1. My first Mother’s Day!

2. Two good doctor visits with Baby Payton.
3. My sister, a middle school teacher, earned a leadership role at her school!
4. Love and community during recovery efforts in Moore, OK.

5. Amanda Taylor is back at Oscraps! Have you seen her new stuff? The girl is inspired!
6. Oh, Milly!

7. The Hubs and I are pretty much sleeping through the nights now that Payton is nearly 5 months new.

8. Lowe’s introduces Pantone Universe – 100 Pantone paint colors!

9. Gorgeous weather for our neighborhood’s pool season!

10. Farmer’s markets are open!

What positive thing(s) did May bring to YOU?

__________________________________________

First, choose your background paper and the photo you want to work with. Then, scale the photo to 3600px on the layer above your background paper.

Then we need 4 layers of the photo, so duplicate the original photo layer until you have four of it.

On the top photo layer, choose the filter “Edge-Detect”, then filter “Laplace.”

Here you can see the result:

Then choose the 2nd copy of the photo and apply the “Artistic” -> “Photocopy” filter.

This is how it looks like now.

Next, remove the white parts of the “Photocopied” layer. You may prefer using layer mask to hide areas of the photo but actually i prefer the eraser. Anyway, remove the white part of the photo with layer mask or eraser.

Now choose the 3rd copy of the photo. Go to Colors Menu -> “Posterize” and choose the minimum value. If you set the marker to very left, you can see this.

Then select black color and erase it, then the same with white.

You may want to hide the layers that you don’t use at the moment.

In the next step, posterize the last photo layer with a different value.

Then, select the grey and dark blue colors and erase them.

If you hid some of your layers in previous steps, unhide them now. And here you are.

You can now merge all of the photo layers.

Choose a photo mask to make the picture edges uneven and set it to the picture.  Here select the black of the photo mask then go to the picture and invert selection. So you can remove the unwanted area of the picture.

Now you can decorate your page a bit with some elements.

Here’s my finished page!

Eva

If you’’re like me, you’’re typically a one-kit per page kind of gal. You like to keep it simple and efficient by only working with what comes in a kit. Sometimes, even after you’’ve used all the papers and elements that you wanted, it still feels like the page needs just a little something more. That’’s where brushes can come in super handy. A few clicks of the mouse and you’’ve got that little something extra you were looking for. Of course, brushes can be outright fun to use on your pages, so don’’t feel like you should only use them when you’’re stuck.

I used the brush tool to embellish this layout:

This is what it looked like before adding the brush work (below). I wanted the photos to stand out more on the page. My usual go-to for this are to add a stroke (creating a white border around the edge of the photo) or to add a paper behind the photos. I didn’’t like the look of either of those options, so I chose to use a brush instead to add the yellow paint to the edges.

Achieving this look is as easy as 1,2,3 (I used Photoshop CS5):

1. Create a new layer above your photo layer and create a clipping mask to clip it to the photo (right-click the new layer and select Create Clipping Mask). This way if you make a mistake or change your mind you can simply delete the paint layer without having to re-add your photo to the layout.

2. Select the brush tool, choosing whatever brush and color you like (I usually experiment with a few before deciding on the one I want to use) and then draw away on that new layer. Hint: To keep your lines straight, click the shift key while dragging your mouse.

With the brush tool selected, you can find nearly all of your brush settings at the top of Photoshop window: size, style, opacity, flow…

3. Once your paint strokes are in place, add a shadow if you like. I like to add a very subtle shadow to give it a more of a slightly dimensional paint-like texture.

After adding the “paint” to the edges of my photos, I decided the page still needed something more so I added the yellow border using the same steps, only choosing a more defined brush, and omitting the shadow. Then I went back and added the same paint swipes to the teal paper that I had added to the photos. And here’s my completed page:

I hope this post inspires you to test out the brush tool on our next layout. The possibilities are endless!

Jaime, azrood

www.facebook.com/danielleyoungdesigns

Inspiration from the CT & Cheery-O’s:

by Angela

by Tiffany

by Trudy

by Kristianne

FREESTYLE JOURNALING CARDS GIVEAWAY

Thanks to everyone who entered the Freestyle Journaling Cards giveaway this week. I’ve loved reading your comments about what makes you feel free! And CONGRATULATIONS to commenter #7: Janneke!

Janneke won a set of Freestyle Journaling Cards – printed by Persnickety Prints! J – I’ll email you soon and mail them to your door!

Don’t forget, you can still download the digital set for 20% off!

My creative team + the Cheery-O’s have created some beautiful layouts to inspire you!

by Ona

by Petra

by Diane

by Jaime

by Laurie

by Danielle

by Eva

by Trista

by Sara

That’s right! I’m giving away a whole set of printed Freestyle Journaling Cards! I ordered them for color proofing (from Persnickety Prints), and now it’s your gain. Just tell me what, in your life, makes you feel free. Simple! For me, I’d say it’s good music… the kind you can really sing along with. I’m generally a quiet person, but I think there’s a tiny rock star inside that wants out.

Back to the giveaway… You have until midnight (Eastern Time) on Wednesday, April 3rd to leave your comment and then one random winner will be chosen. I’ll email you for your home address, and I’ll ship them directly to your door! Good luck & I look forward to reading about your “FREESTYLE.”

And now, here’s the digital version. On sale for 20% off at Oscraps this week.

Bright colors + hand drawn doodles = Freestyle Journaling Cards

Includes these 6 journaling card designs each in color, black with white doodles, and white with black doodles

Hand drawn elements + white space = Freestyle Templates

Bright + neon papers with a subtle center spotlight and woven texture = Color My World Paper Pack

This alpha was previously released as part of my “Freestylin’” Kit. But I’ve dusted it off and packaged it separately, because it works perfectly with this whole collection!

And now a little inspiration from the Creative Team:

by Jaime

by Eva

by Kristianne

by Tiffany

If you’re browsing Danielle’s amazing creations, you may notice collections of colorful dots and buttons.  What are these little circles of joy? How on earth can you use these to add spark and excitement to your pages?

Let’s start with selecting a photo to play with, a background, and a black & white Photo Spot. I am using a photo I took at Denver Botanic Gardens, Miss Daisy Photo Spots and Miss Daisy Paper Pack.

First, I clipped the Photo Spot to my picture. Our next step is to find a blending mode that will allow the picture to peek through the Photo Spot.  I like to click through each mode, keeping in mind the smoothness of the letters, how the background color affects the colors of the picture, and how you want the finished photo to look.  For this photo I will be using the “Soft Light” blending mode.  The original white circle becomes a sheer overlay, while the black lettering is smooth and readable. You could also use the brightly colored Spots in the same way, clicking through the blending modes to find the best fit.

Once you have your first Photo Spot blended to perfection, we will repeat the process with an opposite color scheme Spot. I chose to use a black circle with white lettering to achieve an overlapping lens flare effect. The “Color Dodge” blending mode works really well with the white lettering, allowing it to still be slightly seen under the first Spot. Try adjusting the transparency of the Spots to get different looks.

Another option is re-coloring the B&W Spots with a pattern or solid paper.  To do this, select your spot and paper, clip the paper to the Spot, then change the blending mode and/or transparency until you are happy with the result.

Now that you have new ideas for the Black and White Photo Spots, let’s consider what we might do with the other Photo Spots.

This is a trick Danielle herself showed me, cutting a semi-circle out of your photo and filling in the space left with a Spot!  I have found the easiest way to make a cutout on a standard photo is by using the Erase Tool.  Simply select the brush shape and size you would like to use. For this photo I stuck with a standard circle, though you can get creative and use any brush you would like, I think a square cutout and circle Spot with and interesting patterned paper behind the photo would make really fun tab.

Quick tip: Mark your History tab before trying any cutouts, that way if there is a goof it is one click back to your original photo without losing all your previous work!

After you’ve got your cutout where you’d like it, select your Photo Spot and drop it in. Resize to leave a small space between the Spot and your photo.  I really like this look by itself.

However, there is an easy way to add a mat to your page to add a little more emphasis to your photo. This technique is a little more involved than the first two and might take a couple tries to get just right, don’t be discouraged if you find this a little tricky.

Once you’ve gotten all the Spots and cutouts in the right place, select the photo and Spot layers, then make a copy of these layers and merge them into one. We’ll call this the mat layer.

Now, we still have a small gap in our copied Photo and Spot layers, here you have two options. Either create a solid shape the same size as the photo and merge it into your mat layer or take your Brush Tool and fill in the space.  Clip your selected paper to the mat layer and then enlarge your mat layer until you have the desired width of a border around your photo and Spots.

You now have a paper border around your photo and Spots! Continue building your page, here I used a stitch and tab (with Soft Light Blending Mode applied) from Danielle’s My Sunshine kit and a paint splatter from the Artsy Element Pack and added another Black and White Spot to one of the background papers the same way we added it to the photo. A dash of journaling and a sprinkle of shadows and the page is complete!

I hope you have been inspired to add Photo Spots to your next page and don’t forget to upload them to Danielle’s Designer Gallery at Oscraps so that we can all see your creative genius!

Tiffany, iffybean

Buy the whole collection for 40% off right now!

Here are a couple of beautiful pages my Creative Team made to inspire!

by Jaime

by Tiffany.

Look for an awesome tutorial later this week by Tiffany on how to create this effect using my Photo Spots!

I think this Easter card (available at Paper Source) is hilarious. Happy Easter! LOL

I have a new Easter-inspired kit at Oscraps, and it’s 20% off this week (Newsletter subscribers get an additional 15% off. Get The Scoop!)! This kit is filled with Christian word art and symbols that are versatile enough to complement your layouts year-round:

There’s a coordinating journal card set, too for your Project Life albums!

My new creative team has already jumped in with this kit! Here are a few of their layouts to inspire!

by Eva

by Jaime

by Laurie