Using Digital Templates

Happy Thursday & Happy Halloween!

I noticed a thread in the Club Scrap Forums this week about digital templates, so I thought I would take a few moments to review how to use them.

I’m using template #2 from the Lock & Key Digital Kit, along with the Bookshelves Digital Kit.

1. Re-save the Template with a new name so you don’t accidentally alter the original template file. You can use the original template again and again with different collections.

2. Drag in a new background and delete the white background layer of the template.

Tip: Holding the Shift key while you drag in a new background will automatically keep it centered on your new layout.

3. Drag in another background, just above the first one.

4. Select a layer to replace with the new background. I've chosen to replace the three light-grey squares with the red digital background.

5. Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Command+Click (Mac) on the thumbnail of the layer in the Layer Palette; you’ll see ‘matching ants’ around the elements in the layer.

6. Click on the background layer (added in step three) to make it active.

7. Select -> Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I in Windows, or ShiftCommand+I in Mac) and press the Delete key. You’ll remove all of the background except the selected elements.

8. Delete the template layer to reveal the new ‘paper layer.’

9. Repeat steps 3-8 for any ‘paper layers’ (mattes, etc.) you want to replace.

10. Use embellishments from the kit to replace the embellishment layers in the template. I've swapped out flowers and stems for the keys and different beads. This is your chance to get a little creative.

11. Add photos.

12. Add drop shadows and any other desired effects to finish your layout.

That’s it! You’ve recreated the layout with a different kit (or different papers and elements of the same kit). For variety, you can also rearrange the parts and pieces or rotate the layout at 90 or 180 degrees to create something entirely new.

The templates that come in each digital kit are made using the collection's Quick Drop Layouts. Here’s the same layout using the Lock & Key Digital Kit (and the same photos!):

I hope you’ll try using the templates that come in the digital kit. It’s a quick and easy way to create a layout without having to do any measuring or positioning.

See you next week!

-Ron

Lock & Key Blog Hop

Welcome! Today's Hop focuses on artwork created using Club Scrap's October Lock & Key collection. I just love the colors, quotes and artwork, so I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do for today's project.

I settled on making a couple of scrapbook pages created with Lock & Key digital. My good friend, Kay, took some really nice photos of my husband (aka: "the Mike-man") and me at the October Retreat. Mike and I rarely dress up and rarely get photos taken together, so I couldn't wait to document them.

(Thanks, Kay!)

Now on to see what our other bloggers have up their creative sleeves today. Next up is Julie...enjoy!

Julie--Cape Cod Scrapper

Roni--Inkstains with Roni

Deb--Liftbridge Cards and Crafts

Deb--Deb Duz Scrappin

Jill--Jill's Place

Tricia--The Efficient Crafter

Hetty--Craft Chaos

Kay--Kay's Keepsakes

Cathy--The Artful Gamut

Anne Marie--Artfully Balanced

Ann--Crzy Mom's Tidbits

Shona--Shona Scraps

Debby--Masculine Inspirations

Tiare--iClassy Girl

Lisa--Carpe Memoria

Marya--A Notebook Novel

Annette--Digital Musings

Creatively yours,

Karen

What to do with all of those tags?

It's fun to create artwork on manila tags. The stock is durable and such a pretty shade of ivory. They're small-ish, smooth and take well to paint, watercolors, inks, stamps.

They're great for demos at trade shows.

After a season at various Scrapbook Expos throughout the Midwest, I have quite a pile 'o tags! Many of them had artwork created with the Spring Chorus stencils and the WOW Spring Unmounted Stamps along with Gelatos and Big Brush Markers from Faber-Castell.

I spent a little bit of time on Saturday morning sifting through the tags and stamping them with a quote from the upcoming Fire & Ice unmounted stamp collection. (Spoiler alert!)

Then today, in a whirlwind ninety-minute card-making frenzy, I managed to complete a nice stack of beautiful "A2" cards.

Here's how:

1. Trim the tags horizontally at 5.5" and vertically at 3". (This will take off the reinforced hole at the top.)

2. Prep a coordinating stack of 5.5x8.5" scored and folded card bases.

3. Trim a complementary matte for the tags to 3.25x5.5". 

4. Add a simple embellishment from your stash to each card, if you're in the mood.

5. Hand the cards to Kay Williamson and say, "Hey, can you take a few pictures of these?"

Well, you can skip step five. 

But I needed to do that step so you could enjoy the results! I had two batches of cards in two color schemes.

I diverted from the pattern listed in the steps above on this one . . .

And there 'ya have it. Twelve cards in 90 minutes combined with a few days of playtime. I still have about 200 tags to go. But now that I have a system . . . 

I hope your week is splendidly creative!

Tricia

New Inky Technique Challenge Wrap Up and Winner!!

Good Monday Morning everyone!!

First of all thanks so much to everyone who joined us for this fun challenge!

If anyone missed out, you can look back to Karen's original post HERE.

We were amazed at all the gorgeous artwork that was contributed. Here is just a sampling.

Julie



And now without further ado, Karen is joining me today to announce the winner!!

********************************************************************

Karen here...happy Monday! Julie and I were thrilled at the number of crafters who gave this new technique a try. Everyone's work was awesome!

Using random.org, we randomly selected a winner from among the sixteen submissions. The winner is entry #12, Ann...congrats Ann!

Ann's prize is a set of three Club Scrap Hybrid Re-inkers to play with.

I'm already looking forward to the next Linky Challenge, I hope you are, too!

Creatively yours,
Karen

Fire & Ice Spoiler

It's not too soon is it?!?!
I think it's time to take a peek at what's around the corner at Club Scrap . . .

The November Fire & Ice Collection will be shipping just one week from today. Are you ready for your next pizza box of fun? We are so excited!

Tricia is busy "going all out" as she puts the finishing touches on the fourteen assembly line pages and fifteen Greetings to Go cards, I'm enjoying other Fire & Ice projects, and Beth and Deb have been oooh-ing and aaah-ing as each paper arrives. Here are a few snapshots of this colorful collection . . .

I just know you'll enjoy the warm and cool colors of Fire & Ice.
The heat is on!

Oh yeah, if you aren't a member of Club Scrap and want to be, check it out and sign up HERE.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kay at Club Scrap

Retreat Memories, Digital Style!

Happy Thursday!

So Retreat is over for another year. This is such a bittersweet week for me - happy to be back home, but sad that I had to leave my Wisconsin family. Fortunately, I have lots of memories from both August and October this year. Both weekends were fantastic - I had the time of my life there this year!

I really wanted to share some photos and I was really tempted to use the 2013 Digital Retreat Kit, but it’s still a bit early - after all, Retreat in a Box is just shipping today - that would really be too much of a spoiler!

So, I did the next best thing - I used last year’s retreat kit and scrapped some non-spoiler photos from this year (okay, maybe I used a photo from last year, too - but hey, it’s from retreat, so it’s fair game as far as I’m concerned!

Wednesday Night Wine Tasting

Me & my pal, Tricia!

Good friends (and a little silliness)!

So think of this as a semi-spoiler and keep your eyes peeled for more spoilers in the coming days  - maybe I’ll show you some layouts with the 2013 retreat kit next week! I know, I can be such a tease!

Oh and if you haven’t ordered the Retreat in a Box yet, you might wanna take this opportunity to do so - the projects, gifties, etc. are really cool - just sayin’ (and it won't be around for much longer!).

Until next week, thanks for stopping by!

-Ron

Retreat: Workshops, Gifts and Goodies Galore!

Betcha thought I was gonna let the cat out of the bag, right? Retreat in a Box 2013 (RIAB) ships tomorrow, so I can't quite share what we made this year . . . YET. Instead, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few of the Retreat Workshop projects and goodies from 2012.

Passport to Fun

Tricia's Oil Pastel Workshop

Jac's Letters on the Wall Project

Beaded Canvas Project

Kay's Altered Panel Workshop

Not only do we teach awesome workshops at each Retreat, we offer amazing gifts and goodies, too! Each Workshop, along with all of the gifts and goodies are shipped with the Retreat in a Box option. It's the next best thing to being there!

Retreat By the Numbers Kit

2012 Retreaters and RIABers received a gift of 6 new ink colors! 

By the Numbers Digital Hybrid Workshop

And there's so much more included that I haven't shown you. If you like what you see above, you'll want to grab your 2012 Retreat in a Box right away...there are only a few 2012 RIABs left.

If you like surprises, and would love to receive a generous box containing eight fantastic Workshops, gifts, goodies and more, then jump online and order up a 2013 Retreat in a Box, available in VERY limited quantities. I can't show you the contents just yet, but I promise you'll love it!

Even better, plan a vacation to beautiful Wisconsin and join us for one of the two 2014 Club Scrap Retreat dates. Registration will begin soon, so watch for the E-news announcement. Not on the Club Scrap email list? Um, yeah, I highly recommend you sign up now so you don't miss a thing!

Creatively yours, 

Karen

Retreat Recovery in Full Swing

Phew! Everyone is resting up a bit following our October Retreat. We all had such a wonderful time . . .

It was magical.

I'm not exactly sure what Brenda put inside this box, but whatever it was really worked.

On Thursday, our very own Deb and Beth worked like crazy to pack everything up for our long weekend. Here they are after the finishing touches had been completed in the Pro Shop and the evening workshop room. They look fresh as a daisy, even after the countless hours they'd worked!

We hauled a lot of stuff into that hotel. Big boxes filled with gifts.

And more gifts.

We enjoyed some awesome workshops together filled with lots of creativity and some serious concentration.

And we laughed. Lots. (Here, Brenda takes a swig from the funnel on top of the mega-sized jug of Bookbinding Glue. Tasty.)

After four wonderful days together, we packed everything up on Sunday and got to spend the afternoon watching the Packers (or insert favorite NFL team here) with dear family and friends.

If it looks like we're a bit tired, it's because we are. But that's okay. It was worth every bit of energy and effort to enjoy this amazing time with you.

It's pretty quiet here at Club Scrap today. Just the sound of Beth carefully packing up your Retreat purchases and sending them your way.

If you didn't get a chance to come to Wisconsin this year, consider picking up one of the last Retreat In a Box kits available. We're shipping all of the fun to your door on Thursday!

Time to make big plans for 2014. See you next year. :)

Tricia