Some new Digi layouts...

...so I have had an incredibly busy fall/Christmas season and I have to apologize to all for going COMPLETELY incommunicado! However, I am now coming out the other side and I have had the opportunity to create some new pieces that were about catharsis, healing and having some fun.

This first one is a tribute to my cat who passed away last week at 17.

The background paper is from my Peony series with the colour taken out with a Hue/Saturation adjustment and tinted to a brown in the same setting. Also used: Adobe Photoshop, Rhona Farrer brushes, created brushes, Bleeding Cowboys font, Susie's Hand font.

This next one, Corteo, is a quick (45 minute) creation. I simply scanned in the ticket from Cirque, duplicated and flipped it and cleaned up some extraneous text. I put the picture in of the 3 of us, surrounded it with Grunge Borders by METH, stamped Smoke_Brushes_by_photoshop_stock behind (using Vivid Light for blending) and created some additional text. Font: Beyond Wonderland. All of these layouts use extensive layers to create the final pieces.

This last layout of Emory was for his 6 month shots. Fonts: the King and Queen, 2Peas Favourite Things, Paper - Emily Merritt Grunge Polkas; Little Dreamer Designs and created brushes.

I love tying in the colours that he's wearing throughout this piece. It's very vibrant. I am using a lot of blending styles with layer masks. The layer masks enable be to go back and change any part of the layout, including the edges and stamping at any time. It's much more non-destructive and flexible. I'm totally enthralled!

I hope you enjoyed these layouts! If you have any questions about the techniques drop me a line on the forums. And check out the upcoming newsletters for some tips and tricks.

Merry Christmas all!

Jen

Christmas Open House

Be sure to stop by the store this Friday, December 5th from 6pm - 9pm for our annual Christmas Open house. We will be demoing the Making Memories Slice machine, Provo Craft Cuttlebug and a few other demos on techniques. There will be a discounted preorder price for these items available as well.

Prima transparencies

Trace Geworsky

(I photographed this layout over a white shirt, because otherwise it was too dark)

Last night, the Rhubarb Roots ladies taught a class on making a mini album using these transparencies(the album was designed by Shauna) so I thought I would show you my latest layout using the same transparency.
I used paint to colour in some of the floral designs, and to work with the colours I already had from the Prima patterned paper and pom pom ribbon.

This kit just keeps on giving

Here's another layout that I've created with the Rhubarb Roots fall blog. This paper was just perfect for these fall photos:

Ki memories sheers

Trace Geworsky


Have you gotten your hands on Ki Memories new sheer line??
Rhubarb Roots recently got some in, and You will want to grab them before they sell out.
You can use them with layouts, cards, altered items, on calendars, cut apart for titles, etc.

Kit Creations

Here are a few of my layouts with the fall kit. I just love the muted fall colours and found this kit very easy to work with! Like Trace I am digging the Rose Moka!

October kits

Trace Geworsky
**As soon as I saw the Rose Moka in the kit I knew I would LOVE working with this kit.
The colours are gorgeous, there was so much patterned paper included in the kit(2 of each pattern which is perfect!!) plenty of embellishments.
This would be a really great kit to use if you wanted to make a mini album for someone for Christmas, or even just to start a scrapbook for a friend or family member.

Congratulations and kudos!

I was so impressed to see the layouts that the design team created using my papers this month. You have totally inspired and awed me. Thanks for showing me a new way to see my own designs!
Jen

Digital Designs

This months newsletter provided sample digital designs and a basic tutorial by Shauna Hamm to get you started in digital scrapbooking. I still love to move stuff around with my hands, paint, and ink myself but this is something you can do through a hybrid layout. Hybrid combines digital with the traditional scrapbooking. You may chose to print out your paper (with or without your picture placed) add your journaling by hand or prior to printing and then adding dimension with physical product. Here is a creation from Design team member Jennifer Chipperfield.

The paper is Peony 1, Color Rubz Toby Font, Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Weathered Wood, bottle cap, Ranger Sepia accents, Rhonna Farrer – Snap Shot Frames Brush Kit

The feet were scanned in from actual foot prints and then printed on the paper at life size. The paper was taken down to 40% opacity as a layer and the colour shifted towards the brown tones. The image itself was de-saturated, toned and then selectively re-coloured. The edging is a selection of created brushes and some Rhonna Farrer digi brushes. Look for the second page to this coming soon – we decided to make it a two page set!

My first post!

I am so excited to have joined the design team, but unfortunately it has come at the start of an insanely busy couple of weeks aat Chipperfield Photography. So I apologize for joining and leaving you all in the lurch without any posts. I've been working on some techniques and after a small creative hiatus, I'm brushing up on my skills and working some creative muscle again. This layout was just about playing and trying some things that I've wanted to.

Supplies used: Marah Johnson Paper, Martha stewart glitter, UTEE, Tim Holtz Grungeboard,buttons, Making Memories wire, Cats Eye white ink, pink thread

October class:Halloween paper bag album

Trace Geworsky

**Join us at Rhubarb Roots, on Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 6:30 pm to create this fun Halloween mini album made from paper bags.
You will be provided with enough supplies to complete this album.
additional supplies to bring are pop dots, adhesive, ink pads,trimmer, scissors and journaling pens.
Hope to see you there!!!

Using grids to design

A lot of my layouts are clearly influenced by 6 years as a Yearbook advisor, when I learned an awful lot about principles of graphic design as they apply to designing pages. In this layout, you'll see that I used columns to create a grid of photos. While there isn't a dominant photo on this page to create a focal point, the grouping of the photos acts as a focal point in this design. The straight lines and columnar design prevent a multi-photo layout from being cluttered and unfocused.

This week, I challenge you to experiment with a grid design in your layouts.

Supplies: Love Elsie paper, Bazzill cardstock, Scenic Route lined paper, Basic Grey & American Crafts rub-ons, circle punch, KI red ink, Zig pen.

September sketch

Here's another layout that I was able to put together really quickly using the sketch from September's newsletter.

Supplies:

Prima paper, ribbon, flower, and letter sticker. My Mind's eye tag, Daisy D's tag, Zig Pen, Scenic Route letter stickers, Autumn Leaves buttons.

Colour challenge

september 8/08
Trace Geworsky

This month I challenge you to pick a colour of cardstock(any colour) pair it with a black and white picture, black letters, other black elements, and then throw in some minimal embellishments in different colours to brighten up the layout.
Link me up to your layouts!!!!!

September Sketch Challenge

Here's a layout that I created using the September Sketch (see the September Newsletter) as inspiration. Supplies include: Daisy D's paper & die cut tag (using up some old supplies), American Crafts rub-ons, Prima corner stamp, KI red ink, Prima flower, Autumn Leaves buttons, Zig pen, and Luxe sticker.

Repeat

This week, I challenge you to repeat a shape on your layout. On this layout, I used a transparent die cut by Fancy Pants in a parenthesis shape, and I repeated the shape with the Making Memories journaling paper that I selected.

Other supplies: Prima paper, ribbon, flowers, & brad; Basic Grey rub-on, and Zig pen.

Black & white

It seems like I've been really going back to basics a lot lately. On this layout, I wanted to keep the colour scheme really basic, so I stuck with black, white, and one other colour for a bit of interest. I challenge you, this week, to create a layout using black & white as your main colour scheme, with only one other colour as an accent.

Supplies for this page:
Making Memories patterned paper, Crate paper, Prima & Making Memories flower, Maya Road journaling sheer, Zig pen, Scenic Route rub-ons, Hambly transparency. Thanks to Kerri for the photo!

An old standby

I go through phases when I get really into challenging myself to do new things in my layouts, and that's great. It pushes me to develop my creativity. Sometimes, though, there's nothing wrong with sticking with what you know works for you and your style. There are a few layout designs that are favourites for me... they are just my style, I'm always happy with the end result, and they appeal to me. I love that!

What are your standby designs? Embrace them! Use them to create a few layouts this week... you'll feel productive, you'll love the results, and you'll get more confident with your scrapbooking style with every layout!

Product review

August 20/08
Trace Geworsky


After eyeing Prima's fancy felt matties for awhile, I finally gave in, and I am glad I did.
The pack comes in 3 colours, black, grey and pink so you have a variety to work with.
For my layout, I didnt want to use a whole piece to use as a matt for my picture, so I trimmed the felt so it framed part of the picture, and I still have half of the matt left for another use.
You could also trim the design to use on a project, cut into a strip, use as a card front, and so much more.

Summer Blowout!!!

You do NOT want to miss this sale!!!!

The entire store will be 30% off (excluding the what's new section) and this sale is not to be combined with other offers).

The sale will be running from Aug.19-28, 2008.

Make sure you stop in and take advantage of this summer clearout and pick up some supplies at these red hot prices!!!!!!!!!!

Sketch for August

Trace Geworsky

Using a lot of supplies from August's kit, I created this layout and sketch.
You could substitute a 5x7 picture if you prefer scrapping that size.
The "frame" around the picture could be buttons, letters, extra journaling, ribbon or other embellishments or doodling.
I can't wait to see what you create using this sketch.

Something old, something new

This layout features the tag that I created using chalk & stamps for the August newsletter. This was one of those occassions where I started a layout with an embellishment. I loved the way my tag turned out, so I built the page around it... mixing new and old elements.

I selected this sheet of Dream Street paper because I thought the touches of dark blue, and the greenish design worked well with the colors on my tag. To unify the color theme, I added a few red Prima flowers and used a blue SEI rhinestone brad in the center of one. The photo that I used is also about a year old ;-)

Of course, I couldn't create a layout without digging into some of the great new products that have been coming out... so I added a Fancy Pants transparent title & hearts. I tried a new technique with these. I wanted to give them some color, and I had the perfect red and green Tim Holtz alcohol inks to go with the paper, but I wanted a different effect than I usually get using the applicator. So, I decided to try dropping the ink directly onto the plastic. For the words, I tilted them around until I got a fairly solid coverage of ink. For the hearts, I dropped dots of red and green onto the hearts (it's harder than it sounds to get nice dots). I also added a new Tim Holtz journalling tag to the layout.

Thanks for looking! I challenge you to combine new and old on one of your layouts this week!

layout with the kit

Trace Geworsky

Here is a layout I created using supplies from this fabulous kit.
I doodled around my photo matt to make it look like stitching, and i rolled and tore the ends of the matt.
I stamped words onto the flower and one of the buttons.

The Winner....

We used a random number generator to come up with the winner for posting a comment on our blog this weekend. Comment #4 was chosen... Congratulations Stephanie. Please email us your info at admin@rhubarbroots.com so we can sent out your goodies :)

stephanie said...

I love scrapping because it is my creative outlet. Plus I want my son to visually remember his growing up years. I have few pictures of us growing up and I miss that. That will not happen for my son, no matter how much he hates the camera.

Congratulations Stephanie. Please email us your info at admin@rhubarbroots.com so we can sent out your goodies :)

Some Sparkle

Thanks for the tips Shauna...here is one i did. The mod podge worked amazingly well! I first stamped my image and then used a paint brush to paint the mod podge on!

Add some sparkle to your layouts

I have to admit that when Stickles first came out, I wasn't jumping up and down with joy. I though to myself, "hmmm, glitter glue...whoopee!" :-) After I saw a few people actually using it, I was an instant convert! I love how easily they apply, love the colours, and I love the subtle bit of sparkle that it adds to my layouts. It's glitzy, without being overboard!

I used Pink Stickles in this layout. I traced around the border of the die cut, accented the swirls on the heart, and accented the negative space on the crown chipboard. (Supplies: Teresa Collins paper & die cut, Making Memories Paper, Maya Road chipboard, Tim Holtz stickles & crackle paint, Prima flower & crown "tape," Zip pen, Bazzill cardstock, Making Memories glitter letter stickers).

Check out the Rhubarb Roots forum for a challenge based on this post!

And, don't forget to post your comments on the blog this weekend!