Quick post & small offering

Just got back from day with my group and a stop at Costco,. Lots to do. Son & DIL stopping in for a few hours tomorrow on their way to Outer Banks.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7xjpy07kq6q7fc/ws_FrLadiesStamps.zip?dl=0

Simple CU freebie

It's Wednesday. I missed posting yesterday due to an ear ache. Seems to be just a blocked Eustachian tube as I'm not running a fever. Have sinus headache but since no fever all is go for tomorrow's epidural. I got the contract to be a guest designer at Magnolia Gardens Scraps and should start a month's stay on July 1. After that, it's all negotiable.

Sometimes when I'm doing a vintage scrap, I like to add a bit of ephemera to the page and I thought you might like to as well. So today's offering is 6 pieces of ephemera.

Link: Expired
Don't plan to post tomorrow as I can't predict after effects of procedure.

Freebies & lesson

*Disclaimer: I use Photoshop Creative Suite and Photoshop Elements. I am unable to provide guidance for any other programs.

Something a little different today. I mentioned I had been making a lot of brushes recently, didn't I? Thought I'd share some with you and information on use.

When you load a brush into your system it is an .abr for Photoshop and (I think) a .jbr for PSP. To use, you click your brush tool and use the scroll down menu to select the brush you want. When you apply the brush to your page, you get a black or colored (depending on what your foreground color is set to) image in .png form. I call the result a stamp. Now you have a png that has transparent areas or areas of differing intensity. For our purpose here, let's assume you have used one of the frame brushes in the provided zip.

Perhaps you used the round frame. You look at your stamp and think it's a shame it's transparent. What to do? One easy solution is to under paint it (see example). To under paint, it is best if your stamp is done in black to begin with because it is easier to see. Let's start there, with the stamp on a layer by itself. Add a new layer under the stamp, choose a under paint color (it will be your foreground color in tool bar). I chose white, going for a shabby chic look. On that blank layer with your under paint color selected and using the stamp layer above as guide, fill in the transparent area of the stamp using a basic brush tool. Tidy up any areas that went beyond the area of the stamp. Looking through both layers, it is as if your black stamp is now filled in with white. Next, go back to the stamp area and change the color of the stamp (I'm assuming you know how to do this). I made my stamp pink and liked the way the layers looked together so I merged them for a shabby chic frame. With me so far?

You look at your frame and tell yourself it is okay but you wish the colors weren't so flat. What about styling it? There are heaps of free styles available on-line. Choose some that appeal to you and load them into your program. I decided to go with some satin styles. Again, I make a black stamp on a layer by itself and add a blank layer below it. On the blank layer I select a style and using my basic brush tool begin to paint as we did for the under painting. Now I have a layer of satin pink. I tidy it up and go to the stamp layer. I can just change the color of the stamp as we did before or I can click a style, this one a slightly darker pink and the stamp is styled. Happy with the result, just merge layers and you have a styled frame.

I've included the samples in your zip. There are also styled example for the other stamps. The leafy frame is done just as the styled round frame. The flower frame uses multiple styles. Just use a different layer for each. And the bird frame is simply gilded with a gold style.

I hope I've made the instructions clear and that this information will be useful to you.

Link: Expired

Bat flowers for Mary

I'm not real happy with these bat flowers. They seem so awkward and many of the photos from which I extracted show the flower cut off at odd angles. I hope there is something here you can use. Maybe in some kind of arrangement?

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkqd4zlzaq5xpug/ws_Bat_flowers.zip?dl=0

Had nice birthday lunch with grand-daughter yesterday, her two friends, mother and other grand-mother. One of the kids was adorable. The other cute but a royal pain. She literally bounced the entire time! And was noisy and shrill. I went with a headache and needed to go to bed when I got home. Still, it was good to see Larkin.

I've heard from my son and his wife is holding up very well following her sister's suicide. They have been back and forth to Richmond and have gathered up personal items that belonged to DIL's mother and sister. DIL is stuck with all the legal proceedings to come and it is a tangled mess but they are working on it diligently.

Haven't heard anything more from my friend with the new store. After talking to her partner they may have decided that it is too much trouble to set me up as a guest designer. Doesn't matter. I'm back to my art challenges.
This month I've done a template challenge:

A photomask challenge:

Actually there were two mask challenges. Here is the other one:

A little Christmas freebie

The tree is finished and the windowseat looks festive. The wreath is on the door but will need replacing next year. Getting ready for our Italian Christmas. Since we've had the blues about Christmas, we decided to shake things up this year. No traditional ham dinner. We are doing Christmas Italian style and invited my 80 year old aunt Sissy, whose family was originally from Naples, and her boyfriend, an 81 year old man she grew up with, John E. John E is of Greek origin so he loves many of the same types of food my husband and Sissy enjoy. My husband is doing all the cooking too! There will be an antipasta spread of various olive types, roasted red peppers, a soft goat cheese for spreading and caponata to put on crackers. He's making his famous lasagna, beef tips cooked in homemade tomatoe sauce, a dish that is composed of potatoes, spinach and red pepper, and garlic bread. I'm making up a dessert platter with slices of my fruitcake (better than traditional Panetone), some traditional raibow cookies (from a local restaurant), fudge, chocolate chip cookies (okay, not Italian). Decided to try my hand at making some anise biscotti for my husband. I don't care for anise/licorce at all but he loves it. So we will add that to the platter too. Since it turned out so well, I intend to make some amaretto biscotti too.

Hope your preparations are going well.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhh3lobax5tikeg/ss4cu_Golden_Christmas_overlays.zip?dl=0

* sorry about link error. Must have been hurrying.

Merry Christmas! Holiday Treat freebie 122514

It's here! Christmas 2014. I hope you are enjoying the day with your family and friends. Don't worry, your freebies will be here until the end of January 2015. Today it's a bunch of Santa Stuff (CU4CU) from Sher Scraps:

http://www.4shared.com/postDownload/4-6aq5Sfce/ss4cu_HolidayTreat_SantaStuff_.html And from Wonderland Scraps, the last of the papers:

http://www.4shared.com/zip/Er5pIQaAba/ws_HolidayTreat_papers_122514.html? Merry Christmas! Love, SherryD thanks to Stacey for alerting me tolink problem with Santa Stuff. I've corrected it above.

Holiday Treat freebie 122414

It's Christmas Eve! All are your stocking hung? gifts wrapped? tree sparkling? You've made cookies for Santa I hope and don't forget to leave a few carrots for the reindeer. Get those little ones snuggled in bed, make yourself a cup of cocoa or eggnog if you prefer, and put your feet up for awhile. Today there are both PU and CU treats for you. From Wonderland Scraps, there is a PU wreath, a border, and a floral vignette. Many thanks to Jaguarwoman for the wonderful resources I've used in several of these packages.

http://www.4shared.com/zip/43Jbnf9ece/ws_HolidayTreat_Floral_122414.html? And from Sher Scraps, what might be a silly idea. I made a 10 inch tree, put a star in package, and then made 4 photo ornament frames. One thought I had was to put family pics in the frames, then shrink the ornaments down to fit the tree and make the photo tree the focus of a paper. Another way you might use them would be to make a pretty background, and string the photo ornaments across the page. I'd love to see what you do. Not just with this package but any of these freebies.

http://www.4shared.com/zip/l3t6FtBPba/ss4cu_HolidayTreat_XmasTrephot.html? Hope your Christmas is merry and bright, full of Love.