Saturday, April 6, 2013

Little Miss Muffet - Guess Who?


Hi All,

It's Day 3 -- Simply B Stamps and Little Miss Muffet Stamps have teamed up for a HUGE combined "Tea Party Release".  Lots of new images and rubber stamps available, check them all out at the SBS New Items and LMMS What's New sections of the stores! 

Here's what has been happening... 

Day 1 (April 4th) - Release Blog Hop (click HERE to start)

Day 2 (April 5th) - Inspiration and Tutorials (SBS and LMMS)

Day 3 (April 6th) - Guess Who at SBS and Scavenger Hunt at LMMS



You have until April 10th to play along and LMMS Prize Winners will be announced on April 11th!

I'm back again as a guest designer and we are playing games!  Where there are games there are prizes too and on both Simply B Stamps and Little Miss Muffet Stamps blogs!!  2 blogs, 2 games, lots of chances to win!

Today, I'm participating in the "Guess Who" game at Simply B Stamps blog.  The object is to pair up the cards today with their creator. 

Here's Card #2 -- 
Fabulous isn't it?  The image used is LMMS Daisy Kate Hatter newly released as a rubber stamp on Thursday.  Love this image.  It's beautifully colored don't you think? 

The question is...Did I create this card?  Hmm - the photo isn't watermarked - how mysterious!  What do you think??  Take a hop to the other designers blogs and match up the cards on the SBS blog with the designers.

Designer List:
Debra - {You are Here}

Can you 'Guess Who' made this card...details on who is playing today and how to submit your guesses on Simply B Stamps blog.

There is also a "Scavenger Hunt" going on with clues hidden, so check out all the details and chances to win at Little Miss Muffet blog too.


It is a fun day of games on both blogs, so be sure to visit both Simply B Stamps and Little Miss Muffet to participate and for the chance to win stamps and digis!

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings,
Deb     

Friday, April 5, 2013

Little Miss Muffet - Tea Party Tutorials

Today, is day 2 of Simply B Stamps (SBS) and Little Miss Muffet Stamps (LMMS) combined "Tea Party Release".  If you missed yesterday's release you will want to check out all new images available at the SBS New Items and LMMS What's New sections of the stores! 
Some of the LMMS design team and several guest designers are sharing tutorials and inspiration posts today.  But before I get to my tutorial -- did mention there are prizes?!?!  Woohoo!  Each day you'll want to check both Simply B Stamps (SBS) and Little Miss Muffet Stamps (LMMS) blog for a list of prizes!

Today, LMMS has two rubber stamps to go to two lucky winners - simply leave a comment at the LMMS blog for your chance to win!  These lucky winners will receive this image below... la Jeune Fille à l'Eventail in a Rubber Stamp! 

As an added bonus with every LMMS purchase, you will receive this exclusive digi stamp for free ... Piccino Mermaid!

Now for my tutorial...
 
I have several "how to's" to share - a coloring technique called spotlighting, a fancy fold {twisted easel} and I also created a few videos if you are interested in learning how to manipulate digital images.   
For the image, I created a party scene using an image of each the LMM artists - Pollycraft (Sonny Hunnycloud For You), Little Miss Muffet (Agent Cupcake), Simply Sophia (Eglantine Faerie) and a new Simply Betty image "Mad Hatter Betty". 

I also used some of the party images from the new LMM Tea Party release.  I printed 2 full images out, plus some cropped images of the same scale. (Video below showing what I printed to create this card)
I colored the image in shades of grey - W1, W2, W3, W4, W5.

I had never colored the rest of the image before.  Traditional spotlighting, that I've done in the past and featured on Splitcoast as a technique is usually an uncolored image with a colored highlight.   

This idea, to color the rest of the image in greys, came from a card made by Faye {LMM's awesome DT coordinator}.  She had a card on her blog in February which I thought was very clever and striking.  You can see her card HERE.  
  I also printed out a cropped image of the Mad Hatter Betty image and punched it out with a 1.5" diameter punch.
 I colored Mad Hatter Betty in full color.
E00, E11, E13, E21, E33, E35, E37, YG03, YG13, YG23, YR02, YR04, YR07, YR12, YR15, YR18, YR31, R01, R22, R24, 0.
Next, creating the fancy fold base card.  This is a twisted easel fold.  It is very simple.  I cut an 8.5x11" sheet of Bazzill Raven cardstock 4.25" x 11", in half length ways.  I scored it at 5.5". 
 
I lined up the top corner and 
the bottom corner at the score line. 
  I scored the front of the card corner to corner.
This is the base card fold.
I added double stick tape to the bottom half of the card, 
away from the edges.
Then, I placed the finished matted image on the front of the base card.  The paterned paper is Basic Grey Piccadilly.
Inside, I matted a couple more sheets of Piccadilly patterned paper, to tie the spotlight colors in and I added a sentiment which acts as a stop for the card.  Welcome to the party Betty!

Lastly, the video tutorials...

Over the last couple years, I've been asked a lot of questions from my TAC stamp customers who wanted to try digis.  TAC actually had a digi store briefly in 2011. I've only been using digis about two years myself, but have learned a lot from design teams and online.  Until now, I really didn't have an effective way to communicate how to do something using software. 

There are lots of ways to do things, lots of programs you could use, but this is one way to manipulate digital images.  Hope you find the videos useful. 

Here are the videos...


Wondering how I made these videos?  You can too!

The Screencapture software I used is "Screencast-O-Matic".  There is a free version, but I ended up buying a $15/yr subscription to get the audio and caption features of the program.  I really like this software.

The videos were edited using Microsoft Live Movie Maker a Free program.  Very useful, I found this program when my mom asked if I could make a video of the pictures from my nieces wedding.  A very fun program to play with!  This is how I added the opening title page, credits etc... 

I created a Cream City Angels YouTube Channel (button on left sidebar) where you can find all my video creations.  Perhaps there will be more coming :D  I do have a few more ideas.  I'm open to suggestions too. 

Lots going on with this combined release...

Day 1 (April 4th) - Release Blog Hop (click HERE to start)

Day 2 (April 5th) - Inspiration and Tutorials (SBS and LMMS)

Day 3 (April 6th) - Guess Who at SBS and Scavenger Hunt at LMMS 

You have until April 10th to play along and  LMMS Winners will be announced here on April 11th.


Challenges:
Ladybug Crafts - Anything Goes 
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes 
Vickie's Challenges - Anything Goes 
A Little Bit Crafty - Anything Goes
Sparkle N Sprinkle - Use a Digi
The Crafting Cafe - Let's Celebrate
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
Songbird Challenge - Colored Hair 

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings,
Deb 

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Doodle Pantry - He Is Risen

 
Happy Easter!

Today, I have the Easter card I sent to my family and the homebound ministry.  This image is from Doodle Pantry and is called He Is Risen.

He is Risen COLOR plus
I have the uncolored images too, however was in a bit of a pinch for time this year, so I used the pre-colored image and the coordinating digital papers too.  We got a new laser printer, so I had to try out printing in color.  It is nice to be able to print the digital papers myself and the pre-colored image is beautifully done.  The patterned paper was printed on normal copy paper. 

The "Christ is Risen" sentiment is from this set also.  I combined the two images in Photoshop, then saved it out as a new .png file.  I arranged 6 images per page in Microsoft Word and printed it on heavier cardstock.

Inside, I used the "Love's redeeming work is done" and "Happy Resurrection Sunday" digis to create the verse.

Supplies --
Image: Doodle Pantry "He Is Risen"
Patterned paper: Doodle Pantry "He is Risen" digi papers
Cardstock: PTI Kraft and Chocolate, X-Press It
Natural Jute Ribbon
Sewing machine with white thread

Challenges:
Whimsy Stamps - Stitches
Sisterhood of Crafters - Easter/Spring
Simon Says - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Digistamps4Joy - Easter
Belli Challenge - Easter
4 Crafty Chicks - Easter 

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings,
Deb

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Little Miss Muffet - Easter Lamb

Today is a sad day...my last official post for the Little Miss Muffet design team.  It has been a year almost to the day!  I can't believe it.  

Ironically, this image is one of the 3 images I chose when I started the design team last year.  This is Easter Lamb of the Snugly Giftables line.
I used the same patterned papers as last week's Easter card - Doodlebug Designs "Hello Spring".  Love the bright Spring colors.  The LMM challenge theme is Happy Easter so you still have some time to join us.

Supplies --
Image: Little Miss Muffet Easter Lamb
Stamped Sentiment: Taylored Expressions  "He is Risen"
Patterned Papers: Doodlebug "Hello Easter"
Cardstock: Bazzill Pear Crush
Sewing machine with white thread
PaperTrey Ink buttons
Purple scraping floss
Copic Colors: E33, E35, E37, W0, W1, W2, W3, YG03, YG23, RV52, RV55, RV63, BV02, BV04, YR04, YR15, Y32, Y35, BG53, BG57, 0

We are mid-challenge at Little Miss Muffet and the theme is Happy Easter.  All images are welcome, however if you use a LMM or Pollycraft image anything goes.  Hope you will join us. 

Be sure to stop by the Little Miss Muffet Challenge Blog to see what the design team created this week.

Next week, there is a HUGE new release since there were only small releases this month.  I will be back Thursday and Friday, April 4 and 5th, as a LMM guest designer to show you a bunch of cool stuff - well I hope you think it is cool.

Challenges:
ABC Challenges - Easter Cards
Craft Your Passion Challenge - Cute
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Easter
Kaboodle Doodles - Easter/Spring
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
Melonheadz Friends - Easter or Early Spring
Stamp and Create - Fur or Feathers 

Thanks for stopping by...
Easter Blessings,
Deb