Nesting Bird {Dies R Us} {Sparkle N Sprinkle} {Digital Tutorial}

Greetings, Crafty Friends!

Welcome to my first post as a new Dies R Us Inspiration Design Team Member!

Have you ever... ?

Have you ever planned a design in your head, and then made one boo-boo after another so that your project ends up completely different?

 THAT'S what happened with this card.

LOTS of boo-boos (giggle)

Dies R Us  is an on-line store carrying a huge assortment of amazing dies by several manufacturers.

I hope you enjoy today's oh-so-ugly project (giggle)...

click below for:
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INSPIRATION BLOG

My card uses the following Dies R Us Products:

• Sue Wilson Pierced Rectangles
• Spellbinders Classic Ovals Large, Floral Ovals, Fleur de Elegance, 
• Spellbinders Elegant Labels 4, Labels 4, Card Creator Grate Effect 
• Memory Box Meridian Border
• Poppy Stamps Grassland Border
• Impression Obsession Grass

TIP:

Change the appearance of die cut "frames" by adding borders to them:

TIP:

It is not necessary to use the dies within a die set to create pretty frames. Change it up by using other dies (like circles, ovals or shapes) rather than what the manufacturer has put together.
This gives you the ability to create frames to suit your project needs:

TIP:

Mark frequently used dies to help expedite your crafting:

The Poppy Stamps Grassland Border does not have a cut edge on the bottom, making it ideal for wide borders of grassy layers, or turned upside down for icicles. It's a long die, but can be cut apart to use in patches (shown in the base of the card). It can also be fussy cut in a shape, shown in the sample below:

TIP:

How to customize the sizes of your panels while keeping the details of the dies (like the piercings on the Sue Wilson set):

Boo Boo Time!

While the stencil for the Fleur de Elegance die is beautifully detailed, I was displeased with the way the ink looked around the decorative portion of the die cut. It was too dark. To fix that, I resorted to glitter. Probably opaque white embossing powder would have been easier:

AFTER:

I used a very large transparent chunky glitter and SNS Waterfall Ultrafine Glitter to "distress" the problem area and hide the ink:

I slightly altered the SNS digital image to place greenery around the sentiment, and add greenery around the bird as well. View my TUTORIAL for altering and masking digital images, including using Apple products.

Other Products:

• Copic Markers: Y15, Y32, E00, E19, E43, E50, E35, E11, B0000, B00, B02, G0000, G00, YG03, YG11
• Images: Sparkle N Sprinkle Nesting Birds (digital set), Nesting Birds (rubber stamp set)
• Chunky Glitter, SNS ultrafine Waterfall glitter
• Embossalicious Regency Swirls by Die'Sire embossing folder
• Ribbons, Brad, Dye-base inks

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Animal Friends Challenge #37 "Birds" 5/1
2. Card Mania Challenge #79 "Spring" 5/1
3. Craft Your Passion #306 Anything Goes 4/10
4. Crafting for all Seasons - #123 Use Die Cuts/Punches 4/13
5. Crafty Boots Challenges (Mar 28) "Spring is in the Air" 4/10
6. Creative Card Crew #110 Die Cut (list of dies shown above) 4/18
7. Critters and Creatures Linky Party - Ellibelle's Creative Moments (April) "Critters and Creatures 5/2
8. Dies R Us Challenges #46 "Use Scallops" (scallop border at the top and bottom of the top card portion) 4/14
9. Doodle Pantry Challenge #16 Anything Goes 5/1
10. Love to Scrap #75 "The Big Bow Theory" 4/17
11. Ooh La La Creations Challenge #201 "Feathered Friends 4/10
12. Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge "Anything Goes With Wings" 4/13
13. Sisters of Craft (April) Anything Goes 5/1
14. Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenges (April) "Anything Goes" 5/1
15. Where the Heart Is Challenge #8 "Sparkle and Bling" (Used lots of chunky and ultrafine glitter on the frame) 5/2
16. Word Art Wednesday #224-225 Anything Goes with an Uplifting Sentiment 4/13
17. The Ribbon Girls Anything Goes as Long as it is a Card 4/17

Thanks for stopping by today, my sweet friends.
hugs,

Possibilities {Path of Positivity Challenge #17}

Note: for Edith updates, please click here.

Greetings to my SWEET followers, and to Sue (Graceful Greyhounds) and Lynn (my newest google followers!) Thank you for dropping by. 

This month I am "guest designing" for the Path of Positivity Challenge which lasts from August 4 until August 31, when voting will take place. 

The POSSIBILITIES theme is Perfect Timing for me! These past 2 months I have made several lifestyle changes and some difficult decisions to allow new possibilities into my life.

The sponsors and prizes for this challenge are:

• Two images (or three if you use a TSB image on your creation) from The Stamping Boutique, our guest sponsors this month, for the post or project that the DT deems most inspiring of the bunch.
• Three digital images from Ike's Art for a person chosen in a random draw based on all entrants.
• One digital image from Creative Bug Digital Stamps for each person chosen as a DT Delight.

There will also  be:

• One digital designer paper (made to order in a few different ways) from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles for one lucky voter who leaves a comment.
• One digital sentiment for every single person who enters the challenge.

Today I have two card shares using the same image:

This month's PoP sponsor is The Stamping Boutique. They designed this wonderful "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line) to remind us that --

we all need to escape the towers of our existence from time to time, 

* and *

to renew our appreciation of what is right in our own backyards. 

The past two months I've been doing just that, 

and falling in love all over again with the beauty of my "little existence".

Possibilities

What are they? They all mean something different to each of us, and depending on our outlook, we might view them as cumbersome. I try to view Possibilities (and/or challenges) as something which might make me a better individual.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming - so many opportunities and possibilities - which one is the right one?

At the end of a recent Twilight Zone program a man responded to his accusing and angry son, "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

Possibilities - when it comes to relationships, we sometimes take things too personally and become defensive or harbor unhealthy feelings. But the truth is - the Real Possibility is - that the person we are most concerned about is dealing with some harsh issues in their own way. Of course, the same is true for ourselves. We can only do our best, and not allow old and negative feelings, or reinforced past behavior patterns, to dictate what we should or should not do.

The "Possibility" exists that other people are having a bad day, or perhaps they don't know how to properly communicate, or maybe they only know how to lash out, rather than think before they speak. Perhaps my "hurt feelings" are nothing more than the result of another person's not being able to interact and behave in a healthy manner. THESE POSSIBILITIES open new doors, and allow us to make choices on how to go forward.

Like the man from the Twilight Zone quote above... the son felt that his father did not love him, did not approve of him, did not care about him, because the father never spoke his feelings aloud. However, the father was always there for his son, helping to pick up pieces, helping his son make good choices... but the son took the lack of verbally-skilled communications to mean that his father did not care, and did not love him. Hence the father's response:  "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

So my wish for all of us is:

• to embrace the Possibilities in our lives, 
• try always to do our best in Recognizing the Possibilities, 
• to realize that others may or may not encourage us in our adventure. 
• to journey in Life, seeing all the Possibilities we can, 
• to recognize that we are not "locked in a tower" (as my cards show). Those Towers are largely of our own making.

Do you have any Towers you can Escape in order to better see The Wondrous Possibilities in your Life?

Here my easel card is closed (The fairy loves the light coming from the window of the tower as well as the moon!)

Now the card is open, to view just the sentiment. 

To see my tutorial for how to use parts of an artist's image (digital masking) to create a cohesively themed card, please click here.

The dolphins are a retired Spellbinders die, (popped up) and covered with SNS embossing powder.
The clouds and moon were printed a second time, cut out, and popped up to create the "stop" for the easel. The frolicking dolphins are "flipped" in the bottom panel to create visual interest (notice the moon also faces a different direction). To see how to use the artist's images to create a theme, please visit my tutorial here.

(see? possibilities even reveal themselves in our card art) (giggle) 

A Close Up:

 Fully Opened:

Same image, but colored with more green tones in the ocean and layered on an apricot colored background:

The sand-textured tower is created with Mudd Puddles (it's the first time I used this product and it really is VERY user friendly). The "netting ribbon" was applied by hand stitching through the yellow layer. Shells are adhered with 3D Crystal Lacquer. (I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this dried in our oh-so-humid environment!)

Size A8 card with identical sentiment:

Products:

• The Stamping Boutique "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line)
• Computer-generated sentiment
• Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug 5x7)
• Spellbinders: Grand Decorative Labels One LF-018, Scalloped Labels One S4-375, Grand Labels One LF-161, Labels One S4-161, Labels Twenty-Five S5-077, Dolphin (retired)
• Copic Markers
• Brilliance Inks
• Adirondack Inks
• SNS Silver Lighting EP, SNS Mediterranean Star EP
• Ribbon(fiber?), Shells,
• Adhesives: Mudd Puddles, 3D Crystal Lacquer, Aileen's Quick Dry, Dimensionals, Stitching

Delightful Challenges I am playing in:

1. Scribbles Designs Challenges - #19  Sea-Sand-Surf (both cards are sea related) 8/20
2. Sister Act Card Challenges - #68 Anything Goes 8/6
3. Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - #119   Words (use words as part of your card front) 8/7+
4. Fairy Tale Challenges - #97 Summer-Beach-Sea 8/7? 14?
5. Creative Corner - #Aug 1 - Something Summer (Beachy theme) 8/7
6. Craft for the Craic - #7 A Craft Item I Have Never Used Before (Mudd Puddles, the fibrous ribbon which is stitched in place, and 3D Crystal Lacquer) 9/1
7. A Gem Of A Challenge - #125 Embossing (Yellow card has Mediterranean Star EP, and has yellow dry embossing with two different folders - one on the large panel, and another on the smaller layer behind the image)(Easel card has wet embossed dolphins with Silver Lightning EP). 8/14
8. Crafting at the Weekend - #4 Anything Goes 8/30
9. Inkspirational Challenges - #62 Use Markers or Pencils (Copic Markers used in all images on  both cards, and around both sentiments) 8/14
10. Artistic Inspirations Challenges - #103 Anything Goes 8/10

Thanks for stopping by today!
hugs,

Digital Masking Tutorial including Apple Users

Hi! A friend recently asked how I accomplish the digitally masking seen below and on several of the My Besties creations.

There are many digital tutorials out there, but not many for digital MASKING.

The ICONS and MENU ITEMS should be similar whether they are in WINDOWS, MAC or LINUX. Few tutorials are specifically for Apple Products.

However, even if you do not have an Apple product, I hope this MASKING TUTORIAL will be of benefit to you.

Digital Masking with Apple’s iMac

(using free apps from Apple)

1. Create a folder for your digital image and file it where you would file the digital image on your hard drive. 

2. Place the original image and the watermark image in your folder.

3. Duplicate your original image and save in your folder. If you will use more than one part of the digital image, create several duplicates of the original.

4. Create a word processing document that contains information about your digital image, like the URL for where it can be purchased, the full name of the digital image, and any other information you might need about it in the future and in writing your blog post. File it in your folder.

5. Open one of the duplicate images. Click on the EDIT option.  See steps 5a-5g. (Saving as .PNG allows for a transparent background).

5a: Click to open the image, then click on the little "edit" icon (here it shows a crayon on a pad of paper)

5b:

5c:

5d: Use your mouse.

5e:

5f: Save and Change the name of your newly cropped image.

6. Open Word Processor. In WINDOWS use any program. In Mac, use Word, OpenOffice, Pages, etc. Here I’ve used the Apple app "Pages" from iWork. Drag your digital image into the document and size as you normally would. 

6a:

6b: Then drag your .PNG creation and drop it on top of the image. Let go of it.

6c:

6d: Resize and Relocate.

6e: Copy and Paste.

6f: Drag, copy and paste for sentiment or other accessory pieces.

6g:

More samples of digital masking to enhance the image and coordinate the sentiment:

1. Streamers on My Besties Swinging St. Patrick's Day Party
2. Hearts on My Besties (ground and sentiment)
3. Additional Flora and Fauna on Aquamarine Tides image.
4. Final appearance of SNS Nesting Bird card.
5. My Besties Swinging on Beccy Muir's Pretty Blossom Branch. (branch repositioned and flowers cropped out and pasted all over image)

Note1: Creating .PNG files with OSX: Apple uses PREVIEW to open items in jpg. Open your jpg using PREVIEW then click on FILE. It has a SAVE option. Click on OPTION (next to the COMMAND KEY) and FILE at the same time and a different pull down menu appears with a SAVE AS option showing up. click on the pull down menu and choose PNG.

Note2: Creating transparent PNG files with OSX: (basically shown in the steps above) Another way is to duplicate your jpg. Then open the DUPLICATED FILE. PREVIEW opens it. across the top of the document are icons. Go all the way to the right (next to the search field). There is a crayon. Click on it and a menu appears in a new gray bar under it. All the way to the left is a square with dots around it. click there and choose the lasso. Carefully crop the section you want. When it is done, it will actually suggest saving it as a PNG and you will type OK.

Sparkle N Sprinkle Nesting Bird Image is available:

in rubber here.
digitally here.

Digital Stamping Hugs,