CROP TONIGHT!!

Feeling Scrappy? get all the information HERE -
scroll down if those chatty cathys have posted chatter and you'll see the post with the preview! Click on it to get the kit, attend the crop for the PW - you know the drill!!
See you all LATER!!

Hey guys, join us at SOTB tomorrow for our Spectrum of Love crops! Even if you don't have anyone in your circle affected by autism, you will appreciate the wonderful colors and items in these kits! We are giving away WAY cool prizes (not just your average "kit of choice" - though there will be those too!) so you'll want to try to make them all!! I'm going to be sleeping off spending the night at the mall with 2500 Girl Scouts during the 10AM, but I'll see you at the 2 and 9 PM!

A GREAT DEAL for you!!!

My new addon is out and do I have a deal for you!
Purchase Almost Spring or the addon Almost Spring Too! and email me the order number to bigscrapkitty@scrapkittydesign.com and I'll send you THIS:

HAPPY EASTER!!!
If you attended the crop last night, you already have this kit, but DON'T let that stop you from checking out my 20% off SALE!! CLICK HERE to go to my store

Come and CROP!!

Every Friday, join me cropping at SOTB - there's always a little surprise for you, and lots of friends and fun...

It's ALMOST SPRING!

Thought you'd all like to see the new kit, I just realized I posted the coupon and NO PREVIEW!! BAD ME!! The kit will be 25% off through Thursday, but the coupon below is only good for another hour!! CLICK HERE or on the preview to visit the store!

Look what Lisa made!!

My friend Lisa (who I did the cute Flower Fiesta kit with) is working on a new kit, and she sent me this tag - AND SAID I CAN SHARE WITH YOU!! WHOOhoo!!
NOW you can get the whole kit on her Blog - HERE
THANKS Lisa!

Now, I will sweeten the deal!

This is a special coupon just for my good blog subscribers and crop girlies! You can use this thru Sunday on ANY kit in my store (except Commercial Use kits). Grab my new kit - Almost Spring - that I used to make the coupon!! CLICK HERE to go to my store!

WHAT A DEAL!!

GREAT DEAL at SOTB this week only!

LAST WEEK for this kit!

I've been out selling GS cookies all weekend, PLEASE - if you see a girl scout, buy a box or even better DONATE A DOLLAR - that has the same effect as buying TWO boxes, as far as the troop is concerned, and costs you less!

Here's part 4 of Flower Fiesta - CLICK HERE or on the graphic, and ENJOY!!

Oh My GOTH!!

FINALLY, the Goth kit is in the store!! This kit is going to be perfect for my GROWN UP (before kids) Halloween pics, as well as my Goth and Biker friends! It was so much fun to make, and there is MORE coming - my friend dede just keeps thinking of things she NEEDS me to make!!!

To kick things off, here is a coupon for 30% off this kit - for a short time only!
Gothskitty30
click here to see the whole kit

Flower Fiesta - Week Three

I think this is my FAVORITE installment -
so sorry I forgot to do this yesterday - lots of fun things going on - stay tuned right here for even more great stuff!!
CLICK HERE or on the preview to DL this week's installment:

Making a Ribbon Frame

Have you ever found yourself while scrapping wanting a frame that you JUST CAN’T find to match the kit you are working with? But the kit has RIBBONS? Well, here is a way for you to make a mitered frame using ribbon, and it is really painless!

I've redone this tutorial, and you can get the .pdf version at the SOTB tutorials page HERE.

HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY

A little giftie from Lisa and me - here's a coordinating alpha for our Flower Fiesta kit! Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day!
CLICK HERE or on the graphic to DL the alpha:

see you Friday for week 3 of this great kit!!!

SO glad you like it!

The response to the first part of our Flower Fiesta has been wonderful! Lisa and I are SO happy you all are enjoying our kit as much as we enjoyed making it for you...
so CLICK HERE or on the preview to get the second part of this great kit! Remember to leave us a link to any layouts you do with this kit - we'd LOVE to see your work!

JUST FOR YOU!!!

My friend Lisa and I were talking one night, and I was admiring her work... and we decided we wanted to work together! So we made this little kit for you, and will give you an installment a week for a month - wait till you see, they get better every week, and if you are subscribed to this blog you won't miss the SURPRISE freebie we're going to throw in for fun!
Here's the preview for week 1 - WE'RE SORRY, this link has EXPIRED - please see next post for another part of the kit!
Please come back and leave a link in the comments for any LOs you might use our stuff in - that's the best way to say "thank you" -
oh and don't miss the GREAT coupon for 50% off the kit of your choice from ScrapKitty Design at SOTB - it's in the download!

Just a note...

Just a little goodie for you all -
If you come to my Feeling Scrappy Crop this Friday at 9PM at SOTB - (click here to attend)
you will get a great treat from my new kit! Watch this space for a preview soon....

HAPPY NEW YEAR - so I'm a little late...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I'd intended to have this up earlier, but life gets away from me sometimes...Here is my new kit in the store - Gotta Get Organized- and just for you I have a 25% off COUPON! use this code at checkout SKITTYorganize25 for your discount on this versatile kit!

CLICK HERE to visit my store

ALSOOOOOOOOO - Here's a little giftie for you:you can DL this quickpage for a short while by CLICKING HERE

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful year, full of purposeful work and great friends!

Get 'em while they're HOT

My WHOLE STORE is on sale until Friday at 46% for my birthday - but Paisley Promises is 50% off for Fab 50 all week! Get them both for the price of one!

it's FAB-u-lous, DAHling!!!

My new kit FAB Fa-La-La is in the store now! CLICK HERE or on the photo to go there:

and for my VERY SPECIAL BLOG BUDDIES: Here's a coupon for 25% off -HAVE A FAAAAABULOUS Christmas!!!

TUTORIALS - Templates, layered and unlayered

TEMPLATES:

WHICH KIND DO YOU NEED? –

There are two basic kinds of templates layered and not layered.

Layered templates usually come in .psd files. The .psd format preserves layers, whereas the .jpeg and .png format files do not. These work well in PS, PSE, and PSP. I’m not sure if other programs support them, you will want to try and see…CLICK HERE for a free template to practice on.

UNLAYERED TEMPLATES
OK, first, let’s look at unlayered templates. These are simply graphics that are done in bold and contrasty colors – usually shades of black. What you need to know is how to select a single portion of that graphic.

Let’s use our tree for an example (see above to get the free template) – the star is black. In PS and PSE, you use your magic wand tool and click on the star, and it will get selection marks (or marching ants!) around it. Do you PSP users know how to do that? How do you do it?

Then you can use that selection to either fill in with color, or cut out of paper.

FILLING WITH COLOR
To fill in: you can use a brush and paint – if you leave the marching ants, the color will only show up inside the selection. Keeps you in the lines easily!!

Or you can go to Edit>Fill and fill with the foreground, background, or use the color picker…

OR – you can fill with a pattern! Go to Edit>Fill>pull down the menu and choose Pattern. You will get a choice of patterns to fill with.

To do a lot of these, click on your fill bucket tool, and change the settings at the top to pattern or foreground, depending on what you’d like.

***FUN TIP***
Make a pattern out of your paper!!! Open a paper and go to EDIT>Define Pattern. You can name this pattern anything you’d like! Now when you go to select a pattern, you will see your paper there!

This is a great way to do many template pages with the same kit – make patterns out of all your papers and fill fill fill!!!

CUTTING OUT OF PAPER
But the fun thing to do is to cut it out of a paper.

First, use your Magic Wand to select the shape you’d like to cut out of paper.

Then, open a paper that you like – then drag that paper over the template. It will make a new layer for itself.

***SHORTCUT***
If I have a small area to cover, I usually don’t bother to drag the whole thing, I will use my marquee tool (the dotted line circle or square) and cut out a little piece (CNTRL+C) and paste it onto the template (CNTRL+V). When you paste, it will make itself a new layer. Then move that layer so it covers the part you selected.

Next, at the top click SELECT>INVERSE. This changes the selection to everything that was NOT selected before.

Now, hit CNTRL+X to delete that. You are left with a piece of paper just the same shape as the template shape!!! Repeat this for every shape on your template.

Remember to save this under a different name, so you don’t lose your template!

LAYERED TEMPLATES
Layered templates are just as much fun, or more! There are a few advantages to layered templates, such as the ability to move them around, or delete an element you don’t wish to use.

FILLING WITH COLOR
This works pretty much as above, except you need to have the layer you wish to use selected. Once your layer is selected, use your Magic Wand to select the element, and EDIT>FILL to fill with a color.

See the instructions above for filling with patterns, and making patterns out of papers!

CUTTING OUT OF PAPER
First, open your template and any papers you think you would like to use in the layout.

Select a layer that you would like to put the paper on. Use your Magic Wand to select the object you want to cover with paper.

Drag the paper you desire onto the layout. It will be placed on its own layer just above the layer you selected.

With the paper layer selected, go to the top of the screen, and click SELECT>INVERSE to select everything except your shape. Then click CNTRL+X to delete. You now have your paper cut in the shape of your element!

***SHORTCUT***
Use a clipping mask to make this fast and easy – and more flexible!
There is NO NEED TO SELECT THE ELEMENT IN THE LAYER.

Drag your paper onto the template – check your layers palette to be sure it’s directly over the template layer you wish to use. Keep the paper layer selected.

Hit CNTRL+G (CS2 users, ALT+CNTRL+G or roll your cursor over the line between the layers until you get two little circles, and click) AND THE PAPER IS CUT IN THE SHAPE BELOW IT!!

Now you can use your move tool to drag the paper around inside the object until you get the pattern set the way you like it! This is GREAT for putting photos inside shapes – use a photo instead of paper – all the same steps apply.

Once you have it the way you like it, you need to merge the two layers CNTRL+E or Layers>Merge Downward

To minimize the number of layers in your document, you can either drag the template layer you are done using to the trashcan at the bottom of the layers palette, or you can hit CNTRL+E to merge the paper layer with the template layer below. (Using the menus, go to LAYERS>Merge downward

Repeat this for every element in the template you want to use. You can then delete any unused layers, and move or resize the elements on any layer. These are the most versatile templates, because you have the ease of a pre-made design, with the personality of your own touches!!

Tutorial ©Jennifer White/ScrapKitty Design 2006 All Rights Reserved