Hi all, Happy Thursday!  Carolyn here to bring you your inspiration for Challenge 19: Use a Black and White picture on your page. 

I have to admit that this WAS a bit of a challenge for me as I really love color photos.  But sometimes there is a particular kit that is perfect for my photo, but the colors just look horrible together.  That’s when a black and white photo makes all the difference. 

Here I was just LOVING Amber’s kit and wanted to smack every element in it on the page…I just love them all THAT much.  So, with all those papers and elements, my picture was lost.  Not anymore!  Once I changed it to black and white, it was much more visible on my busy page.  Here’s my layout that I had so much fun making with Just One Of  The Boys by Stolen Moments and Jenn Barrette Designs:

Here’s a sweet layout from Annisa, using It’s A Boy Thing by Haynay Designs and WM[Squared] Designs:

And here’s a fun layout from Jan with a partial extraction, using Backyard BBQ by The Design Girl:

Hope these inspire you to have fun scrapping some black and white pictures.  I cannot wait to see your layouts for this challenge!

For a full list of the January 2012 Bingo challenges head over to the forum here and if you want all the details about our challenge system including the prizes click here!

Happy Scrapping!
- Carolyn (calliclaire)

Kairyn here with today’s challenge! One of my favorites:

14. Extreme Makeover – re-scrap one of your older layouts.

I know some people feel that they don’t want to go back and redo a layout they’ve already finished. Instead, they wish to keep moving forward. I understand that, and when I was new to scrapping, I felt the same way! However, my scrapping style has evolved over the few years I’ve been a digi-scrapper, and since I print my books chronologically, there are many pages I’ve created, but never printed… if it hasn’t been printed it’s fair game for a makeover! lol

I chose this one to make over:

I like the blend, the journaling, the clusters… but I was never happy with how dark and noisy the photos are. Now that I know a little more about fixing those problem photos… I came up with this using New Beginnings by Diana’s Creations and Minimal Style Vol. 1 Templates by Memory Clips.

I hope I’ve encouraged you to try a makeover – you might be impressed with just how fun this challenge can be! Until next time… ta-ta!

Jami here bringing you Today’s challenge…

13. Monthly Matters: Show us a calendar topper you’ve created.

I couldn’t decide which page I liked better, so I have 2 versions for my Jan 2013 calendar, I used Best Wishes by Diana’s Creations…

Fonnetta made this great sample for us using Jeanine DeOre’s Poppie Collection and Add-on and Haynay Designs Year in the Life: Alpha:

And Kayla created this one with Snowy Tales by Down This Road Designs… even though it doesn’t have a month on it, it’s still perfect for a winter month… January, February or even December, right?

This challenge was a life-saver for me last year, so I hope you start your 2013 calendar with me! Special thanks to Kairyn for helping me with this posting whilst I had NO power!!!!

Kairyn here with today’s challenge!

6. Let’s get hybrid- create a checklist of some sort to help you get organized and show us your handiwork.
Stolen Moments has a helping hands kit that would be great for a chore chart.

She also has some ready made printables available.

And Simply J has some lists. These would be cute dressed up. They are 5.5×8.5 so they would fit on a altered clipboard or other background and look really cute.

She has calendars, home reference centers, and holiday planners available as well!

Diana’s Creations – Fruitmania would be fun for a grocery list or menu planning list.

I used Helping Hands by Stolen Moments and created this small chart just for me. I plan to print it 6×6 and stick it on a kitchen cupboard door to keep me organized and FLYing!

I can’t wait to see what you create!   For a full list of the January 2012 Bingo challenges head over to the forum here and if you want all the details about our challenge system including the prizes click here!  See you in the gallery!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to 2012!  It’s Kayla aka keepscrappin here to start off the new year with our January 1st ScrapMatters Bingo Challenge.

1. Lift a layout by our CT member, Fonnetta! Her gallery is here: http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/sho…puser/664/sl/f

Fonnetta’s gallery is FAB-U-LOUS so I know you’ll love browsing through it.  It was hard to pick just one layout to lift, but I finally decided to lift Bliss

and I came up with Star Struck

Kairyn Lisa also played along and lifted Fonnetta’s Falling 4 U

and came up with this beauty – to be young and free

Well, what are you waiting for – Christmas? LOL  Nope, well then go get the full list of the NEW January 2012 ScrapMatters Bingo Challenges in the forum and get scrappin to win some great prizes…. more details here.

Hello everyone,

It’s Kayla, aka keepscrappin here with today’s challenge.  I hope ya’ll are having fun with the new challenge system here at ScrapMatters.  Go here for the full list of challenges for December.  It’s fun and easy to win great prizes, so make sure to check it out.

Okay, enough chit chat, let’s get to the challenge.

#5 – The northern hemisphere is starting to be covered in snow. Use a white background for your page.

Easy Peasy – right!  Here’s my layout with a white background.

Layout credits:

Template – Gratitude Freebie 11 from Memory Clips
Kit – Christmas Blues from Diana’s Creations  (new 12.2.11)
Font – century gothic

And here’s some helpful tips I use when making layouts with white backgrounds.  Just use the ones that work for your layout.

1. Add your shadows as you go, so you can see how it’ll look.
2. Let your photos be the focus of your layout.
3. Make sure there’s enough contrast between your background and any white elements, so they’ll show up.
4. White backgrounds variy from snow white (white) to grayish or creamy whites. So if you use a gray or creamy white background, use white elements in the same white color family to make it pleasing to the eye.
5. Add an overlay/ texture to your background to give it more ummph.  Here’s a whole section that are available in the SM shop.
6. Sometimes it’s fun to play with subtle brushes or paint splats on a white background like I’ve done on the above layout to give it a little more interest and draw your eye to the photos and across the page and down to the title.  Boy, that’s was a mouthful!  LOL

Well, that’s it for today, so get scrappin those white background layouts and win yourself some great prizes.

keepscrappin’

Kayla

Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s Saturday Special. Have you ever had a picture that you wished was black & white? Maybe you have the perfect kit for your picture but the colors just don’t seem to work together. Or maybe you are looking for the elegant look that black & white pictures give. There are many ways that you can convert your color picture to black & white. One of the most common ways to convert it is to change the color mode to grayscale under the image menu. This tends to leave your picture fairly bland though. Today I’m going to show you a way to convert your picture without losing the contrast and making you picture look flat. (The screenshots and directions are in Photoshop Elements 5.0.) First open up the picture that you want to convert to black & white. Duplicate the picture by right clicking on the thumbnail in the Photo Bin and selecting Duplicate. This is so you are not working on the original and accidently save over top of it. Press D to set your foreground and background to the default black and white. Make sure that the black is in the top box. If it isn’t press X to switch them. Now go to the top of the Layers Palette and choose Levels from the Adjustment Layers menu. When the box pops up don’t change anything on it right now, just click ok. This will add a layer to your Layers palette named Levels 1. Go back to the Layers Adjustment menu and this time chose Gradient Map. Check to make sure the Gradient map is set on black to white. If it is not click on the arrow next to the gradient map and choose the correct gradient from the popup menu. Click ok. This will give you a layer in the Layers Palette named Gradient Map 1. Just going this far will already give you a better black & white picture, but we are not done yet. In the Layers palette, double-click on the Levels thumbnail in the Levels 1 layer. This will popup the Levels box. From here we are going to edit the individual colors, starting with red. So go ahead and choose the Red channel from the drop down menu. Grab the black (shadow) arrow under the Input Levels and slide it right. This will increase the shadows in the red channel. [IMG]http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm313/p_a_sandbulte/red.jpg[/IMG] When you think you are satisfied with this edit, go back up to the drop down menu and choose the Green channel. On this one we are going to slide the white (highlights) arrow to the left. Again when you are satisfied with this edit, go back up to the drop down menu. This time we are going to work in the Blue channel. Go ahead and move the highlights arrow to the quite a bit to the left. Move the shadows arrow just a little bit to the right. Not every picture you convert will have the same settings, play around with the sliders a bit until you get the effect you are looking for. When you are happy with how your picture looks go ahead and click OK. One last step and then we are done. Go to the Layers palette, click on More. From that menu choose Flatten Image. This will flatten the adjustment layers into your picture. You can also use ctrl+Shift+E to do this. Check out the pictures side by side. The one on the left I just used the grayscale mode to convert the picture. Look how much of a difference there is in the one on the right. Here is my page with my new black & white picture using LDrag’s Blessings of Life and Stolen Moments & Rosy Posy’s Here and Now. Check out these great pages by the ScrapMatters’ CT. Kayla made this cute page using WM Squared’s Inspired by Fran templates and Full of Joy and Add-on by Band Geek Designs. Here is a sweet one by Chel. This one by Ophelia uses Jennifer Labre’s Full of Life and True Blue Studio’s Summer Garden Templates. Here is one from Tamara using Amy Stoffel’s Make a Move. Challenge reminders: -For the month of September you will receive two points for posting in this thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional two points 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 for September MOS points or wait to post in October for October MOS points! -Remember no double dipping… 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.

Hello, It’s Cathy here to host the It’s In The Cards Challenge for 09/22/2011. I’ve got a fairly simple card template that you can dress up to your liking! I took this template and created a gatefold card as my sample. Here’s a preview of the template and sample:

Download the template here or on the linked image above.

And here’s a close up look at my sample:

My sample card was made using Chocolate Frosted Snowflakes by Stolen Moments.  Here are some great samples made up by our awesome creative team.

Tracy made this adorable daisy card using Denim and Daisies - Papers and Elements by Jenn Labre.

Sarah used My Magical Place Add-On Kit and My Magical Place: Add On Alpha by Haynay Designs to make this magical birthday card.  The Mickey silhouettes were a participation prize that she got at another site.

Tamara used  Funky Lane by Sugary Fancy and the all over bracket punch by Martha Stewart to create her cute card.

OK here’s a review of the challenge rules:

Remember that September is double points month!!

-You will receive two points for posting in the “It’s in the Cards Challenge 9/22/2011″ thread and in the “It’s in the Cards” gallery
-You can receive an additional 2 points for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. So I can give you the correct credits!
-You have until the end of September to complete this challenge for MOS points.
-Remember no double dipping – your layout must be unique to this challenge.
-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but we love it when you do!

I hope you’ll join us for this challenge! Happy creating!

~Cathy~

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone’s had a great week! Day from Inspirations here and today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite tricks for making a quick title to coordinate with any page or kit you are working with!
I’ve worked this in PS CS4 but you should be able to do similar with other programs

1. Choose a chunky font and type out your title in the size you want. Don’t worry about color as that’ll be changing! Once you’ve got it, right click the layer in the layers palette and choose “Rasterize Type” (This is called “Simplify Layer” in PSE)

2. Pick a paper to fill your alphabet with and drag it onto a layer above your title. Right click the paper layer in the layers palette and choose “Create Clipping Mask”. (In PSE group the layers by pressing CTRL+G with the paper layer selected)

3. You should now see your paper in the shape of your title. You can move around the paper layer to get whichever part of the pattern showing that you like. When it looks the way you want it, right click the paper in the layers palette and choose “Merge Down” to make your title all one layer.

4. Now you can use your title as is if you like, but you can also play around with some effects to make it pop a bit more. In the effects menu (the little round f button at the bottom of the layers palette) inner or outer glow or shadow, bevel and emboss and stroke would be my main choices.

5. For this I’m using a stroke to give the alphabet a sticker-like look. Adjust the size of the stroke, the placement (in the letters, out or straddling the border) and the color.

6. Now add your title to your page, give it a drop shadow and finish your LO!

Here’s mine, I used the colab kit Vintage Surf Shop, a few elements from my kit Catchin’ A Break and my Tiny Alphabet

and here’s some inspiration from the SM creative team!

Kayla

Tamara

Ophelia

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
————–

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.