Fun with Digi-Scrap (PU)

Studio Design Contest Week 2

2011-09-11T12:24:00.003+01:00

Somehow, not sure how, I got through to the second round (which is all I wanted to achieve at this stage so I'm happy now).

For week 2 we had to create our own palette with the theme 'Summer Afternoon', and as I'm English and love a cuppa on a hot day, I based it on that, although I really wanted to do a sort of tea at the ritz kit but I didn't have the time or resources to do that.

Anyway, here is what I came up with;

(I used the name I'm going to be designing with one day instead of the funwithdigiscrap one)

You can downlaod the kit here

Dawn Chorus (Mini Kit)

2011-09-06T08:04:00.002+01:00

The Studio is having their annual design contest, so as I've been tinkering around with learning to design I'd thought I'd enter as it's always good for experience, the problem being that the first week of the design contest clashed with a very busy week for me at home.

My son turned eight, so I spent most of yesterday building the lego set he'd got, then I've got my new puppy who keeps me on my feet and I've got my mum staying for a week, so my entry was a bit of a rush job, and although I'm not expecting to get through the first round it was good to have a deadline to work to, without one it can take me weeks to put anything together. I only just finished it in time, but had to stay up until 1am to finish it.

So here's my entry, the theme was daybreak, and I decided to name mine Dawn Chorus.

You can download it here

Next Designer Contest (The Studio)

2011-09-01T07:28:00.002+01:00

The Studio is having their annual 'Next Designer Contest'. It's runs through September and anyone is welcome to try their hand at designing:

No need for sign ups, just post your Round 1 entry in Next Designer Contest Gallery by September 5, 2011 no later than Midnight (24:00) EST and you will automatically be listed as a competitor.

All challenges will be posted 6:00 a.m. EST and due by Midnight (24:00) EST per the scheduled dates:

Intro's begin August here in the Forum, through Round 1
Round 1: Challenge begins Sept. 1st, Due Sept 5th
Round 2: Challenge begins Sept. 8th, Due Sept 12th
Round 3: Challenge begins Sept. 15th, Due Sept 19th
Round 4: Challenge begins Sept 22nd, Due Sept 26th
Winner announced Sept 30th

The contest is open to anyone interested in becoming a Designer, whether you are brandnew, established or even just for fun!

Our top 10 finalists from Round 3 will all win an exclusive, brandnew, CU Grab Bag from theStudio Designers.

Our top three finalist from Round 4 will win Designer Contracts at theStudio as well as a bamboo wacom pen tablet.

Click here to visit the 'Next Designer' contest thread in the forum

Digiscrap Forum September Blog Train

2011-09-01T00:01:00.001+01:00

Hello!

You should have arrived here from Dutsji Designs, if you've come to this blog first, you can start the blog train here

Here is the mini kit I created for the September blog train;

You can download it here (4 shared)

And your next stop is here (Designs by Angel /Scrapping with Angel)

...and here is the reason I've been sidetracked and left this to the last minute;

Christmas in July - Progressive Scrap

2011-07-24T08:57:00.006+01:00

The Studio are having a christmas in July event and I signed up to the build a snowman progressive scrap.

Fruit Basket Plums - Statements by Jodi

2011-07-24T08:31:00.003+01:00

This is a layout I made using Statement by Jodi's 'Fruit Basket Plum' kit.

I'm a little late in posting it as the design contest kept me busy but playing catchup and I think I've finally caught up.

CoolscrapsDigital July Quickpage Contest

2011-07-22T23:20:00.003+01:00

This is a quick post as I'm just back from camping and realised the QP contest at Coolscrapsdigital was due in tomorrow.

Here's my entry (Using Happiness kit by PrettyJu which has loads of lovely papers and elements);

As per the contest rules it is 8x8 inches.

You can download it here

And...if you go here (CSD) you'll find a load more in the same size, using the same kit :)

Quickpage Freebie

2011-07-12T11:39:00.002+01:00

Now I have a bit of free time, I've been carrying on with the lessons I signed up for at Hummie's world.

The latest one was about Hue, Saturation and Value, which I found quite easy to understand, but quite hard to end up with a layout I was happy with, although I did eventually get there.

Here is the layout I made, using the colour of the t-shirt, and then moving the slider to get the other colours;

I decided to offer it as a quickpage too

Download here

Nuthouse-Scraps 'Design for me' contest (week 3)

2011-07-12T08:02:00.000+01:00

I couldn't believe it when I checked to see who had gone through to round 3, and discovered I was one of the five. I had to read it and re-read it several times just to be sure (and even then I thought I'd get an email at any minute saying a mistake had been made).

I was still struggling with understanding vectors and getting a sharp image but the designers at Nuthouse-Scraps are great. A tutorial was written explaining it all, and I know I'm not the only contestent who benefited from it, (and yes, I think I'm finally getting there).

The most important thing I learned in week 3 was 'Public Domain Images'
I didn't know there was a wealth of resources out there that could be used by anyone and for any purpose. It certainly helped in the 'no cu' requirement part of the contest I can tell you.

So, for week 3, our kit was titled 'Summer Lovin', and here is my entry,

This one had 12 papers and nineteen elements

Download the papers here
Download the elements here

Nuthouse-Scraps 'Design for me' contest (Week 1&2)

2011-07-09T11:32:00.001+01:00

The reason I've been a little quiet is because I entered the Nuthouse-Scraps design for me challenge, and made it through the first two weeks - I should point out everyone made it through the first two weeks :)

I entered it for the experience, because I know myself that I am in no way reason to be a 'real' designer, not just yet anyway, and I am so glad I did.

Cu wasn't allowed (at all) in the first couple of weeks, forcing me to make my own elements, and I can tell you. It was hard, but the sense of achievement at having made two kits from scratch is unreal. I feel so proud of myself.

Besides that, I learned all of the following;

Vectors for extracting instead of the eraser tool
That my elements have jagged edges (so I'm learning how to avoid this in future)
Bleeding edges (ditto above)
Some new software to play along with (Inkscape and .
What standards stores look for (and they are HIGH at Nuthouse-Scraps)
Making my own preview
Most of all, that I can design from scratch

I have never been in a contest where you get feedback, and I might have been mortified to discover the quality of my designing was terrible, but it was good to know and improve on it.

I learned more about designing in four weeks than I have in the last three months.

So, enough waffle.

As I'm on the CT, I was advised to sign up anonymously. The designers knew I was entering but not who I was, thus the reason for not blogging these kits before now.

The design name I used was 'Catchpole', and here are my kits from week one and two;

Week One: Live, Love, Laugh (PU/S4H/S4O)
(No CU products were used at all in this kit)

Download Here

Week 2: Beauty of the Sea (PU/S4H/S4O)
(No CU products were used at all in this kit)

Download here

I don't know if these kits will be of any use to anyone but I had a great time making them, and proved to myself that I can make a kit from scratch.

(Week 3 and 4's post to follow)

Studio Colour Challenge July

2011-07-08T23:21:00.002+01:00

I've been a bit busy just of late, so I haven't been posting as much as I wanted to, but I did make a little mini kit for the Studio Colour Challenge;

You can download it here (4shared)

Let it Shine - Nuthouse-Scraps

2011-07-03T08:34:00.003+01:00

Nuthouse-Scraps have a brand new mega kit out this month, titled 'let it shine'; a seventies inspired kit, with a lot of great retro elements - shoes, flowers and music - all combined into one great kit for all those 'groovy' photos you may have lying around.

Here's a preview of the kit;

Within this kit, you get; 67 papers, 5 word art, 122 Embellishments and 1 Alpha set including 29 letters, 10 numbers and 16 punctuations, and you can visit the store by clicking on the image.

In addition to this, there is a Mega Album avaliable, with twenty pre-made pages for you;

Click the image to visit the store

DigiScrapForum (DSF) Blog Train - July 2011

2011-07-01T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hello to everyone visiting on the blog train.

If you're following it right through you should have arived here from Amandakay's blog. (If this is the first place you've visited and you'd like to follow the blog train from the beginning then you can start here).

Here is my contribution to the blog train;

Download via 4shared

Your next stop on the train is BeehavenDesign

Coolscrapsdigital QP contest entry - June

2011-06-18T10:43:00.003+01:00

I missed out on the QP contest last month as I was away on holiday, and got my dates mixed up, so I've done my entry early this month (just to be on the safe side).

The kit we got to use this month is 'Devout Memories', by Kakleidesigns, and it is a glorious kit to work with. I just love the look of old books and antique looking elements and enjoyed creating this layout.

Here is the kit we got to work with;

And here is the quick page I made;

The size of this quickpage is 8x8 inches, 300 dpi, and if you head over to Coolscrapsdigital, you'll find stacks of other pages all using the same kit.

You can download the quickpage here

Beach Paradise by Wilma4ever

2011-06-12T13:57:00.003+01:00

Wilma4ever has the most gorgeous kit available in her store at Nuthouse-Scraps.

Beach Paradise has 12 beautiful pages and 70 elements, (and I wanted to use them all in my layouts but there were far too many).

Here is the layout I made using this kit;

Here is a preview of the Beach Paradise;

And finally, here is a quickpage I made, just to give you a little sample of how versatile this kit is (you can grab it over at Nuthouse-Scraps for free for a short time, just click here).

Life is sugar sweet

2011-06-10T09:26:00.004+01:00

Nuthouse-Scraps have a great new mega kit out this month. It's called 'Life is Sugar Sweet' and full of sweeties, and flowers and some great paper.

Here are a couple of layouts I made;

Here is a preview of the mega kit;

Click here to visit Nuthouse-Scraps

Camp out layout and a Quickpage

2011-06-02T21:28:00.004+01:00

I've been having a few problems getting out of holiday mode, that and the fact the children haven't been well but I've finally managed to make a layout and a quickpage for you;

This one is titled camp out, and I used some photos from our camping trip last year to the Lake District ( a place that only just has less rain than scotland - and we went in August).

The kit I used has been made by 'Statements by Jodi' and I just loved the colours and papers on this one, plus the fact it is part of a collaboration so there are plenty of other mini kits avaliable using the same colour scheme and theme.

And here is the quickpage I made, using as many papers and elements as I could;

Click here to begin your download.

Design Contest - Starts 1st June

2011-05-26T12:27:00.003+01:00

Nuthouse-Scraps is hosting a Design contest, 'Design-for-me', it starts on the 1st June and runs for four weeks, (an elimination process);

I for one am toying with the idea of entering, although I don't think I'm ready for designing, I figure it'll be good experience working to a deadline (it often takes me days to make papers as I rarely like what I make).

Anyway, just wanted to share this with you in case there's any budding designers out there. Nuthouse-Scraps designers are so friendly, and really helped me settle in on their CT team.

Scrap-a-quote Challenge at Nuthouse-Scraps

2011-05-26T12:10:00.004+01:00

Right, I'm back off my holidays and after three hours of on and off trying, I've finally got back into blogger (it just wouldn't redirect to my dashboard).

So I want to write some more about the challenge I'm hosting over at Nuthouse-Scraps. I've made my layout now I'm back;

I used Gemini Creationz 'Spring Renewal' to make this layout, and the picture is of my husban posing with 'Bob-the'builder', he's a huge childrens tv character over here, so I couldn't resist the quote (which I got from Scrapbook.com).

Anyway, here is the posting bonus you get for making a layout;

You can get this posting bonus just by signing up and scrapping a layout with a birthday/celebration quote (until 31st May). Click here to join in the fun.

Bugmini Quickpage

2011-05-15T20:49:00.000+01:00

I decided to make a quickpage using my 'Bugmini' kit;

Click here to download

Let's Party!

2011-05-14T19:36:00.001+01:00

Leave a Review:

Don't like challenges and still would love to get something for Free for the birthday celebration at the Nuthouse-Scraps?
Then how about this:

Leave a REVIEW in store for a product that you have purchased @nuthouse-scraps and get these CU items for Free.

*note*
- only reviews posted between 14 and 30 may will count
- products must be purchased at the Nuthouse-Scraps

Template challenge:
I love clustering and the template created for this challenge uses clusters.

To participate simply download the free template and use it to create your own layout. Upload the layout to the Nuthouse Scraps' Gallery before the end of May and post the link in the challenge thread in the forum and you will receive a beautiful mini kit as a posting bonus.

Happy scrapping!

Use it all mini! Challenge

This type of challenge is such fun and everyone participating gets not one but two free mini kits!

Using the So Strong Mini Kit you scrap a layout using everything in the kit at least once. To be kind you are allowed to create new elements but only using items contained in the kit!

Everyone who completes the challenge and uploads their layout to the Nuthouse Scraps' Gallery and posts their link in the challenge thread in the forum will be eligible to receive the posting bonus; the So Strong Add On Mini Kit.

Scrap a qoute Challenge:
This is the posting bonus available to you for participating in the Scrap-a-Quote challenge.

All you need to do is post a layout in the gallery featuring a quote related to the theme of birthday/Celebration.

Post the most Challenge:

Clutter it Challenge:

For this challenge you get this QP made with Bee Happy megakit
this thread

All you have to do is put in a photo and clutter it with elements. You can turn it, recolor it.

Upload it to 2nd Birthday gallery and put a link in this thread.
At the end of the month you receive this bonus

Designer Inspiration Challenge:
I have a special challenge for you this month!

Go here to participate:

http://www.nuthouse-scraps.com/Forum/index.php/topic,433.0.html

By completing the challenge you can earn this CU pack:

This pack contains:
1 bottle lid
1 duck
1 envelope tie
1 halogen spot
1 heart with glass mosaic
1 lava lamp
1 plastic pocket
1 metal sea horse
1 sheet of tulle (12 x 12)
1 paper (12 x 12)

All you have to do is:

- choose 2 items from this pack you would like to use in a kit / can think of to use
- make a color scheme with 6-8 colors to go with the kit
Please use this template:
http://www.nuthouse-scraps.com/FreeNuts/Manus/schemetemplate.zip
- think about a theme for the kit and write on the color scheme
- think about a name for the kit and write on the color scheme
- come back and post your idea in this thread

All who complete the challenge are allowed to use the color schemes posted anytime and get a coupon code to grab my CU pack in the store for free (challenge runs till the end of May, coupons will be given out on June 1st :) )

2 Challenges 3 Prizes:
I'm hosting 2 challenges in honor of our Birthday Bash! You won't want to miss it because it will be one of the Niftiest challenges you've ever seen. Get the scoop on the Nifty Nuts Challenge and sign up now. I'm also hosting the Scraplift Challenge and I picked a very cool page to lift.

You can join one or both but completing both will earn you all 3 of my Earthy Paper packs.

Complete the Nifty Nuts Challenge and you will receive Earthy

Complete the Scraplift Challenge and you will receive Earthy II

Complete both challenges and you'll receive Earthy III

Scrap-a-layout Challenge:
Scrap a Layout Challenge in the forum

Let's see some beautiful layouts again this month in the gallery. Every time we run one of these challenges we get some really beautiful layouts.

1. Take a solid or lightly printed background and about 1/3 down one side make 4 small boxes.
2. In 2 of the boxes put solid color and in 2 of the boxes put photos.
3. Now put some decorations under all 4 boxes and one on top of each of the boxes with the solid colors.
4. Now 1/3 down from the top on the other side of the paper put 2 paper strips.
5. On top of the paper strips put 3 photos.
6. Using an Alpha set put a title below the 3 photos.
7. Now put a ribbon down the side under the photos.
8. Finish it off with some more decorations placed under and around the 3 photos.

Place your layout in the gallery and then come back here and place a link to your layout.

If you complete this Challenge you will recieve this Kit from Acorn Designs.

Celebration Time Challenge:

May is Celebration Time at the Nuthouse so here is a challenge you all can't resist!

This are the rules!

1. Buy my Scrapkit Celebration Time! in the store HERE
2. Scrap a layout with this kit
3. Post the layout in our Gallery (please add to the store model # this: Wilma-323)
4. Post a link to this topic at the Nuthouse-scraps Forum to your post in the Gallery and you will receive a $ 5.00 Coupon from me to spend in my part of the store!!!

At the end of the month I will choose 1 lucky winner who will also get an article or kit of their choice out of my store!

Birthday font Challenge:

Come celebrate our Nuthouse Birthday with us!
We have a fun Font Challenge for all of you.
Complete the challenge and get this Birthday Surprise gift!

I'm hosting my first ever challenge

2011-05-14T07:43:00.006+01:00

As you know, I won a place on the CT team for Nuthouse-Scraps a little while back, and have to say that I've settled in nicely.

Turns out it's their second birthday, and we're HAVING A PARTY!

There are tonnes of great challenges and posting bonus's. (Unfortunately I'm away on holiday for the start of it all so I'll be busy scrapping when I get back).

Anyway, I am hosting my first ever challenge, and I chose to do a Scrap-a-Quote. I'm generally terrible at NOT journaling, and find that sometimes a quote can say it all, so that's my challenge and you can find it here.

And check out the posting bonus - it's CU4CU!

You have to use a birthday/celebration quote though, and I get most of my quotes from here.

I'd really, really love it if you'd come and join me.

Bug Kit (Mini kit)

2011-05-11T14:21:00.005+01:00

For the CUtoPU challenge at Coolscrapdigitals we got to work with another of Addies CU products. It took me ages, but eventually I came up with this (which has 13 elements and not 12 - I really cannot add up today);

Anyway, I had good fun making it, and hope you all like it.
Download the papers here
Download the elements here

Stroke Tutorial (Hummie's World)

2011-05-09T20:28:00.002+01:00

I have been extremely busy of late. I've spent the last three days writing a 1500 word essay for my latest Open University Course, and had a little trouble finding any motivation, but it's done now, so I spent a little time reading through the next part of my Course 1 at Hummie's World.

Lesson 6H was all about stroke and borders, and until now, I've only ever used stroke to check I've deleted parts of an extraction, but with this lesson, I learned how to do a border round the outside of a page and around a photo.

Here is the layout I made using these techniques (the kit is 'Baby Bumble');

Tutorials (Hummie's World).

2011-05-06T09:31:00.003+01:00

As you may have read I've been busy over at Hummie's world (inbetween making layouts for my CT commitments), and signed up for course 1: Getting started, even though there is a fair amount I already know.

Yesterday, I got as far as lesson 6g, and discovered there was more than one way to recolour an element/paper, that there's a way to recolour a specific colour whereas I have so far been recolouring an entire element, seeing as I didn't know any better.

To complete this lesson, we had to make a layout using the recolouring technique, so I used a layout I made using 'Bee Happy', and this is what I came up with;

I recoloured the paper using the Hue/Saturation option on my Photoshop CS3, and a couple of the element using the recolour brush and playing around with more colours, but I'm pleased with the results. I just need to practice a bit more on elements that have different shades of the same colour.

I'll tell you this though, the $5.50 monthly subscription at Hummie's World is going to be the best money I've spent.