Summer Camp Spotlight--Week 4

We can't believe Summer Camp is over already. The last four weeks passed so quickly! The top producer for the final week of Summer Camp was Lisa Dolezal. Shall we get to know her a bit better?

What is your name on the Coffeehouse Forum? Scrappin5150

What was your first CS kit? Gramma's Attic 2002

What are your top three favorite Club Scrap kits? Cape Cod, Tuscany, Road Trip

What is the best thing you learned from Club Scrap so far? ALSB! I tend to place more photos in my layouts than the designs call for, though, so I use some of the negative spaces or journaling places to add more photos.

What is your favorite kit goodie? Greetings to Go! I love that everything comes pre-cut, with sentiments, fibers and envelopes. I also like the small little tools that come in some of the kits that I wouldn't normally buy. For example . . . the white pencil picker-upper.

What motivates you to scrap? I love photography and scrapping helps me display my photos. I love it when family and friends come over and go straight for the scrapbook to see what's new. Some even check to see if they've made it in there!

Select 2-3 of your favorite pages/cards from Summer Camp 2014. Tell us why they are they your favorites.

"A Great Big Life" Card 

This card is a favorite because of the dramatic colors. I made homemade white glimmer mist (learned at the 2012 Retreat). Using it made me fall back in love with my stencils!

         

"Adventure is Worthwhile" Card

On this card I got to use TWO border strips from Safari. As you can tell, I really like dark backgrounds with white. Plus, the feather adds a softness to it.

"So Beautiful" Digital Layout

This was my favorite layout of Summer Camp. I love using my photos as the background. I played around with texture and a Bon Appetit overlay.

I had such a blast this Summer Camp. I challenged myself to use up ALL of my miscellaneous border strips, tags and cutaparts. 

Thank you for featuring me. I'm truly honored and blessed to be part of this wonderful group!

Congratulations, Lisa!

Summer Camp Spotlight--Week 3

Summer Camp is well under way, and we are at Week 3 out of four. The top producer for Week 3 was Cathy Gray, so let's get to know her a bit better!

What is your name on the Coffeehouse Forum Chat? My forum name is cathyjgray.

Which Club Scrap kit was your first? February of 2004

What are your top 3 favorite Club Scrap kits? That's a really tough question! I have different favorites for different reasons. For example, I have favorites I like to use a lot to make tones of creations, like the "blurple" paper from Steppin’ Out, but I also have "don't touch" favorites because I want to treasure the paper forever, like English Garden and Natural Wonders. In general, I guess I'd pick Orient Express, Up, Up and Away and Take Wing.

Best thing you learned from CS so far? The monthly theme has many interpretations, and each month the kit is even better than I thought it would be. The designs and artwork even are more amazing in person, whether in paper or digital.

Favorite kit goodie? Do stamps count? I love the artwork and wonderful sayings!

What motivates you to scrap? I love working with the great designs on the Club Scrap papers and themed kits; it inspires me to make many things.

Select 2-3 of your favorite pages/cards from this week's challenge. Why are these your favorites? I really enjoy mixed media, especially working with stencils, ink sprays and paints. It's so fun not knowing what creation will present itself, so Week Three Summer Camp's “Messy Challenge" was perfect for me. Club Scrap paper provides the perfect first layer. The brilliant colors, textures and images make a great mixed media base, even though it's sometimes hard to cover up the wonderful paper!

For these cards I ended up using five 12 x 12 papers: An Ivory Plain (from my stash), two Navajo prints and two Bon Appetit prints. Using my stencils, I got at least two images from each imprint--one by adding medium through the stencil onto the paper, and a second reverse image by pressing paper onto the "messy" stencil. The pink Bon Appetit card below was one of my favorites because the light script you see in the background was already on the paper.

To get the impressions you see on my cards, lightly mist the stencil with water, then apply ivory and blue acrylic paint (Navajo) or pink and white ink sprays (Bon Appetit) layered onto Geometric stencils. 

To create card panels from these decorated papers, cut each 12 x 12 at 4 and 8". Rotate each 4 x 12" horizontally and trim at 5.25 and 10.5". Trim coordinating 8.5 x 11 card stock in half horizontally to make A2 card bases (cut at 5.5"). 

I was able to create 30 "messy" cards from these panels combined with left over Greetings to Go die cuts and stamps from various past kits. Washi tape is a good layering trick for mixed media projects, too, because it allows colors from underneath to subtly show through. The “What will happen if I spray over this stencil and use this paper?” experience was so much fun!

Congratulations, Cathy!

Summer Camp Spotlight--Week 2 (Part 2)

It's a summer of firsts! This year is our first-ever member run PSL Summer Camp, and for the first time, we have a tie for most submissions in a single week. Yesterday we featured Becky Huber, and today we have the spotlight on Arlene Plastine who tied with Becky for top producer in Week 2.

What is your name on the Club Scrap chat forum? Arlene P   

What was the first CS kit you received? My first Club Scrap kit was County Fair in July 2004.

What are your top three favorite Club Scrap kits? My 3 top favorite kits are Paisley, Hydrangeas and Oopsie Daisy.

What is the best thing you learned from Club Scrap so far? ALSB!

What is your favorite kit goodie? My favorite kit goodie is the Embellishment Pack. It helps so much when ALSB-ing a kit.

What motivates you to scrap? The pictures I have to work with from when my children were first born motivate me to scrap.

Select 2-3 of your favorite pages/cards from this week. Why are these your favorites? There were far too many that I liked to limit it to 3. There were so many creative pieces that I liked.

Congratulations, Arlene!

Summer Camp Spotlight--Week 2

It's a summer of firsts! This year is our first-ever member run PSL Summer Camp, and for the first time, we have a tie for most submissions in a single week. Today we are featuring Becky Huber; watch tomorrow's blog post for her co-top producer for Week 2 of Camp.

What is your name on the Club Scrap chat forum? Skraphappy    

What was the first CS kit you received? Spice of Life in 1999. I took a break after 2004 and came back in 2013.

What are your top three favorite Club Scrap kits? Moody Blues, Trees, Raku

What is the best thing you learned from Club Scrap so far? It has to be ALSB!  I have never completed so many pages so quickly.

What is your favorite kit goodie? It's a toss up between stencils and embossing folders.

What motivates you to scrap? The boxes full of photos I have in my closet. I love the feeling I get when I get a few pages completed. Also, I'm using up my stash of Club Scrap papers and that means I can buy more and not feel guilty.

Select 2-3 of your favorite pages/cards from this week. Why are these your favorites?

My daughter was a competitive swimmer for 18 years. Completing her swimming pages brings back all the wonderful memories of traveling with her and watching her grow into the woman she is today. 

I love the cards from the Oopsie Daisy Greetings to Go kit. They just make me smile and I know they will make someone else smile when I send them.

Congratulations, Becky! 

Be sure to join us here on the blog tomorrow for another Summer Camp Spotlight!

Summer Camp Spotlight--Week 1

This summer we are having our very first-ever member-run Summer Camp. Four weeks of challenges to inspire forum members to create and finish cards, pages and other projects. The response has been wonderful. 

The top producer for Week One was member, Rhonda Vlahos. Rhonda is from Leeming, Western Australia, and we thought it would be fun for everyone to get to know her a bit better!

Retreat photos on Time of Your Life collection.

What is your name on the forum? My forum name is the same as my name: rhonda vlahos.

What was your first CS kit? My first kit was Bistro (July 2007).

Lock & Key paper bag book.

What are your top 3 favorite kits? Trees, Bistro and Avant Garde.

What is the best thing you learned from CS so far? The best thing I learned is no waste (or minimal waste) scrapbooking. I also like making awesome projects from scratch the digital tutorials are great, too. I could go on and on! 

Field Journal project with photos of Rhonda's trips to America.

What is your favorite kit goodie? My favorite kit goodie would have to be the stencils. 

What motivates you to scrap? My motivation to scrap are the photos I take, I want to preserve them for future generations.

Congratulations, Rhonda! 

Join us for Summer Camp!

Okay, so in most parts of the country, school is out for summer vacation. Parents are sending their kids to summer school, summer camp or other organized activities to keep them entertained and their brains stimulated.

So why not do the same for yourself? Grown-ups deserve a treat, too, and let's face it, our creative muscles could use a little stretching. Am I right?

This is where Club Scrap's Pro Scrapbooker's League Summer Camp comes in (or as we say, PSL Summer Camp, because otherwise it's a mouthful, I tell ya). Summer Camp is four weeks of fun designed to stretch your creative muscles, stimulate your mojo, make new and visit with old crafting friends, and inspire you to get a whole lot done. Sounds like a good time, doesn't it?

To be a part of the fun, get signed up next week...registration starts Monday, June 24. Sign up for a cabin based on your interest(s): scrapbooking, cardmaking, digital, or (new this year!) papercrafting projects. After registration, you'll be treated to four weeks of challenges that will inspire you to squeeze in as much creativity as you can each week. Oh, and did I mention the prizes? Each cabin category will have a bit of friendly competition with the others to see which cabin can get the most points. Get your crafting on AND get rewarded for it? Now that's what I call a great summer!

If you're still not fully convinced, go to this page for more information, as well as testimonials from past Summer Camp participants. Or, stop by this page to get to know the Camp Counselors. What have you got to lose?

I hope to see you at Camp. The last one to the campfire is a rotten egg!

Creatively yours,
Karen

3-Step Digital Layout

As many of you know, Club Scrap® Summer Camp started this week (and if you don't know about Summer Camp, click here to learn about it!). Karen Wyngaard and I are the Counselors for this year's digital cabins. So I thought this might be a nice time to show everyone a quick 3-step digital layout. It's an easy way to make a layout, even if you're new to digital scrapping. And If you want to add some journalling, I've got an optional 4th step for ya, too! Even with 4 steps, we're still talkin' easy-peasy!

One of the great things about the monthly Club Scrap Digital™ kits are the clusters - these are ready-made embellishments that include custom shadows to make your digital layouts really shine! And sometimes, 1 or 2 of those clusters include frames - it's those frame clusters that allow us to make a really cool layout in 3 (or 4) steps! So let's get started…

(My layout was made using Adobe Photoshop 5; if you're using a different program, adjust your steps accordingly - but this is a very basic layout which doesn't use a lot of fancy steps!)

To get started, open a new document - 12" x 12", 300 ppi, transparent background. Make sure you've selected the Pointer tool from the Tool palette.

1. Pick a background for your layout and drag it onto your new document. (In Photoshop, if you hold down the Shift key while you drag, the background will automatically center itself in your new document.) I'm using a background from July's Sorrento Kit.

First, place your background.

2. Open your desired photo and drag it onto the background (don't worry about where to position the photo yet).

Next, add a photo.

3. Open your frame cluster and drag it onto the background. I picked a frame cluster from Just Dandy. (Yeah, that's right - I'm mixing kits, but don't they look great together?!)

Then, add a Frame Cluster.

Now you can resize your photo so that it fits the frame - click and hold one of the corners and drag to make your photo larger or smaller, as needed. Hold the Shift key to retain the photo's proportions while you resize. Press 'Enter' to accept your changes. Depending on the frame cluster that you chose, you may need to rotate your photo - hover your cursor near one of the corners of the photo until you see the curved arrows - then click and drag to rotate the photo as needed. Press 'Enter' to accept your changes. If you want to move your photo & cluster on the page, just be sure to select both layers in the layers palette and reposition as desired.

Finished Basic 3-Step Layout

You're done! Now wasn't that easy?

Okay, if you want to add some journalling, here's a quick way to do that:

4. Select the Text tool (it's a capital 'T') in the Tool palette, click anywhere on your layout and type your title or journalling (photoshop will automatically create a new layer for your text). Change the font, size, and color as desired. Repeat if you want to add more text to your layout.

Done! Here's my finished layout:

Finished Layout with optional Text

Now it's your turn - make a layout (for PSL or just for yourself).

And here's a surprise - Tricia's on vacation this week, so we're havin' a bit of extra fun while she's gone - post a comment (by Friday, July 13th 12 Noon CS time) and tell me what you love about Club Scrap Digital™ and 1 lucky winner (chosen at random) will get a special digi prize!