Posy Patch

Birthdays give us the opportunity to tell all the special people in our lives what they mean to us.  The Posy Patch stamp set by Heartfelt Creations makes great birthday-card embellishments.  

Butterfly Garden

Mother's Day gives us the opportunity to tell all the special mothers in our life what they mean to us.  This Butterfly Garden Digi from 2 Cute Ink is full of lovely colors with the help of Photoshop.  Here our butterfly is watering an Open Vintage Floret from Heartfelt Creations.

In Love with Dove - and Heartfelt Creations

At the last Scrapbooking Expo, I learned about Dove Blenders - I know, not a new product. Hard to believe I could be scrappin' so long without learning about these! But it is now one of my go-to tools - a must have for every scrapper who colors images.

My first project with the blenders is a graduation gift for my hair stylist. She loves western, so I used Heartfelt Creations Western Collage stamp (embellished with Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch - oh, and the paper is Heartfelt Creations Raindrops on Roses). I colored the image with my ink pads and Dove Blender. For me - a Copic amateur - this process went much faster.

Cupcake Bird

Good morning, Everyone. I hope you are enjoying your day. We are having beautiful weather - daytime in the 80s. Windows open almost every day - just lots of sun - the way I like it.

Here is today's card. This digital stamp (Cupcake Bird from 2 Cute Ink) was colored using Photoshop.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Birthday Card

Morning, All!

Today's card is a simple Birthday card.  The paper is from a baby boy paper pack...but I think it's gorgeous to use for any occasion.  I just love it!  Just love the color combinations.  Enjoy!

Stuck on U Sketches Challenge

Cardmakers always love a good challenge, and I think it's actually a great way to get inspired!  Creating a card to artfully meet certain guidelines allows me to rediscover or reimagine the possibilities of my favorite hobby.  Today, my card is inspired by the Tree Die-Cut Challenge by Stuck on U Sketches.

I am using a free evergreen tree svg from Colouring Book.  I added a black bear as I begin making this season's cards for Fort Wilkins Gift Shop in Copper Harbor, Michigan.

Amour

The eye-catching designs showcased in the Sweetheart Captions file of SVG Attic's collection will warm your romantic heart.  This sweet collection has all sorts of things to love!  

Celebrate National Scrapbooking Day

National Scrapbooking Day was May 2?!?!??!?  Ooops...missed it.  LOL!  But I thought for sure it was always on a Saturday!  So here we are, with National Scrapbooking Day upon us (okay behind us) - I feel this special day should be spent in celebration of paper!  Whether you're making a scrapbook, card, or other papercraft project, I welcome you to my blog for another day with a little inspiration.  I do swear I have a limitless pile of paper that I am always attempting to dwindle - but little of my paper will find its way to a landfill before being embellished with flowers, butterflies, and glitter that transforms paper into beautiful and functional works of art and a small gift for someone special.

Sending Warm Fuzzies!

Hi, All!

I have another 2 Cute Ink card for you . . . using Balloon Birdie.

I just love the little bird - It's too cute!  Just had to create a card with it, so I colored the image in using Photoshop.  I think this was my first time blending with Photoshop - as you see on the balloon.

Enjoy!

Be Mine

I have another fun and inspirational card to share with you today!  My personal challenge was to use Photoshop to color a digital stamp in a different way with shading.  For this card, I used a digital stamp from 2 Cute Ink.

The Posy Patch

Hi, All!

Today I'm posting cards that all include Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch and sentiments from their Timeless Sentiments stamp set. Enjoy!

4-Minute Digi with Adobe Photoshop (or Gimp)

I just can't decide my favorite way to use digital images. Probably my favorite is blinging them up with glitter . . . but that is somewhat time consuming. I am no pro with Copic markers - and find them time consuming, as well as frustrating. I never really liked the look of colored pencils . . . and I have this tendency to drench my paper with water colors and watercolor pencils. I do still use all those techniques . . . but with my busy schedule right now, I was looking for faster ways for me to enjoy my digital images. So I started relying more on Photoshop. Then, after a few "simple" image results, I began to explore more of what Photoshop can do. So I would like to share what I've learned in a series of tutorials showing how you can use your digital images with Photoshop Elements. Don't have Photoshop Elements? These steps are available in just about every editing program I've seen. You can get Gimp for free. I haven't totally explored Gimp - but so far everything I have been able to do with Photoshop, I have been able to do with Gimp . . . the screens just don't look exactly the same. 

So have fun with digital images without investing lots of money in coloring tools and time!

Now . . . to the first lesson. My goal today is to get a digital image colored in less than 5 minutes. My time - 4 minutes! How can you beat that? Coloring using this technique is basic . . . no shading or blending. But still a fun image - and we'll learn to blend and fade in future tutorials.

For this tutorial, I am using 2 Cute Ink's Best Fins image. This is the first finished product. The steps I took to color the image in less than 5 minutes (as well as additional card samples) are below.

Original Image

Cropping Image

Cropped Image

Color Palette

• Open your digital file. 
• The first thing I like to do is crop the image. Use the Crop tool to create a box around the image . . . I like to crop as close to the image as I can so when I resize it for cards, I know exactly what size I'm printing. Click the green checkmark on the bottom right of your image to complete the crop.

• The next step is to select colors - and begin coloring your digital image.  The icon for Set Foreground Color is red in my photo - it may be a different color in your program.  Double-click on the top square and a color palette will appear.
• Notice the "rainbow" bar in the middle of the color palette.  Click on the base color you are interested in using.  The square with a spectrum of colors will appear.  Click on the color you want to use to set the foreground color for the first part of your image.  In my case, I chose a yellowish-orange for the daddy fish's body.  Click on OK to change your paint "can".

• When you click on the Paint Can, you will see a little paint can as your cursor.  Place the tip of the paint anywhere in section you want to color, and click your cursor.  As long as the section has no open ends, only that section will take the color.  Do this for each part of the fish you want to be in that color.

  

  Ctrl-+ enlarges your image

• For small areas, you can enlarge your image by pressing Ctrl-+ (plus).  Ctrl-- (minus)  decreases the size of your image.
• This allows you to get into smaller areas.  If you make a mistake - hitting Ctrl-z  immediately afterwards will erase your mistake.  Don't like the color after all?  Just repeat the same steps with a different color.
• Repeat the steps for each section of your image.  

  

  Completed Image

  When satisfied, be sure to click SAVE AS . . . to save the image as a JPEG file with a NEW NAME.  This way your original image from 2 Cute Ink stays pure and usable over and over again.

I am usually mass producing cards - so after saving my image, I insert the image into a word-processing program.  Although I'm using the same image, I don't want all my cards to look the same, so I will usually have six images in my document - all different sizes.  Print the document - cut the images - and craft away!  Here are the other five cards I made using this same image.

The "Fin-tastic Dad" sentiment is yours free if you leave a comment on my blog (Short on Ideas), request the free sentiment, and leave your e-mail address.  Specific questions about using 2 Cute Ink digital images with Photoshop?  Feel free to ask those on my blog as well.

Christmas Frame Collection

Hi Everyone,

Greetings to you on this fine Monday morning.  Today I am bringing you a project that I thought I posted back in December....but can't find it.  So am posting today - and even if a repeat, I think worth repeating.  

My buddy shown in this project is my friend's grandson.  I have made her a Christmas globeframe each year since he was born.  I especially love this one - I found the Santa beard sucker in Hobby Lobby - gave it to him for a Thanksgiving treat - with camera in hand.  I love the pic!

The frame I made a year earlier can be seen here.  Can't seem to find a pic of the first frame I made....guess I'll have to take another pic during my next visit.  

Classic Get Well

Hi Everyone, 

Thank you so much for joining me on this excellent Sunday.  I am bringing you a couple of Get-Well cards.  These would brighten the day of anyone not feeling up to par - and, I hope, inspire you to think of others when making your wonderful projects.  The Get Well sentiment used here is from SVGCuts (I think retired - dated 2010).

Crafting on U of A

The University of Arizona is gearing up for this year's graduation n May. So here are a couple cards to help them celebrate.

With Best Wishes

I wanted to create retirement cards using bright colors.  Leftover Christmas paper scraps did the job!

U.P. Card

Morning, all!

Today is intended to be a little inspiration for me.  I need to begin making cards for my summer customer, Fort Wilkins Gift Shop in Copper Harbor, Michigan.  For today's post, I chose a card I made last year.  It's a super simple design, but a popular card featuring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Enjoy!

Ultimate Wedding Papercraft

Thanks for continuing to indulge me in these posts!  Every day I look forward to sharing my "creativity," and today was no exception!  This is a way of getting those pics out of the book and up on the wall.  My stepdaughter and her new husband are my subjects for today's project.