I found Nie Nie Dialogues blog through a friend of mine; Kelly McCaleb a while back. I loved Stephanie's blog; it was always uplifting & inspiring to read! Totaly eye candy & it just always made me happy.
Flash back to August 18th, when my sister , Amy, called me & asked
"Did you hear about Christian & Stephanie Nielson? They were in a plane crash.." she told me about the injuries, the tragedy & their 4 little children...my heart sank. I always hate hearing this stuff.
You know when you are on the internet & you don't put 2 & 2 together...you're clicking here & there & it's so fast paced, you just miss some things? ...well, I hadn't put it together that THE Nie Nie & Stephanie were the same. duh. So, as I was surfing various blogs, I put it together. even more heart sinking....
Their experience & their families' experiences have been shared all over the internet through their blogs, tv, newspapers...& I read Jane's blog everyday for updates. And, I've been so inspired by the family's courage & the rallying of the whole blog community!
I've been stewing over this; praying, thinking & wanting to do something...take action! What could I do to help them? I want to help!!!!
So, Two Peas is getting involved. Next week, we'll have a huge collaborative digital kit up for sale called: Silouhettes for Nie Nie.
I have to tell you; creating these 'inspiration cards' for the kit was very emotional. It was one of those 'artistic experiences' that just moves you..your soul. You know what I'm talking about...it was uplifting!
All proceeds will be donated to Nie Recovery ...every penny. This makes me happy! ...& seeing the other art from all of the other designers make me happy.
I'll keep you posted & have links for you, but please: consider buying this kit...it's for the road to recovery for this brave family. It sounds like it will take a miracle in this recovery. And, I believe in miracles!
Have a great day...hug your families & pray for the Nielsons!
I've been so excited to share this with you! I am a HUGE fan of Wacom products , so when they contacted me to be a part of their digital scrapbooking site, Pen Scrappers , I was so excited to do it! Check out my bio page & scrapbook pages here! The whole team is awesome! Love their pages...& some of my very fave digi scrappers ever!
My theme was: Camping. I designed a whole kit around this & used it in my pages with the Bamboo Fun tablet! One of my favorite things to do with the tablet is add my own handwriting & drawing on my layouts. Here, I just used my Brush Tool, set at a Hardness of 100% & at a Diameter of 5 pixels. Then, I zoomed in to 100% (I've found that if I don't, it gets shaky-looking.) & I wrote the title/journaling.
Another thing I love is actually drawing on my layouts. I love doodling & in this layout, I graffitied (it's OK, it's only a layout) on the tree; adding journaling & doodling to draw the eye to the tree.
So....today they launched the site & are hosting a contest to win a new Bamboo Tablet!Um...how cool is that? Let me tell you...you want. No. you NEED this tablet..it is so easy, so fun & really makes digital scrapbooking/designing soo fan*tastic! Just watch my video clip/bio & hopefully I'll talk you into it! LOL!
I have had so many people ask me how to use their graphic tablet in digital scrapbooking. A couple of years ago, I did an article in BHG's Scrapbooks, ETC. magazine on this. So, here are some of my tips & tricks:
1. Right out of the package, make sure you install the drivers for help on the 'jitters, or shakes'.
2. Tape a piece of acetate to the top of your tablet, to keep it smooth & pristine. The pen will glide so smoothly! But, if this bothers you & it's too slippery, tape a piece of regular paper onto it to give it some 'tooth' until you get the hang of it!
3. Zoom into your doc 100% so you will get cleaner lines.
4.To utilize the full capability of the pen/stylus, experiment with the pen pressure. You can draw & create thin or thick lines as you press down on your pen....very cool effect on your drawing or handwriting!
5. Experiment with using it as your mouse. I have heard a lot of digital scrapbookers say their wrists hurt when designing so much. I had the same problem a couple of years ago...my arm started hurting so much, I couldn't even straighten it! As soon as I started using the pen as my mouse, it went away & I haven't had a problem since! Even when I'm designing 6 hours a day!
6. Practice. Practice. Practice. It takes a bit getting used to, but I promise; you will LOVE it!
Seriously, I can not say enough about the tablet! It's amazing....
have a fab Wacom Day & go over there & enter to win! As the site says: 10 entrants win a nice new Bamboo Fun, one grand-prize winner takes home a Bamboo Fun, a camera, a printer and the kitchen sink (kitchen sink not available in the lower seven continents).
Deadline is October 31, 2008! so get scrappin' & when you post your layouts over there, come back here & link us up so we can vote for you! The most votes wins!!!!! Good luck!
Colored Swirl Rub ons ...mmmmm! love this color scheme! And for those of you just achin' to get your Christmas Cards done early: How about these Quickie Card Templates ? Totally fast & easy!
Look how far digital scrapbooking has come? I remember 4 years ago, when I won Creating Keepsakes' Hall of Fame , Digital Scrapbooking was a *bad* word! hee hee! Now.....years later, people are embracing it & I'm thrilled! cutting edge? maybe! But, whatever it is...I'm loving that I'm seeing more & more of it! There are so many possibilities with creating!!!!!
I just want to shout out to my friend, Danielle Thompson , who just opened up her own digital design shop called Kitschy Digitals . It's totally unique & so her! She was doing 'digital/hybrid' years ago when we worked on a few projects with Autumn Leaves & each time, I was blown away with her talent. She's rad! She's a trendsetter in her own right! So, when she asked if I'd use her kits to design a digital page...wow! I was so excited! Above; the layout has a mixture of both of our stuff! It's so fun to mix styles, colors & wow...the possibilities with digital is *unbelievable*.
So, I thought I'd tell you how I did the layout...since, everytime we put our stuff up for the Designer Garden over at Two Peas , we put our steps so people can do it, too! (habit!)
1. In Photoshop , open up Danielle's background papers: I combined 2 here; the woodgrain & the floral. Be sure the put the woodgrain paper on the bottom of the Layer Palette ; followed by the Floral paper so they are
2. Click on the Floral paper & go to your Layers Palette. In the Drop Down Menu that says Normal be sure to click on the Overlay light mode. This will give you the look of blending the 2 background papers. I use this technique all the time combining & blending various colors, textures, elements, papers, tags, etc. together! Love the look! You can also fiddle with the Opacity levels for various looks!
3. Open up one of the frames from Vintage Photo 2 Tool kit ; your photo & then follow this short tutorial to get your photo & mat together. Now, simply drag & drop with your Move Tool onto the 2 papers.
4. Now, for the rest of the layout, it's just all about Layering. Think of a traditional scrapbook layout; you'll have the bottom layer of 12x12 paper on the table. Then, you'll have the photo/frame on top, right? Now, to get this look, you want to add the 'embellishments' under the photo/frame but on top of the paper.
5. So, in PS, you would just open up the embellishments you want to use & with your Move tool, drag & drop them under your photo, but on top of your papers. Here, I used Danielle's cute retro paper doll & copied it 3 xs. I made her peek out several places to emphasize the '3 sisters' motif I've got going here. One thing I LOVE about digital scrapbooking is that you can copy 1 element several times; recolor it, flip it, etc. Sooo many possibilities!
6. To create the look of the font being cut out of paper, I used a technique called Masking. Check out this tutorial to help you out!
Remember; digital scrapbooking takes practice, NOT the most expensive program! There are many photo editing programs out there that will totally be fine! No matter what program you choose to use, practice is key. I found that I needed to do a new technique everyday for about a week until I remembered how to do it. So, do a layout everyday with these above techniques & then, you'll grasp it! ha! Who know? You may just need to do it 2xs & you'll get it! But, just hang in there & have fun!
**Can you tell I'm prepping for my 1 on 1 digi class with my mom tomorrow? hee! fun stuff!
Last night we went to our friends' surprise birthday party...& yes, we wore these outfits! I didn't think Jeff would really wear the mullet wig, but he did! And a blonde one...it was so gross, but so fun! He was in a pink oxford, wing tips & a skinny tie...oh my! My hair was donned with a black 80's ribbon , curly bob, lots o' jewelry, long gold sweater w/ black leggings...ha! it was too funny! (love, Ferris Bueller)
It was such a nostalgic, fun time! 80's themed; dressed up in 80's fashion & even 80's music! Our friend that threw the surprise party for her husband really surprised him, but giving him a birthday present he'd never forget. The Gene Loves Jezebel! Yes, I was a huge fan of them, too...back in the day. So, it was a totaly nostalgic rush to be in a little private party with Michael Aston! ha! who'da thunk, 21 years after I swooned over him in a little club back East that I'd be sitting chatting with him! Totally fun night!
And...HUGE thanks for the sweetness about my Etsy shoppe....smooches!
