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!?! *

This week we got a chance to catch up with one of our regular ScrapMatters members, Amy!  Thanks for letting us get to know you a little better and for sharing your layouts with us!

and I’ll throw one more in.  This one is very recent. I love how it turned out….and if I say so myself..I think the kit is a perfect pairing with my pictures. heehe, I’m a dork I know!

Look What’s New at ScrapMatters.com 10/28/2011!!

Hello everyone! Tracy here with another installment of It’s In the Cards. I hope you enjoy this fun little template and play along with us!

Download HERE

I used Joyful Ride by Sugary Fancy

and Karen (bydelstorp) created this fabulous Halloween card:

Using: A Wizarding World by Jady Day Studio
Spiders web die from Memory Box
font: DJB ImNoWizard

The fine print:
- You will receive one point for creating a card, printing & photographing it and then uploading it in the It’s In The Cards gallery and posting in this thread.

-You can receive an additional point for using NEW ScrapMatters 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 November 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

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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!?! *

Just Sayin’ – Halloween by WM squared Designs:

Haunted by geniaBeana

Junior Legal Pad Wrap by Krisi’s Kreations

Mermaid Fantasy : Sweet Deal

Christmas Past

Congrats to roxanamdm for winning this week’s LOTW!! I love the blended photo and the gorgeous clusters under the pictures. The colors of the leaf ellies compliment the colors in the pictures so well.

Just click on the image above to leave love on this gorgeous layout!

Melissa (missi_me)

This week’s winner is one of our newer ScrapMatter’s members:  Marta Lima!! I love the colors of the card, the real stitching and the cute lady bugs. The envelope is pretty awesome too.

Just click on the image above to leave love on this stunning project!

Melissa (missi_me)

Heidi here with a review of a Saturday special … shadows. There are so many different directions I could go, but today I am going to show you how to change the color of your shadow.
O.k., onto the lesson. Have you ever had an item that you added a shadow to, but it just doesn’t look right? Sometimes, having a black shadow isn’t natural. Look around you right now. Are the items casting shadows black? Maybe they are a soft shade of gray. Maybe the are reflecting the color of the item as the shadow. Keep this mind as you go to shadow today’s layout.

However you add your shadow, go ahead and add it to your paper/element/etc. Now, I want you to double click on the “fx” on your layer you shadowed.

It should bring up a box like this:

Make sure you that the “drop shadow” box is highlighted in blue like the #2 shows. If that is not highlighted, you will not see the screen above. Next, I want you to click in the black box circled in #3. It should bring up a new box that looks like this:

Notice that your cursor can now choose a new color if you place it over your layout. Next, I want you to click on your paper. You color box will change to the color of the paper and this is o.k. Now you want to start moving down on the color box. I usually go to the gray side of my color. Watch how the shadow color changes on your element. Does it now look a little softer and more natural? Keep playing with it until you get a shadow that looks like it would if it were sitting in front of you right now. Or, if you have Jennifer’s style, you can keep the color where it is and just move the sliders as shown by the #4 until you get a color you are happy with.

For my layout above, I had white paper under my pics/elements. With Jennifer’s shadows, she has a brown color for the shadow which give a nice warm natural shadow. But for this particular layout, I wanted my shadow a little more on the “cool” side, so I changed the shadow color. I did not, however, change the shadow color of the white paper resting on the bottom brown paper. It was the perfect color for that paper.

Click the color box and you come up with this box where you can edit what color you want your shadow to be:

Basically you go to Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow and you get this screen where you are able to edit you color, depth, etc.

Here is a new layout I created using the same technique:

Please note that this was using CS4. I am not familiar with Elements, but I was told by Denise, who is the :queen: that the dialog boxes look different, but the concept still works.

Make sure to check out the challenge in the forum for more inspriation from our amazing CT! Happy Saturday!

Look What’s New at ScrapMatters.com 10/21/2011!!

There is ALWAYS something to look forward too. Things we are waiting for:  A baby, a wedding, a birthday.  Recently, my children and I counted down to Daddy coming home from deployment.  Now we are counting down to Halloween.  (We are also counting down to our Return to DisneyWorld–been saving for 3 years.  We are leaving on Nov. 1)  That would be a great idea for countdown blocks!  But what I have to show you are my Countdown to Halloween Blocks!  I used several pieces from the October Mix a Kit.  Here are the main kits I used. This one I loved because it gave more more variety in my numbers.

I loved the Frightful word bits too.

This alpha reminds me of a fat squishy pumpkin.

I used almost every piece that Dream Big Designs created for the Mix A Kit. Here is a look at just the papers, but the super cool alpha that is glittered around the edges is worth checking out too.

Here is another alpha that my son loves and picked out for me to use.

These aren’t even all the goodies I used, you can find all the parts of the ScrapMatters October Mix A Kit here.

Let me show you my finished project.

Yes, these are the cutest little blocks. You maybe have seen them all over.  Usually they are made of little wooden blocks.  But mine are made out of 3 pieces of cardstock and some Glue Dots.  Don’t get me wrong I love the wooden ones, and I think they would last longer.  But if you are anything like me, even if you went through all the trouble to make the wooden kind you wouldn’t be able to find them next year, and would have to make them all over.  I think if I were giving these as a fancy gift I would go the wooden route.  But these have held up great to my 3 elementary kids so far, and since they were so easy I will want to make more next year anyway.

I designed my own template for this little project.  And I will definitely tell you how I did it.  I am not going to go in to full out detail, because when I upload thing that I make for my own use to share I always worry that in all my excitement that I have messed up something.  So I have sent the idea to Krisi’s Kreations, and I think that she is going to fancy it up a bit and quality check it and all that jazz and have it in her store.  (I am thinking Christmas countdown).

Let me go ahead and tell you how I did it for now.  I use a regular printer at home, so I needed to be able to print on regular paper.  To do that safely, I found the blocks could be 1.75 inches.  This isn’t the way I made my template in the beginning but through trial and error this is what worked.  You know it is one of those things that took me all day-but had I known then what I know now it would have been as simple as this.  You need to create a 1.75 x 1.75 inch square in your program.  I use Photoshop Elements 7, but it will be the same idea in any program.  I recommend filling it with color. Then all you have to do is duplicate it five times.  Then line them up like this.  You can draw the flaps on afterward with a pencil.  I have put them on the template to give you an idea-but you won’t see them after they are assembled.

You will need 2 square blocks.  Then for the base you will need a rectangle block.  This was the part that took me so long, but in hindsight it wasn’t hard.  But boy did it elude me at first.  Using the block template layered file, You just turn the middle squares into 1.75 x 3.5 inch rectangles!  Leave everything else the same.  My base looks different because it is rotated, but don’t let that confuse you!  Just remember that you will see the squares too, so decorate them as well.  Here are my flattened square blocks and rectangle base.

Your first block will have 0,1,2,6,7,8 (but you have to use a font that will let the 6 also be used for 9.  Your second block will be 0,1,2,3,4,5.  This will let you count down a full month.  Or hey, you could make this a perpetual calendar too!  I had so much fun with these little countdown blocks. I hope you will too!  I am sure to be back with Christmas Countdowns.  Here is one more picture.  And thanks so much for looking! Tamara.