My Favorite Things

I’ve got a serious problem…

on May 11, 2012

and her name is Christy Tomlinson. OH-MY-WORD.

So you guys know that I kinda feel in love with Art Journaling when Tangie introduced it to me last year. Since then, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to do it, but I’m completely fascinated with it and have been dying to just dive in and start making art. With Digiscrapapalooza wrapping up and now iNSD over, we have a little bit of a lull before we dive in to Iron Scrapper and I have some time to play around with the art journaling stuff.

I stumbled across Christy’s blog (and when I say “stumbled”, I mean my friend Jen sent me a link and said “GO!”) and I immediately fell in love with her projects!! I am out-of-control. **You might have noticed I even added her badge to my “Things I love” side bar section.

I signed up for her new class- starting next week called Your Living Canvas. But I got impatient waiting for it to start, so I went ahead and signed up for her first She Art Workshop, to give me something to do while I wait for the class to start. And… um… I’m also getting her monthly mixed media kits. I told you I have a problem! Right now, I can not wait to make the butterfly canvases from last month’s kit- but I have to wait for the canvases to arrive (pooh).

Anyway, I finally got to sit down and work on a project and I just finished it so I thought I’d come share it with you guys!!

I did this one in my journal because I wasn’t ready to commit to a canvas yet, but I think my next one will be on a canvas. I can’t wait to start it! I’m hoping my canvases come in the mail soon!!

So- yeah… that’s all I’ve got. Heehee!! Hope you’re all having an awesome week and you have a relaxing and joyful Mother’s Day this weekend!!

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things

Why Totally Rad!?

on May 9, 2012

Hey Guys!

Totally Rad! has a $50 coupon right now and I’m totally excited about it! I can’t even tell you how much I love RadLab!! This is one of my all-time favorite products. So I thought I’d show you really quick why there really is no other way to describe RadLab than- TOTALLY RAD!- and why purchasing RadLab will be the best money you ever spent! You will never buy another photo action set again!

RadLab is a photo editing plug in for Photoshop. I’m using PSCS5, but you can use it in Photoshop Elements (v7 and newer)! At the very least, I recommend you download the trial and test it for yourself! But with the $50 off coupon right now, you just can’t afford to not grab it now!!

OK! So here’s why RadLab rocks!! I’m gonna walk you through editing a photo.

This is a picture I took of Zoe last month. It’s ok. I’m definitely not going to win any awards for it, but it’s an ok photo.

I open the photo up in Photoshop and on the top right you can see the layer for RadLab. I have the plug-in set to apply the filter to a smart layer, but you also have the option to apply the filter to a new layer or to the same layer.

I click on the Open Rad Lab Button and the plug-in opens a new window where you can preview your photo on the left (as it will appear with the applied filters) and thumbnails of all the different filters:

Right above the thumbnails there are two tabs- one for Stylets & one for Recipes. Right now we’ll be working under the Stylet tab but in a little bit I’m going to show you the Recipes (and you’re gonna flip!!).

You simply click on the filters you want to apply. I started with “Lights On”, to lighten the photo a bit:

As you can see in the preview on the left- I now have a real time preview of how the filter has adjusted my photo. It has also adjusted the thumbnails of the filters so you can see how the filter will look when it’s applied on top of the filter(s) you’ve already applied!

I can use the sliders in the Current Recipe palette on the right to increase or decrease the strength of the filter and the preview will immediately reflect the changes. Once I have the filter how I want it, I simply click on another thumbnail to add another filter to the photo:

In this step, I’ve added the Oh, Snap! Filter and adjusted the Strength and Snap a little bit. If you’re not sure if you want to apply the filter or not, never fear! You can actually mouse-over the filter thumbnail and it will show you a quick preview of how the photo will look if you apply the filter:

In this screenshot, I’ve got my mouse on Get Faded Winter and I kinda like how it looks. So I go ahead and add it to my Recipe list. But now I think that I don’t care for the way it’s combining with the Oh, Snap! Filter- so, I’m gonna just turn the Oh, Snap! Filter off by checking the box next to the filter name in the Recipe Layer (yup- it’s that easy!):

I adjusted the Get Faded Winter filter a little bit and now I’m really super happy with the way my photo looks and I’m just about ready to apply it! BUT FIRST- I’m going to save this recipe so when I go to edit the rest of the photos in this series, I can very quickly apply the exact same recipe to the photos!

I click on Save in the Recipe palette. I’m gonna save this recipe as L.O.V.E.

Then I click Finish in the lower right corner and the plug-in applies the filters to a smart layer and I am back in my original photoshop window:

Um… yeah- that rocks! OK! But now I’m gonna show you something else that rocks even more!! Remember that saved recipe? I’m gonna apply the same filter to another photo I took at the same time- because well… I’m gonna scrap these photos in the same layout and I want them to look similar!

I open up my photo in the RadLab plug- in but this time I click on the Recipe tab at the top and I scroll down until I find the L.O.V.E. recipe. I click on the recipe and- viola, now I have the exact same filter that I applied to my first photo:

Hmmm… but what if I forgot to save that recipe? Totally Rad! has got your back!! If you forget to save a recipe and you want to go back later and apply a recipe you’ve created, there is actually a history of the last few recipes you created under the Recipe tab!

Just scroll down to the bottom of the Recipe thumbnails and you can find the History of your Recipes!

Yeah- it’s TOTALLY RAD! There are a ton of different filters to chose from when building your recipe and the possibilities are seriously- endless. Here are just a couple different recipes I applied to the same photo:

I honestly don’t know how I ever lived without this plug-in. It has made editing my photos so fast and simple. No more running an entire action on a photo just to realize you really don’t like the way it looks and then having to start all over with another action! No more trying to remember exactly how you adjusted the action on the last photo so you can get this photo to have the same effect! Seriously- it’s awesome!!!!

CODE: MOMSDAY

Expires: 5/16/12

Save $50 on your order of $99 or more!

OK! So this is why you should jump all over this coupon from Totally Rad! RadLab is normally $149 but with the $50 off coupon, you can grab it for $99!! I have had RadLab for about 6 months now and I haven’t even touched any of the other photo actions that I have.

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things, Tutorials

Only 40 Days Left!

on February 11, 2012

There are only 40 Days left until we get our digiscrap on in Las Vegas!!

In addition to hanging out with all your digi-friends (old and new), picking up some new digital scrapbook & photography skills and getting to spend the entire weekend digital scrapbooking, check out these incredible prizes you could win:

Totally Rad! has donated 2 copies of their RadLab!! If you haven’t had a chance to demo the plug-in, we’ll have it loaded on a laptop in Vegas for you to play with. It is incredible! Once you see first hand just how RAD RadLab is, you won’t ever buy another action again!!

Wacom has donated 2 Bamboo Capture Tablets! Take your digital scrapbooking to the next level with a tablet! We will also have the tablet set up in Vegas for you to demo!! Where else can you test out all these digi-toys before you purchase them?!?!

Alien Skin has donated a copy of each of their products!! A-MAZ-ING!!!

Once again Coolibah will be attending our retreat and they have graciously donated another iPad for us to give away!!! Who doesn’t need an iPad!?!?!

Kelly Moore has donated this gorgeous [and when I say gorgeous, I mean GORGEOUS] camera bag! Not only will it hold your DSLR, speedlight & lenses, there’s enough room to carry a laptop, EHD and some snacks!! Perfect for a Digital Scrapbook Retreat Weekend…. just sayin!!

Capturing Couture has donated this stunning camera bag!! And they’ve also donated coordinating camera straps! It seriously doesn’t get much better than that!!

The Digital Scrapbook Teacher has donated copies of her Digi-Basic Book Special PLUS! Learn new digital scrapbooking tips & techniques from THE Digital Scrapbook Teacher!! There’s a reason she’s called THE Digital Scrapbook Teacher— she knows her stuff!!

WOWZA!! What more can we say…. Get your ticket now and join us for the best.weekend.ever!

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Filed Under: Everything Else, Fun Stuff, My Favorite Things

Photo Organization Class

on October 4, 2011

Hey Guys!

I wanted to tell you about a photo organization class that starts this Friday because I’m really excited about it! The class is called Finding Photo Flow by Kayla Lamoreaux and the banner asks

If this speaks to you, like it speaks to me- then you should definitely check this class out! Kayla will teach us how to not only organize our files, but to be able to quickly locate and retrieve them when we need them!

I’m excited about this class for two reasons. First, I’m going to be starting a P365 in a couple weeks and I want to get myself organized before I start so that it will be easier for me to maintain the project. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a while and I think I’m finally ready to make the plunge!

Second, I’m hoping to take what I learn from Kayla’s class and apply it to my digital scrapbooking files. If visiting my photos is like walking into a room full of crazy people, we don’t even want to think about what visiting my digital scrapbooking supplies is like!!

The class starts on Friday and which is also when registration closes, so definitely check it out!

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things

Technique Tutorial & Give-away

on September 7, 2011

I’m so excited to be sharing a new digital scrapbook technique with you today! I recently saw some layouts by an artist named sorashell that just blew me away:

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a new and exciting technique and I was immediately inspired by sorashell’s layouts! I spent about a day (no joke) trying to achieve this effect in Photoshop and I just couldn’t get it quite right. I decided to sleep on it and try again the next day. When I sat back down and started fiddling with Photoshop, it dawned on me that I was probably trying to re-invent the wheel and that somewhere out “there”, someone probably has a plug-in that will do all the work for me. So I scooted over to google, typed in a search and voila!- I landed at AKVIS. I downloaded the free trial of Sketch v.12.5, unzipped it, installed it and within minutes I had a sketch conversion of my photo that was about a million times better than any of the conversions I had come up with the day before!

I wrote AKVIS and told them how much I loved their program and how much I thought you would love their program too and they have generously donated a FREE COPY for one of my lucky readers!!

But before we get to the give-away, I want to show you a quick tutorial (and it’ll be quick because the AKVIS Sketch program does all the hard work for you)!

This summer Zoe and I went to Chicago and I took a picture of Zoe and her two cousins. It is one of my favorite photos and I have been wanting to scrap it but I just couldn’t figure out how to show it off. The second I saw sorashell’s layout, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

This is the original photo:

There are two ways to use the Akvis Sketch v.12.5 program. There is a plug-in version that works with image editing software (for a list of compatible image editors, click here) and there is a standalone version what works independently. I used the plug-in because it was easier for me to edit my photo to get the effect I wanted.

I played around with the program a little and what I found was that the lines were bolder and darker on photos with more contrast:

This definitely is a matter of personal preference. I preferred the finer lines for this project so I went with the unedited version of the photo.

The plug-in itself was very easy to use. I installed it in Photoshop CS5 (I just followed the prompts on the installer and it pretty much installed itself). Once installed, the plug-in is located under Filter- AKVIS- Sketch:

The plug-in opens a new window with your photo and a box preview of what your photo will look like with the current settings. Under the Strokes Tab, you can adjust the angle of the strokes, set the minimum and maximum lengths of the strokes and define how intense the mid-tones appear in the photo. You can adjust the strength of the edges in your photo under the Edge tab.

You can also drag the selected square over different areas of the image and zoom in for a closer look:

There are a number of presets to choose from including default, b&w sketch, charcoal & color pencil sketch to name a few.

I actually liked the color pencil sketch the best but I wanted a black & white image. So I unchecked the box next to Color Pencil and it de-saturated the image:

Once you have your image how you want it, you simply click the check mark in the top right corner and it will start processing your image. You can view the conversion as it happens:

When it’s finished processing, the window will close and your original image will be converted:

Once your photo is converted, you select your magic wand tool (make sure you have un-checked the contiguous box and that the image has been promoted from a background to a layer) and click on a white area in your image.

Press backspace and all of the selected white areas will be cleared. I put a pink layer underneath the extracted layer so you can see that there is still quite a bit of light grey in the image:

For my purposes, this image will work just fine. But if you would like to clear more of the lighter areas, you can select them and clear them again. You can also put a solid black overlay over the image to make all the light areas black for a really cool stamped feel.

Once I had my converted & extracted image, I moved it in to my layout, added a distressed mask around the edges and changed the blending mode to multiple and lowered to opacity to about 80%.

kit: I’m Outta Here by Captivated Visions

All of the lighter areas disappeared when I changed the blending mode. You could also try changing the blending mode to color burn or linear burn for different effects! The possibilities are truly endless and this program is so much fun!

Now that you’ve seen one of the applications of this awesome program, you can enter to win a free copy! There are 4 different ways you can enter to win:

1. Leave a comment on this post (make sure you leave your email address)

2. Share this blog post on Facebook, come back here and post a link to your Facebook

3. Share this blog post on Twitter and come back here and post a link to your tweet

4. Share this blog post on your blog and come back here and post a link to your blog

You can enter up to 4 times!!

And if you love this program so much that you don’t even want to wait to see if you win it- make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter because tomorrow I will be sending out an exclusive discount coupon for 20% off on the AKVIS Sketch Home- Plugin, AKVIS Sketch Home- Standalone or AKVIS Sketch Deluxe!

Next week, I’ll announce the lucky scrapper who won AKVIS Sketch v.12.5 and show you some other fun things you can do with this program to spice up your layouts!! Until then, happy scrapping!

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Filed Under: Free"bees", My Favorite Things, Tutorials

Big Baggies!!

on August 20, 2011

Hey Guys!

I have a new “favorite thing” I want to share with you!

Zoe and I belong to a scouting group and we are getting ready to go to our big camp next month. Our group decided to make scrapbook layouts as presents for all the other groups attending the camp. I designed a layout on my computer (you know I’ve gotta work digi in somehow) and made cutting files for all the elements of the layout so I could cut them on my Cricut.

Last night my friend came over to help me start getting organized and begin cutting all the paper. As we were going through the night, shuffling papers back and forth matching up solids to patterns and elements, she suggested we use a big baggie for each layout and start sorting into the baggies. I admit I didn’t believe there were baggies big enough to put a full un-cut 12 x 12 paper into (I know I need to get out more, huh?), but she’s used them before and assured me they really did exist. I asked my husband to run to Albertson’s and see if he could find anything that would be at least 12 inches wide so we could slip the papers in to them- even if it wasn’t 12 inches high. I’m such a skeptic. LOL!

He ran down to Albertson’s and lo and behold- they really do exist!! Not only are they wide enough to fit a 12 x 12 paper, they’re high enough to fit a 12 x 12 paper too- with room to spare!

We sorted the papers for each set in to a baggie and it made keeping track of each layout so much easier!

I love these!! When I paper scrap, I love buying the big paper pack collections so I have lots of different patterns to chose from. But often times, when I’m done with my project, I have lots of loose papers left over. I usually sort them in to my paper organizers by color. When I want to use them again, I have to rummage through all my color bins to find the coordinating pieces. But now, I can put all the coordinating odds and ends in to one big baggie and have them all together the next time I want to use them! I can’t tell you how excited I am about these baggies!

I just wanted to share these with you. In the photo above, I have about 16 baggies with just a few pieces of papers in them, but I was able to put almost a full paper pack inside one (all the left over papers– for now) and I was able to easily slide the papers in and zip it closed. These are perfect for organizing paper scrap supplies!

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things

Learning to Journal

on March 16, 2011

As some of you may know from chats and previous posts, I’m not much of a journaler. It’s probably the most difficult part of scrapbooking for me. It just doesn’t come very naturally to me. Recently, I discovered OhLife.com and if you listened to the Paperclipping Digi Show last week, you know it was my Pick of the Week! If you haven’t checked this site out- I highly recommend it!! The service is free (my favorite word) and every day they send you an email asking how your day was. You just reply back to the email and it stores your message in your account. I’ve been doing it for about 2 weeks now and I really enjoy it. My only regret is that I haven’t been doing it longer. I really like having a place to quickly jot down the days events, all the little things that I’ll forgot- by tomorrow. And since I’m all about “digi”, I love having it come right to my email. No pesky journals to keep track of– objects of the paper variety have a tendency to grow feet and walk away in my house, only to resurface later as collections of beautiful crayola doodles and sight words– which are keepsakes in and of themselves but makes it very difficult for me to keep any kind of written record of events.

The best part of “ohlife-ing” is that I’m finding that I’m becoming a better journaler. If you were to read my posts from a couple weeks ago- they were very brief, one to two sentence highlights of the days events. Today’s journal, I found myself talking more in depth about specific things that happened and how I felt about them! I guess the old saying really is true- practice makes perfect.

I’ve added a category to the blog called My Favorite Things (watch out Oprah!) and I’m definitely filing this in there! As I find new things that I love and that I think you’ll love, I’ll come share them with you and we can love them together!

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things

The Winning Virtue Is….

on March 14, 2011

Hello!! I’m here to announce the winner of my Win Your Virtue Contest and to tell you about this weeks episode of The Paperclipping Digi Show!!

Last week, I posted a fun little give-away for a What’s Your Virtue?® Lip Gloss. The random winner is #22 Alyna who says “My virtue would have to be Devotion.” Congratulations Alyna!! Email me at kami at zigglescraps dot com and I’ll send you a gift certificate to get your favorite Lip Gloss!!

I had the opportunity last week to guest on The Paperclipping Digi Show again! It was a blast and our conversation was very informative and inspiring! If you’re finding yourself in a bit of a scrapping rut and are looking for a way to kick start your mojo- you’ll definitely want to listen to this weeks episode!!

I’d love to hear any ideas you guys have on getting back in the scrapping game!! What do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? How do you organize your products and photos? Where do you find inspiration?

I’ve heard from a few of you that you’ve made a Junque Journal ! I’ll be back soon with an update to show you the one I’m working on and some of the ones you guys made!!

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Filed Under: Fun Stuff, My Favorite Things

WIN Your Virtue!

on March 10, 2011

One of our sponsors for Digiscrapapalooza is an amazing company named What’s Your Virtue?®. Molly DeCrow- you might know her as DeCrow Designs- is one of the co-founders of What’s Your Virtue?®. She is an extraordinary woman and they have a beautiful concept behind their lip gloss. It’s important to support companies that share the same values as we do, so I wanted to introduce them to you, share their story with you and give you a chance to Win Your Virtue!

Here’s a little information about their company:

What’s Your Virtue?® is a company founded by three friends who believe beauty starts from within. They want to remind all women of the simple and virtuous things in life. What better place to start than on your lips?

A little about Whats Your Virtue?®…

In the beginning, there was a mother with teen and preteen daughters. While on a shopping trip three years ago, she was made keenly aware of what beauty products were available to purchase. She was shocked at the explicit and suggestive names found on numerous brands of lip gloss. She didn’t feel it was appropriate for her 13 year old daughter to put such messaging in her pocket, let alone on her lips. The mother went home with no lip gloss, but with a strong desire to make a difference. After collaborating with her friends, an idea was born to create a lip gloss that would support a positive message, not only for her girls but for women everywhere. After several years of hard work and research, those three friends are excited to finally enter the marketplace with there own formulated gloss, Lip Bliss, a great product with an even better message.

A little about LipBliss™…

Lip Bliss™, the innovative lip gloss offered by What’s Your Virtue®. With our unparalleled hydrating formula, we have achieved the ideal blend of health-infusing moisture with the perfect degree of shine. Perfect for women of all complexions and ages, Lip Bliss™ bundles fortifying castor, cranberry, and safflower seed oils along with nourishing peppermint oil in order to smooth and nurture. You’ll enjoy shine without stickiness, while benefiting from the purifying and protecting properties of anti-oxidants, green tea extracts, and moisturizing vitamin E. Use it alone, or boost the intensity and drama of your favorite lipstick color by overlaying it with your favorite Lip Bliss™ lip gloss. Indulge your lips in subtle color and brilliant shine as you envelop them in the softness of Lip Bliss™ lip gloss by What’s Your Virtue®.

So what is YOUR Virtue? Check out their line of lip gloss and leave a comment here with your favorite! One lucky poster will WIN their Virtue! And if you love this company as much as I do, share this with your friends and encourage them to enter to win their virtue!

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Filed Under: My Favorite Things

I’m inspired!!

on February 11, 2011

I just got done watching Tangie Baxter’s Video Tutorials on making a Junque Journal and I am completely inspired! I asked Tangie if it would be ok for me to share the first part of her tutorials with you, because I really want you to see this! It’s a short video- only about 2 minutes- and it’s so cool!!

If you love this as much as I do and want to see the other two sections on how to make one for yourself, you can see them here!

I’m in the middle of packing and preparing to go on vacation next week and I’m trying to figure out how I can work in some time to start one of these. I’m definitely going to do it!! One of the things I miss most from my paper scrapping days is including all the little “ephemera” I used to keep when we went places and did things. This is the answer!!

OK- back to packing- but I just had to share this with you guys!