Salute and Tour of Duty

A while back, Club Scrap created two special edition collections designed to complement patriotic photos and military photos. Each of these collections creates ten 12x12 scrapbook pages when you follow the free Assembly Line Scrapbooking instructions included with purchase. We still have a few of these collections available, and they just so happen to be on sale for 50% off through today!

Kay and I had the opportunity to finish off the ALSB pages with photos and additional embellishments, so I thought it would be fun to share them with you.

Kay used the Salute collection for photos of the annual Appleton Flag Day parade from a few years ago. The parade is kind of a big deal in our area, and, since they live so close, it's tradition for Kay and her family to walk downtown to watch it each year.

ALSB 1 & 2--Marilee was so little in 2005!

Here's an example of Kay's skill at adding special little details.

The included Cutaparts are a great launching point for stamping or other further embellishment.

ALSB 3 & 4

ALSB 5 & 6--Isn't Marilee adorable in those sunglasses?

ALSB 7 & 8

ALSB 9-10

Believe it or not, I got the scrapbooking gene from my dad. He actually kept a scrapbook while stationed in the Canal Zone in Panama serving with the Military Police. Though it's falling apart, we still have the original scrapbook, so I made copies of some of the original photos and added them to the Tour of Duty collection.

The finished ALSB pages really didn't need much additional embellishment, so it was easy to just add photos and journaling.

ALSB 1 & 2--Dad and his fellow Military Police officers.

ALSB 3 & 4--The patriotic postage stamps made a fun embellishment.

ALSB 7 & 8--Don't you just love a man in uniform? 

My mom also has a handful of photos of her father's time in the military. Actually, it was this military connection that brought my parents together. My grandfather was stationed in the Canal Zone (with my mother and the rest of her family) at the same time my dad was an MP in Panama . . . Mom and Dad met and were married there in 1966.

ALSB 5 & 6--Photos from when my Mom's family was stationed in Taiwan for a short time.
The boy on the radio on the left page is Mom's twin brother.

ALSB 9 & 10--I'm thrilled to have this rare photo of my maternal grandparents dancing together.

Don't miss out on your chance to own one (or both!) of these awesome collections, especially at 50% off! You'd better hurry, because when they're gone, they're gone for good.

Creatively yours,
Karen

Color Me Digital

It's Ron with another tutorial! Let's talk about coloring stamps digitally.

I gotta tell ya, I'm not really into coloring stamps for paper crafting. I've seen some beautiful coloring work done by folks, but it's really not my thing. But I've found that I don't mind using my mouse as a crayon!

It's really quite simple to do if you remember a few basic rules. If you've ever used the printed transparencies that have come in some past kits and you've painted them from the back to color in the designs, you're already well on your way to understanding how to color digital stamps.

Let's get started…

1. Create a new file to work in. Give it a white background. That will make it easier to see what you're doing.

2. Choose a stamp image to color. I'm using the boots from the Tour of Duty Digital Collection.

3. Drag a copy of the image onto your new file and resize it so that it's large enough to work on. You can always resize it later.

4. Plan your course of action. We'll be working from front to back - coloring the smaller areas first and then moving to the larger areas. For the boots, I'll do the metal eyelets and hooks, then the laces and the soles, and finally the boots themselves.

5. Create a new layer beneath the stamp layer. We're going to keep each color in a separate layer. This way, if you mess something up, you only have to redo a single layer.

6. Choose a hard-edged brush, adjusting the size of the brush to fit the area that you're working in.

7. Pick your color and start filling in the parts. Take your time. Enjoy the process.

 8. When you're ready for the next part, create a new layer beneath the layer you just worked on, pick your color, resize your brush as needed and color away!

9. Keep adding more colors/layers until you're happy!

I added a bit of gray 'shadow' under my boots - it helps 'ground' them, making them seem less like they were 'floating' in space.

That's all there is to it. Really simple, right?

Go try some digital coloring and create something wonderful with your results!