are a couple of ways to do it-and a step-by-step with screen shots will follow, but the basic process is to layer your papers, and then change the blending mode and/or opacity, OR use a layer mask (if you’ve got them) or an eraser to create the effect you want.

So, here’s how to do it! Here I’ve selected a yellow paper from Jady Day and Kay Miller’s new collab, A Girl’s Life. There is a GREAT yellow paper with white polka dots in the kit, but I didn’t want quite that much yellow for my background. I opened this solid yellow… 

and then I layered this great polka dot paper over it (I’ve moved it over, here, so you can see my layers)

And now I’m going to play with my blending modes….click the little tab above your layers palette that usually reads “normal” and you get lots of other choices to play with. I tried several but settled on Overlay. I then changed the opacity to 72%…just play with yours until you like it! You can also create multiple layers, at multiple blending modes, to create a look you like…

Now, at this point you can either be done and move on with your layout from here, OR you can do a bit more… In the PSCS versions of photoshop, and in PSE9, you can apply a layer mask to your paper layers-put one over your top layer (click the icon under your layers palette that looks like a rectangle with a circle inside), and then select a brush (I used a large, soft brush, and also reduced the opacity of my brush so that the edges of my masking were soft and subtle), and make sure your color selector thingy is set to white (the trick with layer masks is this–white erases, black brings it back–I always remember “white out” and “back in black”, LOL). Anyway, then just erase away what you want. If you DON’T have layer masks as an option, you can TOTALLY do this with your eraser tool (you can reduce the opacity on it, too!), it’s just a little harder to fix if you do something you don’t like!

So, yeah, on my papers, I’ve used that large, soft brush to erase some of the top paper, letting more yellow bleed through. This space is where I will be putting my photo and elements, just giving another layer of oomph to my page.

And here’s my final layout, using Jady Day Studio’s new collab with Kay Miller, It’s A Girl’s Life

If you are really struggling with the layer masking or the erasing, you can always take the short-cut of using a pre-made mask, which many designers have available (there are quite a few in different packs/kits in our shop!) and use those to clip your papers to!

Here are some more fantastic layouts to inspire you from our fab ScrapMatters team!
By Ophelia:

By Day:

and By Sarah:

and just in case you need a bit more inspiration, here are a couple more layouts from my gallery-in this first one, I used two similarly colored papers from Steph.Designs A La Campagne kit (1 craft paper, then a wonderfully textured paper) and used the soft light setting to get that extra texture I was needing.

And on this layout, I used a clipping mask (originally made for photos) to clip one of Erica Zane’s great papers onto my layout.

So, what do you think, a good how-to today? I hope you try it out!

Here are all the details for this challenge, please read carefully!

Challenge reminders:
-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month (August) you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points! The same is true for those of you who scrap along with me in September!
- You have until the end of August to complete this challenge for August MOS points, and if you can’t get it done by then, you get the added bonus of having until the end of September to complete this challenge for September MOS points!!

-Remember no double dipping…your photo and/or layout must be unique to this challenge.

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM products as of July 8, 2011.

Can’t wait to see what you create!

Look What’s New at ScrapMatters.com 8/26/2011!!

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new Grand Theft Layout Challenge!
Today I picked a gallery that has never been scraplifted here at ScrapMatters and I hope you’ll love it! The lucky lady is josette31. I love her work because she clusters a whole lot and her clusters are amazing to say the least! I know some of you are not fans of clustering, or you are not really familiar with it, but let’s look at it this way: double challenge for you!
So your challenge this week is to browse josette31′s gallery, find a layout you like and come back here in this forum thread with both the page you picked and the page you scrapped!

I picked:

and turned it into:

Credits: First Flight by Down This Road Designs, Beautiful Life: Alpha by True Blue Studio

Want more eye candies by our fantastic CT? Here you go!

Becca236 picked (holy gorgeous cluster!):

and created this equal fantastic clustered page:

Credits: Today Is by Captivated Visions

Chel had a hard time picking just one but in the end she choose:

and did this super cute page:

Credits: A Boy’s World by Jady Day Studio & Kay Millers

Cara (colson) picked this amazing layout:

and this is her gorgeous lift:

Credits: September Grass by Elise’s Pieces, button and two flowers from Bluebird by Erica Zane, and two strings from G is for Giraffe by The Design Girl

Jennifer (iScrap) picked this:

and put together this much happier page:

Credits: A Walk in the Woods by Plum Dumpling Designs

Enough inspiration to join the fun? I hope so!

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Challenge reminders:

-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Grand Theft Layout Challenge gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!

-You have until the end of August to complete this challenge to earn MOS points.

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

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.

It’s “just another Manic Monday” at ScrapMatters.com!!! Monday ONLY!! Select items for $2 or 50% off!! Visit theScrapMatters Shop for more details!!

*Manic Monday sales go into the shop early Monday morning and will “disappear” around midnight! HURRY! What are you waiting for!?! *

Tumbler Insert by Krisi’s Kreations

School Days by WM squared Designs:

Dream a Little Dream by geniaBeana