Digital Challenge #4

I have been having fun with a digital challenge on a website called FromCtoshining C. This is a great site for my crafty friends. Well every Thursday a digital challenge is posted. I am trying to make point of participating each week.

Well this week the challenge was to take a picture and turn it into a background. So this was my creation for the challenge. The picture was the bride's bouquet. I zoomed in and blurred the picture a little to make sure your focus is on the couple not the background.

Psst btw ask me about our Wedding package. This is another GREAT deal!

Father's Day Frenzy Details....

Ok we got the details of the Father's Day Frenzy. This is exciting. We have had a package on sale for a Storybook and greeting card. The storybook was available in 2 sizes a 7x5 or a 7x10 and a 5x7 greeting card. Well for the Frenzy the price has been dropped even more. Email me for more details. The sale ends the 25th.

To help facilitate this sale, I am hosting 2 more open houses. One is Monday at 7 and another on Wednesday at 7pm. Please email me for directions. Also I am offering one on one appointments. For a one on one you can actually invite a friend or 2. They can be at my house, online, or at a local restaurant that has Wi-fi available to it's customers. Or there is time to host a party. I have open dates and you can have a great party with little notice. With a party you could possible earn the package for free.

This year give dad something he will cherish and treasure. You can build a book with a template in 20 minutes.

Starting tonight I am going to be on a frenzy of my own. I am going to be working on template designs like crazy to help you build a book in short order.

I am placing 3 orders one on Monday, one Wednesday and one on the 25th. If I get enough orders from one of those orders to earn a storybook credit then I am going to have a raffle for a 8x8 storybook, if not it will be for poster credit. The raffle will work this way. If you place an order that is one entry into the raffle. If you are a new customer that signs up during the frenzy that is an entry. If you host a party that is an entry. If you attend a party or one on one, that is an entry. If you order one of the Father's day specials that is also an entry. (So if you order 1 special that is actually 2 entries one for placing an order and one for the special. If you order 2 specials then that is 3 entries.) I will keep everyone posted if I get a storybook credit or not.

Another wedding announcement

I made another wedding announcement. I have been having fun creating things for my website when I get it launched. Stay tuned for that...

BTW don't forget that Heritage Makers has an announcement contest going on. You can win free products.

Order on Friday-- Ship on Tuesday. YIPPIE!

Father's day is a big sales time for Heritage Makers, so I thought there would be a delay in getting the poetry book. I just had to make a quick post to say that it already shipped! I am so excited. I figure in a week it will be here with plenty of time to get it to the school before school lets out for the year.

Another scrapbook page

Ok I am on a 4th of July theme. Probably because I need to make cards for a swap with a 4th of July theme and I am drawing blanks on what to make. So my mind must be on Red, White and Blue. Now if I can only transfer that to a card made with my Cricut or Cuttlebug for this swap.
Anyway here is the frame. The picture has my oldest daughter and 2 girls from scouts so I need parental consent before I can post it. But here it is..
This was made with the same freedom kit used in my "My Heroes" scrapbook page.

Playing with Wedding Announcement

I am trying to expand my gallery for my website when I get it together. I designed a Wedding announcement. I can also do Invitations and Save the date cards. I have seen Heritage Makers playing cards used for some cute Save the date cards.

This was fun to put together. My goal is to make at least 1 new project a day to build up my gallery.

Well enough chit chat here is what I made.

I used some commercial use elements and the background is from the Heritage Maker's premier art collection. I need to look up what art work I used for the text book, I didn't pay attention. (I know I need to, but I was on a roll creating.) The flowers are from a digital design package.

It is myflowers02 and in the kit I got it was labeled Mega May by:
Cida Merola Digital Designer
cida_merola@yahoo.com
http://cidamerola.com/
http://cidascrap.blogspot.com/

8x8 page for challenge

I took part in a digital scrapbooking challenge. The challenge was to use a photo to create a digital element. I used a flag from some fabric that I had.

I had a patriotic digital kit I got from Digiscrapwarehouse that I used. It is called the freedom kit.

The kit was designed by:
.::. Helena Monteiro .::.
.::. Digital Designer .::.
helena@hmscrapshop.com
http://hmscrapshop.com/blog/



The picture is of my dad and my brother. They both served in the military, and I am proud of them for that. The picture was taken the day my brother came home from Afghanistan. That is why he is not smiling, he was worn out from the trip. He was supposed to get home at 10am on July 4th (I think that was the time) and instead it was like 4-5 am on July 5th. So he was beat!

How to use a photograph to make a digital element.

I am new to writing tutorials and I am not an expert in Photoshop, but since I am working on this for a challenge I thought, I would challenge myself in writing a tutorial.

You can use your own photographs to create digital elements that you can use in digital creations.

It really helps to expand your options in creating scrapbook pages, cards etc. I use adobe photoshop CS2. there might be some slight variation based on whichever version of Adobe you use.

Step one photograph the object you want, or select an item in a photograph.

Step two, you are going to select the item that you want to use as an element. To start with I use my magic wand selection tool. The tool that looks like a wand. On the setting at the top of the image I select continuous. I do this to make sure that I only get the colors that I want in the object I am selecting, not the same color elsewhere in the picture. I select several sections by holding the shift key as I select places in the object. Don't worry if you have areas that are not selected. Once I have a good portion selected then I use the masking feature. The masking feature is the little boxes with a circle in them. The one with the box around it is the one that is selected. Try clicking on the boxes to see what I mean. Double click the box on the left to see the settings. I prefer that my color indicate the masked area, but you can do it either way. Play with this feature and see what works best for you. I also change my color to be a color that is NOT similar to any colors in my picture. For example I was working on a picture that was primarily red, white and blue. I made my mask color a neon green so that it stood out. Also I play with the opacity to best suit my needs. Then I use the eraser to unmask any areas that need to be selected but are showing up in the mask color. If I get overzealous and select an area outside of the object I wanted selected then I just use the paint brush tool to re mask the area. At any time you can click on the other box with a circle in it to see the selection area.

Step four, once I have the object fully selected and nothing else I copy it. I use the key shortcut ctrl-c.

Step five, now open a new project. Make sure that the background is transparent. When you have your new project open paste your object in the project.

Step six, save our new project.

Congratulations you now have created an element. I am going to try to post some pictures in this thread to help illustrate what I am talking about. In the meant time here are a few items that I have done with this technique.

In this item the frogs were from a piece of fabric that I had bought and not used and was photographing to sale.


In this one, I used a picture I took of my daughter's bag for trick or treating. I was inspired by the fact that the flowers on the bag matched her halloween outfit. (She was a "Slumber Party Girl" for Halloween, so she wore her pajamas.) Well for this picture I just used a portion of the polka dots from the bag as a background paper.

Contest

Would you like to possibly win a few Story book and invitations?

Heritage Makers is offering a contest where the winner will get just that. This is not a contest I am hosting but Heritage Makers, I am just sharing this with my readers in case it could help them.

Here are the quick details:

Contest Details

Baby, Bridal, Birthday Contest

DATES

Entries welcome: May 5 – May 31, 2009
Winners announced: June 16, 2009

How do you announce the birth of a new baby, summon loved ones to a birthday party or invite family and friends to a bridal shower or wedding? Babies, marriages, and birthdays mark important events in our lives and the invitations we send become important parts of our memories. We want to see the invitations you send. Enter the Baby, Bridal and Birthday contest and show off your invitation design skills. To enter, create a customized card using the Heritage Makers 5x7 Invitation and send it in.

Winning entries will be displayed on the Heritage Makers website.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prizes:

PRIZES

1st Place, Baby: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Baby: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

1st Place, Birthday: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Birthday: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

1st Place, Bridal: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Bridal: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

____________________________________________________________________

Here is the website for you to check out the contest, where you can read the rules and how to submit your entry HERE


You can sign up for a free account on my website HERE. I would be willing to help with how to get started with Studio and how to submit your project if you need that help.

BREAKING NEWS--- Father's day sale blitz

Looking for a special one of a kind Father's Day gift? Why not create a custom Storybook or greeting card. Dad will love this far more then a tacky tie.

Heritage Makers is having a Blitz in the days leading up to Father's day. The deadline for storybooks for dad with ground shipping is June 1st and the deadline for other items with ground shipping is June 6th. So to get everyone ready we are having a sales blitz. The sales blitz starts on May 16th and ends on May 26th. I am going to place a party order on the 16th and the 26th. I will know more about the incentives on May 16th, but I am going to take at least 1 item and raffle off to any one that places an order through me or through the website by May 26th. Again more details to come.

As always some items are cheaper ordering through me then through the website. Also with your first purchase if it is placed via me you can get a free month of access to the premier art work.

I can help you get your project ready in time for the Father's day Deadline if you are working on a Father's day gift. I already have one Father's day greeting card template put together, and I am working on more.

Also we have a great specials right now. We have a Father's day special, a cookbook special and a great Wedding package. Please email me for details on those specials. Specials have to be ordered from me directly not online.

You can sign up for a free account on my website.

I am excited about this blitz and hope that you can join me.

Poetry Book Cover

Ok the book is ready to go. This is the cover. I struggled with this the most. We all know the adage "Don't judge a book by it's cover." However we also know that we do. What is the first thing you do when you see a new book you know nothing about? You look at the cover, does it catch your attention. So I wanted a cover that would catch the attention of kids that are K-5th grade.

I hope I did that with the cover I designed.



Now I hope it arrives before school lets out for the year. We are just waiting on the "official" approval from the principal.

The plans of mice of men,

Often go awry.

well things have not gone the way I had planned. I had planned to start up my design services with a website to launch things this month. As my friends and family know my husband lost his job. So while I think this is an important time to get things started, I also feel like I can't justify the costs at this point. My goal is to start offering design services but not as publicized as I would like because that costs money, something I am trying to save right now.

So I am Still going to offer design services. If you know anyone looking for custom birth announcements, Graduation announcements, senior cards, wedding announcements, wedding invitations, etc.. Please feel free to let me know or let them know I am out here.

I am also not currently purchasing any more digital designs without a customer in mind for them, but if there is something that you are looking for, we can talk about options.

Future Band members

Well we went tonight for my daughter sign up for band for next year. She picked the flute. I don't understand all this. My first year in band we picked an instrument the first week of school and it was totally our choice.

This school first she had to take a test. Her score on the test was such she got her pick of instruments to a degree. She had to try the instrument to see if she could get a sound out of it. Again, I disagree with this the flute, can take a few days to get a sound out of. She did great with each of the instruments she tried.

She got to pick what she wanted because of that. she picked the flute. She already owns a flute. I am so excited because I played the flute. I really tried to make sure she picked an instrument of her choice not what I played, but I can help her and I love that idea.

2 in Band and possibly 3 more to go.

PROM!

My Step-mom's nephew went to prom recently and his dad posted the pictures on Facebook. That inspired me to do a Prom layout for a 5x7. The idea was that this is to be printed and put in a frame. I went with Blue and tan because that was the color of his date's dress and his friend's date's dress. I am not posting the completed project because I don't have permission of his parents. If I get permission I will post the completed project.


Of course colors and layout can be altered to accommodate the pictures that you have. I can help you design one for the prom attendee in your life, or I can design one for you.

Another Poetry Club page

Here is another page from the now completed Poetry Club book. I hope that the school really likes this book. A great deal of hard work went into, but honestly it went together really fast because of the wonder premier artwork that we have in the Heritage Maker's Studio. If you need to learn to use Studio, feel free to contact me about a one on one, or webinar. I can show you how wonderfully easily you can create in this software.



The frog was in the original book the kids did. It was a spiral bound book. The book that I made them will be stitched and bound.

National Scrapbooking Day

Happy National Scrapbooking Day.

Of course as my blog shows I have taken all my Scrapbooking digital. However I still love Scrapbooking. There are many specials today for Scrapbooking Day. Here are a few Highlights:

Heritage Makers-- Our May Special is for a Cookbook/planner and a deck of cards for $34.95. Plus in honor of National Scrapbooking day any customer that places an order with me today, I will give a 12x12 scrapbook page credit as a personal thank you.


Ok to show off an example of what you can do with Heritage Makers, I did this scrapbooking page up in about 20 minutes. This is a 12x12 page that I did in Studio using our premier artwork. I love premier.



Ok now on to promoting a few other specials for today.

Stamping Up-- Is having a sale all month long. If you buy 3 packs of their 12x12 Designer series paper you get one pack free.

Cindy (LOVE CINDY!!!) at Stampingscrapping.com has 5 pages of sales!!! She has the wonderfully fun coredinations paper in the sale, and some great Peachy Keen stamps and matching scents from "Scentmycards.com". Check out her website at http://www.stampingscrapping.com/category_268/NAT.-SCRAPBOOK-DAY-SPECIALS.htm Oh and if you spend over $45 before shipping you get a free scentmycards scent. You get to pick from Peanut Butter Cookies or Marshmallow. You need to put in the notes when you check out which scent you want or she will send you Peanut Butter Cookies.

Speaking of Peachy Keen and Scentmycards: At Peachy Keen's site, she has wonderful stamps, and her own exclusive scentmycards scent. Of course it is called Peachy Keen and smells like peaches. They are also having specials but you need to sign up for their email list to get the sales. Check them out here: http://www.peachykeenstamps.com/index.html BTW she is great to deal with, and she has wonderful faces and stamps to match with your Cricut cut outs.

New toys!

I am so excited today I have to share. I found someone that was hosting an "Ink Club." 8 months to get all the regular colors. I get 6 ink pads a month. YIPPIE. I got Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Carmel, Pumpkin Pie and 2 other colors that are escaping me right now. I have to go play. I had a Chocolate Chip ink spot and I used it so much it was almost dried out. So this was perfect timing.