Everybody loves a freebie! I have been working on a mini kit to give away as a freebie and it’s ready, Captured Moments – Mini Kit Parts 1 & 2.
You can pick up Part 1 by subscribing to my newsletter, where you can stay in the loop of all the goings on at Loops and Swirls Designs.
And you can pick up Part 2 under the Fan Freebie tab on my Facebook page.
I made this layout using the freebie kit.
I hope you enjoy creating with this kit as much as I enjoyed making it. I love to see my products in action, so please feel free to share the layouts you make (you can put a link in the comments section).
My latest kit, Autumn, is now in the shop. Autumn is such a wonderful time of year, cooler days, warm colors and a return to our regular routines. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer, but am always glad to see autumn arrive. I love sweater weather, curling up with a warm hot chocolate, and the brisk sunny days that precede the gray ones of winter.
Hopefully, this kit will get your creative juices flowing and inspire you to document all those fun autumn activities, from a walk through the forest full of changing leaves, apple picking in an orchard, or finding that perfect pumpkin in the patch.
And the coordinating journal cards.
A little inspiration for you.
I would love to hear from you, what is your favorite season and the thing you love the most about it?
I have some new digital goodies in the store. My new kit, Road Trip, and coordinating journal cards, as well as a new set of stitched elements, Stitched Up – Vol 1.
This summer we were able to get the kids out on a road trip. We visited with family and saw a few sites along the way. It had been a long time since we had gone on a family road trip and we had so much fun.
I wanted to create a kit full of bright colours and fun embellishments to help you capture all the fun moments you have had on your summer road trip.
I love stitching on a scrapbook layout, it just adds that something. This stitched element pack includes 4 stitches in 8 different colours for a total of 32 elements. It just so happens, that the colours in this set coordinate with my Road Trip kit.
Phew, I did it! I finished my last entry for the Master of Scrap competition over at Scrapaneers. I even managed to get it finished early in the day. I must admit that I am glad that I have them all done. That’s a lot of pressure to finish two layouts a week that fit a set of specific criteria.
This layout was challenging in that there were so many requirements. The Eclectic style, which is kind of an “anything goes” kind of style, includes lots of clustering of elements and mixing and matching different patterns. The requirements for this layout were,
Must contain at least 2 photos.
Must contain 10 different kinds of elements (buttons, ribbons, flowers, etc) and 3 different elements of each kind (so, 3 buttons, 3 flowers, etc). That is a minimum of 30 elements on the page, wow!
Include 5 different patterned papers.
Must have journalling and a title.
Must pull products from 3 different kits by 3 different designers.
It took me a long time to find all the elements that I wanted to use, and then finding 3 variations on that kind of element, it was a challenge. I don’t usually stick to just one kit for any layout. I love to scrap using many kits, so that part was easy. You realize how many supplies you really have when you are searching through them for that perfect element. I even did a major purge of products that I didn’t use recently, and I still have a lot of stuff, but they are products that I love.
Here is my layout.
Click image for credits.
I love all the bright colours and the stitching accents. It was a lot of fun to make. The ombre paper with the polka dots is one that I am working on for a kit.
I think this may be my favorite layout that I have done for this competition. I am rather partial to the family photo on this page, we never seem to have enough of those.
We are closing in on the end of the 4th week of the Master of Scrap competition over at Scrapaneers. Poppies is my 7th entry in the competition (only one more to go) and is inspired by the Abstractionist style. The requirements are that the layout FEATURE brushwork, invoke abstract design, contain at least one photo which is blended, or painted, or highly processed, and must contain a black/white or gray background.
I believe I hit all the requirements. The photos have been edited in photoshop to look like pencil crayon sketches. I used four separate photos of poppies on this layout. I am fortunate to have a beautiful display of poppies in my garden every year. They are a sight to see when they are all in bloom. Other than the background paper, everything else on the page was made with brushes and masks. Since this is not a style that is in my comfort zone I went as abstract as I felt comfortable with. I think it makes a very lovely page.
Here is my layout.
Click image for credits.
One more layout to go and then the competition is over. Now I know that it is possible to complete two layouts a week. I think I will need to challenge myself to continue on, but maybe with the goal of 1 layout a week. If I get two done it will be a nice bonus.
Number 6……DONE! I just finished my 6th layout for the Master of Scrap competition at Scrapaneers and I even have 9 hours and 14 minutes to spare. Phew!
Shape Shifter was the category for the 2nd layout for this week. Seamless blending of photos is the key aspect of this style. The requirements were to use three of your own photos and blend them together seamlessly, have a title using fonts (not Alphas), and must contain journaling. This is not a scrapbooking style that I gravitate toward and found it a definite challenge.
Here is my layout “Picking Pumpkins”.
Click image for credits.
I used shapes and brushes in Photoshop to create photo masks and then used a variety of blend modes on the photos. Each of the photos actually have the photos layered six times with various blend modes applied to get the final look I was going for. There was a lot of fiddling around with the layers to get each photo looking just right.
We are coming into the home stretch of this competition, 1 week and 2 layouts to go and it will be all done. Win or lose, I can say that I have scrapped more pages in the last few weeks than I have done in a long time. It feels good to know I have some wonderful layouts done and memories documented. Don’t get me wrong, it would be REALLY nice to win.
I am taking the rest of the day off, from scrapbooking at least. Now to catch up on the bazillion things that I have neglected while I was working on these layouts.
Apparently I work well under pressure. Tomorrow is the deadline for the 3rd week of the Master of Scrap competition over at Scrapaneers, and I finished my first entry this morning and haven’t even started the second entry for this week. One step at a time.
This week the category is Traditionalist. Large photos that tell a story with realistic looking papers and embellishments, this one is all about the shadowing. Manipulating shadows can make or break a digital layout that you want to look like it was done with traditional paper scrapbooking supplies.
Some of the elements on my layout have two or three shadow layers applied. I further altered some using the Warp tool in Photoshop to make the elements look like they are raised up off the page. It is definitely about the little details.
Here is my layout, “The Extraction”,
Click on image for credits.
It seems like once that first tooth comes out it causes a chain reaction in their wee little mouths. This was the second tooth that Bodhi lost in the span of week. This time he was going to take matters into his own hands (literally) and pull that tooth out with the help of some dental floss. That tooth was so wiggly that it almost popped out when I tied the dental floss on. In the end he was able to give a tug and got the tooth out.
Now I am off to brainstorm for the next layout….32 hours and counting.
Success! I finished my 4th layout for the Master Of Scrap competition at Scrapaneers. The category was Geometrist, which is all about working with shapes and keeping things balanced. The requirements were that all photos had to be circular, contain 3 geometric shapes other than circles, must exhibit asymmetrical balance, and demonstrate a strong use of colour palette/colour story. Lots of requirements for this one.
I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it didn’t really come together until I found the photos I wanted to use and then things started to fall into place.
Here is my layout Bubble Blowing.
Click on image for credits.
The majority of the layout uses my Be Awesome kit. I made the bubbles in Photoshop and the wooden tile alpha is something that I have had for ages, but I am not sure where I got it from.
That’s it for this weeks challenges. The next competition starts tomorrow night, but I probably won’t really get into it until Monday.
I just finished my third entry for the Master of Scrap competition over at Scrapaneers. This week is the Day Dreamer and Geometrist categories. Here is my layout for Day Dreamer.
Click on link for credits.
The requirements for this category were to have at least one photo extraction of a living being, create an imaginative scene, and contain no words. This is another style which I wouldn’t typical do, but I really enjoyed making this page.
The butterflies were extracted from photos I took this summer on our vacation. We visited the Calgary Zoo and one of the highlights was the Butterfly Conservatory. These pictures are from the time we spent there.
Now I am off to work on my next layout, Geometrist. The deadline is looming, I only have until 9PM PST tomorrow to get it done. I better get crackin’.
Well I finished my second entry for the Master of Scrap competition over at Scrapaneers. This one was in the Free Spirit category, which is the complete opposite of Minimalist. Free Spirit style is all about artistically altered photos, textures, paint effects and a grunge look and has no white space at all. I think that I met the challenge.
Click on the image for credits.
There is gesso and concrete textures in the background and a lot of paint brush strokes and splatters. I used a number of different techniques on the photo to come up with the final look. This photo was actually taken by my son, he was 5 at the time, when I let him have a go with my “big girl” camera.
