Friday, October 29, 2010

I'm Smitten

Well, it's Friday again, so here is Template #13. I really enjoyed creating this one for some reason. I guess I'm happy with the result. I hope it'll be useful to y'all.




My take on the template is done with my favorite photos of my daughter, Junia, on her tenth birthday. I haven't really scrapbooked them until now.
                 
 Products Used:
Template: Annawhocropsalot (me): 12x12 FF Template No.13

Papers: Vinnie Pearce: My Bag Queen, Paislee Press and Sugarplum Paperie Colab: Patisserie, Cat Scrap: Something Blue ALT365 January
Brushes: Basic Grey:Color Me Silly, Designer Digitals: AASPN Korner Plumes No.02, House of 3: Rhonna Farrer Bird Cages
The paper that's behind the slide mount and the flat pink flower brush: OScraps: Nina Inspirational
Scallop Embellishment: OScraps Kim DeSmet: Happy Days
The middle of the scallop: Paislee Press and Sugarplum Colab: Patisserie
Metal wordart: OScrap: Kim DeSmet Freckles and Giggles
Diamond bling: OScrap: Kim DeSmet Cherish
Pink Daisy Flower: Vinnie Pearce Full Bloom Freebie
Pink Rose: Cat Scrap: Creashens: XO
Letters: Cat Scrap: Creashens: Smitten
Stitches: Designer Digitals AASPN Stitched Circles White and Stitched By Anna Bubblegum No.01, Scrap Matters: Britt-ish Designs Tie It Down
Fonts: Landliebe and Burst My Bubble



Friday, October 22, 2010

FotoFusion Template No.12















































This time I decided to stick with the color scheme of the template preview picture. I love yellows!

Template tips:
1. The flower petals and and some of the middles are see through. (Low opacity) You can change that in your image dialog box. The opacity levels affect the way any pattern paper you drop in to the image frames would look. To change everything back to normal settings, Click on the little arrows on the top right of the image dialog box>RESTORE TO FACTORY SETTINGS.Play and see what cool affects you can come up with!

2. There are empty photo frames behind the slide mounts.

3. You can change the shadows on any of the elements.

4. Add your own text to the background wordart. Each line is a separate text frame. You can change the font, too, to add more detail and interest.
Products Used:
Yellow Papers: Annawhocropsalot Designs
Blue paper (strip), journaling mat: Kim DeSmet Her Personality
Flowers, wordart,: OScraps Cinzial Moments
Stitches: Kim DeSmet Happy Days
Fonts:Fineliner Script, Burst My Bubble, Esat Hoxha, Juice


Come back next Friday for another free template. 
Do you have any suggestions or ideas for upcoming ones?  
After these ten, I'll create a series of two-pagers. 


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Flourishes, Friends and Family


















I just love that brown paper by Paislee. The scallop border and the wooden flowers are my creations.  :) The mask I used for the photo and paper are my all-time favorite. They are so versatile. They're not crazy, but just give a slight distressed look to anything you apply it too. The flourishes are ones that I go back to again and again.
Products Used:
Flourish: Designer Digitals AASPN Hipster Plumes12
Stitches: DD AASPN Stitched by Anna White 7
Background paper: Shabby Princess Hopscotch
Patterned paper: Paislee Once

Word circle brush: Britt-ish Designs 

Mask: MScraps Designs by Anita Cracked Masks
Alphabet: Karla Dudley Digi Essentials 5-recolored
Flower and brown scallop: Annawhocropsalot (ME!)
Font: Fineliner Script



Friday, October 15, 2010

New FotoFusion Template and Layout

Have you seen this amazing sale?!?! Kim DeSmet is retiring, so her entire store is on sale for twenty bucks! The following layout was created using one of her kits. It's called Her Personality. I love it. Click here to go there.


I've made another template and created a layout with it. I hope you like it.


Template No. 11


Tips on using the template No. 11:


1. I created little circles for the flower middles, but you could always add brads, buttons or bling. 


2. You might have difficulty moving the little circles. The mouse tends to click on the yellow "panning" circle. To cease your frustration----:P----click on the blank area around your canvas to reset your mouse. Then click and drag. (The panning tool won't be activated with that first selection.) Does that make any sense at all? If not, just disregard my tip here and figure it out yourself. LOL (And declare Anna plum crazy.) Oh, don't select and release, click and drag is the order of business here. :)


3. You can add patterned paper to the slide mount (the little rounded frame). Just select it, go to the paper in your bucket you want to use, right-click>APPLY TO SELECTED FRAME.

4. There are empty image frames behind the slide mounts. If you find your picture does not want to fit into the little rectangular window, try changing the shape of the image frame. That worked for me. :)

5. The best tip is #5: The "title" and "subtitle" text is on the COLLAGE layer, not on the default text layer. In plain English, that means you can move the title backwards and forwards in your layers. You vant to know how I didit it?:)
Here she goes: Select the title>right-click>MOVE TO LAYER>check the little box that says COLLAGE.
You're welcome.:) (You just don't know how excited I was when I discovered that little tidbit.)

6. FOR THE NEWBIES. If the above tip made absolutely no sense to you, you gotta know this! If you would like a flower petal, for instance, to be BEHIND your photo, but you dragged it onto your canvas after your photo (so it's above your photo),you can change it! Select the flower>right-click>choose SEND BACKWARD. Whoo hoo! Isn't that great?


ABOUT THE LAYOUT:

1. The patterned paper that kind of fades into the background on the left side of the canvas was created using the matte called BLACK HORIZONTAL GRADIENT. Drag the paper onto your canvas, resize it the desired size, open your BORDER DIALOG BOX. In here you will find that coooooool matte. Select it, and VOILA! I also reduced the opacity of the image so that it wasn't quite so bright on my page. You know, it was gettin' busy and all. You understand.:) Remove the shadow on the paper. Very important.


2. I always remove the shadow on my stitches to make them look sewn to the page.

3. I split the largest image frame into two to better compensate my photos. If you don't know how to use the splitting tool, check out my tutorial on that awesome tool.


There you have it. All that blatherin' has come to an end. I heard the sound of relief from all you. See ya'all a little later!
Products Used:
Papers, flowers, buttons, bling, etc: OScraps: Kim De Smet Her Personality 
Stitches: Designer Digitals: Anna Aspens Stitched by Anna White No.07
Mask on upper right area of layout: Designer Digitals: Anna Aspens FotoBlendz Clipping Masks No.6
 (I "copied" this mask into my FotoFusion Mattes Folder.)
Fonts: Arial Black, Burst My Bubble and Cheri
ANOTHER TEMPLATE NEXT FRIDAY. I hope to, anyway. I'm not very good with my promises sometimes. I gotta work on that.


If you have any questions or comments, please email me at customscrapbooksbyanna(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Creating layouts With FF Templates



































































I created this layout using the first of ten free templates available here as freebies, called 12x12 FF Template No.01.
To decorate like we like to do, I used stuff from three different kits, plus I used my own Chocolate Canvas Cardstock, available for free download here at my blog. It is listed in the right sidebar. :)
The one below is from OScraps called Patisserie which is by Paislee Press. I used the frame and a scallop border. The scallop I recolored.

































I also used stitches from this kit called Tack it Down by Britt-ish Designs. I find I like to use stitches on every page I do.  LOL

































For the paper stars, I used one of the gorgeous papers from this kit by Joyce Paul Designs at MScraps.



Tweeking my template: Instead of using the two small frames as is, I replaced them with the decorative frames and tilted them a bit. One feature I use a lot in FF, is duplicating elements instead of dragging a second one in, like I did with the frames. I dragged one in, resized it to my liking, and since I wanted two the same size, I just pressed Control + D on my keyboard. You can also find the command under the Selection tab. Make sure you have the element selected that you want duplicated, or else it won't work.

I wanted my title a little larger than the template had it, and I didn't want the title sticking out above the pattern paper behind the title, so I enlarged the paper frame a bit too.

My Chocolate Canvas paper looks blocked when I just drag the paper and drop it into the empty frame, so I zoomed in closer on the paper to create that Bazzill paper affect. (If you have been paper scrappers before you were a digi scrapper, you know what I'm talking about. LOL) I'm not sure why the zooming in works, but it does. :)

Now looking at the text, I wish I'd brightened it a bit more, so that it would be more readable. Oh well.







Monday, October 4, 2010

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Fall Sunshine





















Finally finished this layout that was due a full moon ago! Anita wanted us to get creative with ribbon, so that's what I tried to do. These pictures are ones I took during a recent photo shoot of my twin sister and her family.
Sorry about the glare on the upper part of the page. :) But, oh, aren't we having gorgeous weather right now?!? :) I think the sun is shining more orange, reflecting the orange leaves...
Patterned paper by Little Yellow Bicycle from the Free Spirit line.