The PW Layer Mask tutorial

Ever since PW posted this nifty technique here I have been itching to try it. But I wasn't sure which photo I wanted to try it on. This morning as I was avoiding being on the computer (so I would actually get some stuff done), I noticed this picture pop up on my screen saver:


I know I have seen it before, but that was before I learned about the layer mask technique...so this time I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it! I pulled it into photoshop and carefully followed Ree's instructions. Here is the result:


I have to say I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I may crop some of the background away in the future to focus more on my girls. And I have a feeling that with a little yard work, this spot may become one of my favorite places to shoot pictures!

Family Picture

Every year we take a bunch of pictures, trying to get the "perfect shot" for our annual Christmas picture. I liked a lot of the pictures last December, not for our card, but for a fun scrapbook page! I love seeing all the different pictures and the flow of the photo shoot. Since so many of our pictures were similar this year, I chose the final choice and then 3 others (including why they were not chosen) to highlight on the page.


Supplies:
Papers: brown background from the Chocoberry Creme kit, DigitalFreebies.com; light blue from the Strong Shoes add-on, DigitalFreebies.com
brown star: Rainy day Sunday add-on, DigitalFreebies.com
Fonts: CK Becky and CK Higgins Handprint
arrows are all custom shapes in Photoshop

Finally getting things back together...

I am revamping this blog...its original purpose was to sell my handmade cards, but since there has been zero interest in that I have changed my mind. And some of you may be thinking...she already has a scrapbooking blog. Why does she need another? My highly intelligent and thought out answer? Because. Actually partly because, without really thinking, I called my other scrap blog cardbug scraps. But when you read it without the space, it could be cardbugs craps. And once I discovered that, I wondered how many other people had noticed.

Eventually this will be a nifty website with tutorials for cardmaking and scrapbooking, but for now it will be a catch all for my crafty little self. So here is what I created for my dad's birthday today:


Supplies: Background paper and photo mat from the Tropical Dreams mini kit (Digital Design Essentials); cupcake from Party Pants kit (Peppermint Creative); Fonts are Bell MT and CK Becky.
I actually ran a couple actions on the photo. Both were from the Pioneer Woman Action Sets. The first was the "Fresh and Colorful" action from set 1. I played with opacity a little bit before running the second action, "Colorized" from set 2. I played with opacity of that one, too. It was making the photo wash out a little much and since my girls are both kinda pale-faced right now (like their mom) it made them look a little...um...more pale-faced. If that is even possible to do. Anyway, it is a subtle change from the original. I could really get to like these actions...I'll have to play with them more. More posts coming soon!

Card Gallery

Individual descriptions of every card will be posted soon. Thanks for looking!