Friday, May 31, 2013

June Designer Challenge at Pixel Scrapper Week 1

I'm participating in another daily designer challenge this month at Pixelscrapper.com. I have A LOT going on this month, so I have to work double time because I don't want to fall behind.

The challenge is HERE

This month it is a paper and element kit challenge. My plan is to make this kit funky and fun. I have bright colors, reminiscent of a fun house/carnival/circus feel. You can expect crazy papers, and fun elements. Keep an eye out for more!





Individual papers:






FREEBIE FRIDAY #5 - RIBBON STASH EXPIRED

Zip file 12.1 MB
Hello Everyone! This week I am doing something crazy. Here are 26 ribbons of all different sizes and colors that I have made this spring. Since I have started doing this digital scrapbook thing, these are all the ribbons I have made and used (for kits, layouts, personal use etc...) They are strictly for personal use only. Read the Read me file for how you can obtain commercial privileges. Enjoy and remember you can share anything you make with my designs in the comment section below. Who knows, maybe I'll even feature you in a design shout out!

  Download is no longer available. Make sure you don't miss out on any of my freebies by checking in every friday!


REMEMBER, THIS DOWNLOAD IS ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL MONDAY! DON'T MISS IT!!

April/May Challenge Finished! Here's my new Kit!

I finally finished! This kit turned out to be beautiful and filled with great things. I was part of a designer challenge at PixelScrapper.com . There are a lot of talented people on that site, sharing all their lovely items. This kit will become available soon for download. Keep an eye out for it!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Freebie Friday #4 - EXPIRED

Who doesn't love glitter right? I was messing around with PSPx4 and through a ton of add noise/erode/dilate and selection features, I was able to create a glitter template that I was satisfied with. Now I can make it in any color and I am thrilled enough to share some with yous!

Zip File size : 16.9MB


FILE EXPIRED! YOU MISSED IT! COME BACK OFTEN SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Share it Saturday #3

So my sister Kim gave birth to her daugher this week and I have decided to share some of my creations I have done with photos I have taken of her. She is such a cutie! I love holding her. I think she's the tiniest baby I have ever held.
 

FREEBIE FRIDAY #3 EXPIRED





Today (It was supposed to be yesterday but I forgot!) I am giving away a 13 cutouts of various colors and styles. I made templates of the 3 shapes (inchworm, heartbeat, and wave) from scans I did of actual paper, so you get some real texture to them too. I have made flowers from them. The preview shows them at 30% of the actual size. Enjoy!




This file is now expired! Keep coming back to the blog for more freebies next week! 

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Share it Saturday #2








 This is a 7x14" acrylic on stretched canvas that I did for my sister's baby shower.  Jenialyse was due a few days ago and we are still awaiting her arrival. (Pronounced Jenny- A lise)



This was a gift done for a friend who gave birth to a little girl. I like how busy the painting looks. It's kind of my style to use different patterns and colors. I like the contrast and the fact that even though I painted it, I can search the painting for hidden things.


This is one of my favorite ones. It was a painting I was asked to do, and unfortunately the person who asked me to make it just abandoned it. I am willing to sell this painting if you know someone named KENDAL, leave me a comment below.



This was an 8x10 Mario themed painting I did for an old family friend with 2 little boys. It was the first one I did when I started in 2012.  Personally, I have a deep love and appreciation for Mario Brothers. I have great memories of playing the Mario games, so I am very fond of them!



Last week I shared a vector drawing I did of a little boy who was involved in a car accident with his mom and 2 younger brothers. Today he is striving and doing great. This was an 11x14" Painting I did of all 3 of the boy's silhouettes. I overlapped them from oldest to youngest and gave it to their parents on the day of the benefit that was thrown for them. They faced losing Tyler, because he had severe brain injuries and they spent a lot of time in the hospital, but today, even though things aren't the same, he is making great strides and improving more and more as time goes on. I'm proud of him!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Freebie Friday #2 EXPIRED



This Freebie is now expired!



  It's Friday again! That means I have something free for you! This time it's 6 textured frames I made and swaped colors with. I cut a piece of paper with my "heartbeat" decorative scissors and scanned it into the computer. I used the pen tool to trace it and created a preset for a border, and a frame. This is the frame result. Enjoy!
  Each Frame is identical, other than color and they are huge! Feel free to share links to your creations in the comments below!

Remember, this file is only available for a limited time!!! You have until Monday 5/13/13 and then it's going into my vault!


Saturday, May 4, 2013

TUTORIAL - CREATING A WAVY RIBBON IN COREL PSP X4


I wanted to do a video tutorial, unfortunately I don't have the slightest clue how to do it. (If you know how I can do a screen capture video and easily encode it for free, comment below!) In this tutorial, I will show you how to make one of those cute wavy ribbons you always see in the scrapbook kits, and we are going to make it look realistic! It's something I discovered on my own, and hopefully it will help others add that little bit of pizazz to their layouts.



  1. Open a new Image.
    I make mine almost as wide as the papers I use.
  2. Select the Shape tool and pick a background color for your base color to your ribbon.
    These settings are important!
    Use whatever color you want. I'm sure you can even use gradients.
  3. Hold down SHIFT while you make a circle. Holding down the SHIFT key will create a perfect circle for you. 
  4. CTRL+C to copy the shape
  5. Press CTRL+G to paste a vector selection next to the original circle. Do this several times across your image and don't worry about lining them up!
    If you don't have enough circles to get across, just paste some more to avoid spacing.
  6. Press CTRL+A in your layer palette to select all the layer objects. 
  7. Press CTRL+D to remove the selection mask in your working space. 
  8. Select your Pick tool.
  9. Now line up objects vertically and distribute them evenly horizontally. It doesn't matter which one you do first, as long as you do them both.
  10. Right click your Layer Palette and select MERGE VISABLE.
  11.  Using the Selection tool, grab the bottom half of all the circles and offset them to the left or right the distance equal to 1/2 of a single circle. You can overlap the top and bottom portions too for a tighter ribbon.
  12. CTRL+D (This is the same as select none)
  13. Trim up the edges as you see fit.
  14.  CTRL+A (Select All) and select image.(It will create a floating selection so that just the object you are working on is selected)
  15.  Contract your selection to however thick you want your ribbon to be.
  16.  CTRL+SHIFT+I (Invert Selection), then press Delete (not backspace)
  17.  CTRL+SHIFT+I to invert selection again.
  18.  Add noise to give the ribbon a base texture. Make sure you are using Monochrome to maintain the color scheme.I usually use anywhere from 10-16%, depending on the sized ribbon I am making.
  19.  Now to add a secondary texture to your ribbon, to give it a fiber-like look, you will have to use the Texture effect > Texture.I use fine or coarse canvas. Depending on the colors you are using, you will have to tweak the height a bit to achieve the look you want. You don't want this to have a dramatic texture at all. Subtle is best.

     
  20.  Now we are going to use the Blinds texture effect to get those ribbon-like vertical lines.When using this, pick a color that is slightly darker than your base color. This will add dimension. Adjust your opacity until you get the look you want. Remember you want vertical lines, so leave horizontal unchecked.
  21.  Now you want to contract the selection a little. I usually do between 7-10 pixels to get that nice ridge at the top and bottom of the ribbon.
  22. Invert Selection (CTRL+SHIFT+I) Do not click the image to create a floating selection. It will rip the ridge layer up and leave a space with empty pixels. It isn't a huge problem but If you want a nice solid image, follow my lead.
  23.  You will now apply an inner bevel. Depending on the colors you are using, slight adjustments will need to be made, but the settings I'm using are pretty much right along the lines of what you want.
  24.  The top ridge of the ribbon now needs a little more dimension. To achieve this, use the drop shadow tool. You only need a slight shadow for a realistic look.
  25.  CTRL+D To select none. 
  26. Your ribbon is finished. You can add another drop shadow to the entire ribbon here, or save the ribbon(use a .png or other preferred transparency friendly format) for future use in a layout and add the drop shadow then.
This is what you should have if you followed the tutorial correctly. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!





Share it Saturday!

So today I am going to share with you some of the work I have done over the course of the year. I do several different things and my plan is to showcase these designs to all of you! Enjoy!




Logo Design for Prolific Auto Detailing of Buffalo, NY


Vector Art of Tyler Szpara, A child injured in a serious car accident that I helped do a benefit for.


Painting done to match a child's bedroom theme.
A Rock star Themed Birthday party invitation I did.
Diaper Cake I did for my brother's girlfriend's shower.


That's it for this week! Come back next week for more shares. Remember, you can see all of my work by going to my Facebook page.