More iron-on transfers...

I'm on a hybrid kick this week. More accurately, I'm on an iron-on transfer kick this week.  After royally messing up my daughter's tote bag, I decided to take a step back and work on t-shirt material. 

The t-shirt was much easier to work with. This one was printed with a transfer designed for dark colored shirts.  The design did not need to be reversed for printing, and the transfer itself is white instead of transparent.  And the boy even cooperated this morning by falling asleep right before I started taking photos.  So appropriate for the shirt's slogan!

Credits: Metal plate, screws, and rocket from Sci-Fi kit by Sugar Moon. Part of designsindigital.com's Next Design Star 2010 competition. Font: Back to the Future from dafont.com.

{inter}national scrapbooking day

{Inter}national Scrapbooking Day is this weekend!  There are all kinds of festivities all over the internet, but I will probably spend most of my free time at jessicasprague.com.  I've already warned hubby that I will be unavailable for everything except feeding the baby on Saturday.  We'll call this the scrapbooking retreat that I missed last fall. :)

Jessicasprague.com Weekly Challenge - Hybrid!

This week at jessicasprague.com the weekly challenge is their first ever hybrid challenge. The challenge was to create something using iron-on transfers. All the examples shown were t-shirts and onsies, which I am definitely going to jump into. But I figured if I was going to try something new, I may as well go all the way. My daughter has been asking for a new backpack, as apparently there is a hole in her old one (though I have yet to SEE the hole). So we decided to make her a personalized tote bag instead. Here's what we came up with:

We were both super excited about the results, until I tried to "fix" the spot around the owl's right eye. Can you see it? The transfer didn't quite transfer all the way. Note to self: do not try to re-iron a transfer...it just won't work. So even though I took the photos early enough, Mr. Owl did not survive the day, and the tote now needs to be redone. I think I may make a grungy name plate to completely cover the old owl, and reprint him for the other side of the bag.

Regardless of the outcome of the owl and tote bag, I can't wait to get going on the onsie I have planned for my son. I'll post pics when I have it all done up. And next time, I think I'll START a new project with the simpler of two options rather than starting with the one that will cause the most challenge. But that's why they call it a challenge right? :)

Tote bag credits: Owl: Crystal Wilkerson's Happy Little Owls (jessicasprague.com). Word art: from Carnival kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Background

I have been playing around with my blog background for a few days. I am happy with the look of the background I have saved on my computer, but am still working on making it load correctly. Today I had a breakthrough in that all of my background showed up, but it is a little on the big side now. Previously I didn't have it big enough! So I"ll keep it as it is for now, and continue to perfect it over the weekend. Hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be business as usual.

Credits for blog background: Paper: OScraps Moonrise on Wikiki kit. Butterfly (recolored) from Ella Scraps "Happily After" Kit from designsindigital.com. Mask: Katie Pertiet from Help Haiti kit, designerdigitals.com.

T+W Catch-up

Slowly I am catching up with my layouts from Type+Writer 2, the class I just finished up from jessicasprague.com. The latest layout, one about a friend. I don't have any pictures of any of my girlfriends, so I used my husband, and figure I can call it one more layout finished for our "Us" album that keeps getting put to the back burner. Lots of typography and playing with fonts in this layout. I don't think I've ever used this many fonts on one layout before! And I think I am in love with the AngelicWar font...I love all that swirly, ornate goodness!

Supplies used: Template: Jessica Sprague from Type+Writer 2; Papers: Jessica Sprague All Things Bright papers 2, 3, 6, and 13. Fonts: VTPortableRemington, AngelicWar, IDAutomation, LLRubberGrotesque, SeeingStars, Georgia.

Results of JS Creative Team Search

Well, I didn't make the creative team this year. But I'm ok with that. The amount and caliber of talent in the applicants was phenomenal. I never really thought I'd make it, that voice of self doubt always screaming in my ear, but my husband convinced me to take the leap, and I am glad he did. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I took a few things away from this experience -- 1) I am not very patient waiting for results, 2) I jumped in with both feet and took the risk, and 3) it caused me to start this blog. For the last two years I have made resolutions at the beginning of the year to have a layout published somewhere -- online, or in a magazine. For each of the last two years, I haven't even submitted a layout to be published, so entering this competition was a big step for me. I will be back next year, with my blog already set up and active, and new layouts to enter. I have had too much fun with this to give up so soon!

No new layouts to post. The whole family (minus the baby, thankfully) came down with a stomach bug yesterday that took us WAY out of comission. Needless to say, I did not feel like scrapping last night or at all today. I need to play catch up on my Type+Writer and Type+Writer 2 assignments...I have two layouts from the first class, and too many layouts from the second to catch up on! That will be the task for this week, I think.

Catching up on classes

When I decided to enter the JS Design Team search, I kind of pushed my current project to the back burner while I focused on the entry layouts (and setting up my blog). So now I get to play catch up in the Type+Writer 2 class that I was in the middle of. Officially the class ends tomorrow, but the fantastic part of classes at jessicasprague.com is that the materials are available forever, so when life (or other projects) gets in the way, I don't have to worry about not finishing a class. So here it is Saturday night, and I am working on the page from Wednesday. It also occured to me that I never posted the last page I did finish. Last week, we were supposed to take a photo a day and take a few notes about why we took that photo. Then, we made a layout that detailed major events each day during the week. It was a very appropriate week for this task, as it was my first week back to work after maternity leave, so there were many things to write about.



Papers: HRoselli (blue and green solids), MLima (floral swirl), SClingerman (blue stripe) from Carnival kit (Sweet Shoppe Designs); Green polka dot - Katie Pertiet Email Inspired 1-17-10. Flower: SBartolini from Carnival kit (Sweet Shoppe Designs). Tag: SClingerman from Carnival kit (Sweet Shoppe Designs). Fonts: Yukon Gold, Impacted, Impact, Pea KT Doodles (www.kevinandamanda.com).

New header!

I spent this morning designing my new blog header. More customization will follow as I figure this all out (and when I can put the baby down -- it's hard to work one handed).

Header credits: Butterfly (recolored) from "Happily After" by Ella Scraps (part of desinsindigital.com's NDS search, March 2010). Mask by Katie Pertiet from designerdigitals.com Help Haiti kit. Fonts: MaSexy and Impacted. Paper: me!

Weekly Challenge at jessicasprague.com

The plan had been to go to sleep early tonight, but here I am at my normal winding down time, getting in one more post, here and at jessicasprague.com. Each week there is a new challenge layout. This week's challenge was to create a layout about how I rock. I twisted it and made it 5 things I am proud of myself for. The last three months have been full of challenges that have made me step out of my comfort zone. Here is my take on how I rock!

Credits: Papers, frame, ivy and flowers from Remember When by Valerie N (freebie from designsindigital.com). Fonts: Alfredo Heavy, One Fell Swoop, PeaCatherineAnne, Butterflies.

I love this frame! My favorite part of digi over traditional is that I don't have to hoard elements for "that perfect layout." I can use them now, AND later, and even change the color or orientation if I need to! So much fun, and thanks for looking!

Layouts for jessicasprague.com creative team search

So I decided to enter the jessicasprague.com creative team search. Since all my Photoshop skills were learned from her website, I thought this would be another great challenge to sink my teeth into. I got a bit of a late start, as initally I thought, "Nah, I'll never make it." But then I decided what the heck, it's a good excuse to get a blog going! Here are the three layouts I am entering:



This first layout was created last, and though it is very photo heavy, was very simple to create. Each of the border photos was created in a clipping mask, as was the focal photo, which was clipped to a grunge photo mask rather than a simple square. I also created a semi-transparent strip for my journaling and title to rest on. The final technique I used on this layout was a simple way to make the focal photo "pop" by layering an opaque block of color over the photo and removing the block from over her face.

Credits: Paper: Fairy Dreamer no 8 by Katie Pertiet (designerdigitals.com). Grunge Photo Mask: Jessica Sprague (jessicasprague.com). Fonts: PeaDaneMichael from fontsforpeas.com and HappyDaze from dafont.com



The second entry uses photos taken during our trip to Washington for Spring Break this year...the same trip as the jaguar face paint. The same day too, if you look closely, you can see the jaguar is tip-toeing through the tulips in one of the pictures. Once again I used clipping masks throughout the layout, just to make sure everything lined up. I duplicated the frame to make it a 2x3 stamp frame instead of a 1x3, and in doing so had to "straighten" out the third opening on the bottom row. I layered two fonts for the title, a technique I picked up from T+W and LOVE, and made a clipping mask out of a font for the block letters (also from T+W, I think).

Credits: Papers: AWolff (green diamonds), Feistuff (grey textured and cream textured), Queen of Quirck (grey dots) all from Songbird Avenue Soar High (April 2010). Frame: SWMazy from DesignsinDigital.com Santa’s Digi Express. Epoxy Buttons: AWolff from Songbird Avenue Soar High (April 2010). Fonts: You Are Loved and OneFellSwoop from dafont.com.


The final entry is one I tweaked from a weekly challenge entry. The challenge was to use only one photo and one color in the layout. This is what I came up with, with the exception of the colored ferry portion. I applied a Hue/Saturation layer to the entire layout, turning the orangey sky at sunset into a dreamy blue backdrop. For this entry, I have recolored only the portion of the photo that lies within the frame, creating a quick focal point for the large photo (using another Hue/Saturation to recolor the area). I also used type as a major element in this layout, both in the overlay applied to the background and the design of the word art quote.

Credits: Frame: Valerie N (valeriedesigns.blogspot.com) from Remember When kit. Font: You Are Loved from dafont.com

Thanks for checking these out! Whatever the results of the search, I am loving this hobby and loving my new knowledge of photoshop techniques.

First Blog Post!

So I am starting a blog. After contemplating the idea and wondering if it was something I wanted, I have decided to take the plunge. After my son was born, I started a "faux" blog on my Shutterfly share page, but have decided to take it to the next level. With some encouragement from my husband and a wish to enter the Creative Team search at jessicasprague.com, I am now a blogger. Let the words flow!