New Year's Party

New Year's Day is a great day to start a party. The drinking parties are mostly over and it's a holiday from work. It's time for the best kind of party to begin -- the kind you can enjoy while staying cozy in your own home with your hot cocoa and any pets you may have on your lap... Anyway, let's get to why you stopped here in the first place. What kind of New Year's Party doesn't let you pick up some party favors? Here is what I have for you this time:

Download here

This beautiful kit, Old Homestyle by Stellarific Creations, is perfect for keeping cozy on cold January days here up in the north, or relaxing with the windows open if it's summer where you are. Check out these layouts using this beautiful kit.

I am keeping cozy here in Illinois with Old Homestyle, but these photos were actually taken last summer. It was with this kit I first experimented with a blending technique I learned in Paint Shop Pro magazine. I made several layers using the same picture, each time adding a mask to the layer. I used different blending modes and added noise to the layers, and used different brushes to reveal the photo from under the mask.

Check out more beautiful kits from Cottage Scrapbooks at my fellow partiers' blogs:

Stellarific Creations: http://stellarificcreations.blogspot.com/
Scrapbooking In Australia: http://scrapbookinginaustralia.blogspot.com/
Cottage Scrapbooks blog: http://cottagescrapbooks.blogspot.com/
The Cottage Creatives: http://creatives4cottagescrapbooks.blogspot.com/
Stella's other blog: http://creativebystella.blogspot.com/
Stella's Cottage Blog ~ Meeting Place: http://cottagescrapbooks.com/forum/blog.php?u=4
ozsue: http://sue-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com/
Jessicasma: http://jessicassweetnothings.blogspot.com/
KayC: http://grandmaspixels.blogspot.com/
Demiurgia Designs: http://demiurgia.blogspot.com/
ScrapTiferet: http://scraptiferet.blogspot.com/
JobaScraps: http://joba2hut.blogspot.com/
Cadacee: http://cadaceescorner.blogspot.com/
Wildcat Designs: http://wildcatdesigns.blogspot.com/
Moonisgone: http://moonisgone.com/
ScrapBear Designs: http://scrapbeardesigns.blogspot.com/

Happy Scrappy New Year!

File correction for my party favor freebie

Computers are so wonderful until they don't work. I think I need an immunologist for my computer to do all those things my security software says it will do .... I apologize for having to remove one of the Ready-Made Pages from my last blog entry, but I cannot access it on the computer it is on and don't have time to made another one. Bottom line is this: I could not fix my Ready-Made Page (R-MP) so I am putting up a new freebie link that includes only 1 R-MP, shown in the preview below:

The new link to this 12x12 inch high resolution .png file is here.

Take a look at my layout in my last blog entry for some inspiration on using this page.

Many thanks to my dear readers for your understanding.

Happy Scrapping,

Jennifer

Party On with More Party Favors

Hello Friends, Cottage Scrapbooks always puts on great parties, blog parties anyway. This preview shows my contribution to the party favors for December. You can find the actual files here. The beautiful kits displayed are Honeylicious by Designs by Julie C and Simply in Love by CanDesigns.

NOTE: I apologize that the Honeylicious Ready-Made Page file is messed up. I am working on it right now.

Background of preview is from Buried Treasure by Stellarific Creations -- find many more Treasures buried at the Cottage!

I hope you make some gorgeous pages with these freebies -- and all the others in the blog party -- and post them in the Cottage Scrapbooks Gallery!

Here is my creation with one of the very same freebies in the file above.
Wisdom Lies in Maggie's Eyes.
Maggie is my friend's dog. I may sound nuts, but I think the presence of this mellow dog is truly healing. And I think there is indeed wisdom in those eyes. Ok, so I'm weird. Weird is ok if I give out freebies, right?

I used Simply in Love by CanDesigns for this layout except the green paper is from Music Room by Stellarific Creations.

Find more free blog-party favors at the blogs listed here:

Jessicasma - Jessicas Sweet Nothings
Stellarific Creations
Scrapbooking In Australia
Creatives4CottageScrapbooks Blog
Cottage Scrapbooks Internet Blog
Cottage Stella
CanDesigns
Sillyscrapper Tracy
ScrapBear Designs
YOU ARE HERE ScrappingTiferet
JobaScraps
KayC

Let's Party!

Wow, another blog train!
Digital Scrapbooking Day is a great time for a blog party.
Cottage Scrapbooks can't pass up such a great excuse for a party.
Collect lots of party favors from Designers and Creatives at the Cottage!
Here is my part (grab it here):

These kits by CanDesigns are just delightful! They are both at Cottage Scrapbooks:

Scottish Heather

Whimsical Spring

In fact, I made the layout below with Whimsical Spring.

That cute little girl is my cousin's daughter. She is 3 and made a great flower girl at her aunt's wedding last weekend. I have never seen a wedding where the bride and groom and whole wedding party were wearing cowboy boots! I guess there's a first time for everything.

Hop on the train and join the party! There are many more party favors at the blogs below:

Cottage Scrapbooks Internet Blog

Creatives4CottageScrapbooks Blog

Cottage Stella

Stellarific Creations

CanDesigns

KayC

Jessica's Sweet Nothings

Ozsue

Sillyscrapper

JobaScraps

Amberpony

YOU ARE HERE Jennifer18 - ScrapTiferet

Christi

ScrapBear Designs

All Aboard the Blog Train!!!

Chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo!!!!
Welcome to my car of the Ahhhscrap blog train!
You can get this goodie here:

For a whole railroad full of goodies follow the train:

Ahhh Scrap

Amber

Amy

Ariana

Arvita

Bonnie

Carrin

Cindy

Erika

Jennifer - You are here :)

Jenny K

Jessica D

Jessica E

Joy

Kate

Kathy

Katie

Kelly

Kiki

Kim

Laura

Linda

Linda's Dream Team

Margie

Monika

Penny

Renata

Renee

Robyn

Sheila

Vanessa

Vicki

Wendy

Another Piece of Peace

Well, I gave it a shot. I entered the SAS Designer Contest. I didn't make it far, but I did make 2 kits I would not have otherwise made. And lots of people downloaded my entries, so I guess they were good for something. Here is another piece of peace: a quick page.


You like it? Download it here.

Peace to you and Happy Scrapping!

A whole kit (or two) for FREE

What's up today:
1. Designer Contest - my giveaway
2. Free Add-on
3. Example layout and swimming with dolphins



1. Designer Contest - my giveaway










Check out this kit: Peace of Art. I made this for The Stone Accents Studio (SAS) Next SAS-y Lady (designer) Contest for week 2. Any member of SAS can download it for free. Here is a link to my gallery where you can find it. Once you download it, of course you will want to vote for me at SAS. Hurry - voting is only between 6pm Monday and 6pm Thursday Central (Chicago) Time.


If you are not a member of SAS yet, it is simple to join. Go to the forum and register. You will get an activation email, click on it, and voila! You are an active member and can therefore download and vote for me here :)

2. Free Add-on


Just for you who actually read my blog, I am giving away even more than what's in my kit at SAS. This free add-on coordinates with the Peace of Art kit available at SAS.

1 angel element

1 bow

2 flower elements

2 frames

4 papers

You can get it here. The password is peace.



3. Layout story




This layout uses my Peace of Art kit. I thought I would present a very peaceful experience in this layout, swimming with dolphins. My mom, my husband, and I went out from Kona, Hawaii on a boat with a few other people to get in the water right there with dolphins. They didn't even mind us being there. I had a snorkeling mask, so I just watched them swimming right under me. It was really awesome, I mean literally awesome. Anyway, that's my story today.

Happy Scrapping!!!!!

Updated links for freebies

Hello my friends,
A very helpful fellow scrapper notified me that my 4shared links for my freebies did not work. I have updated the links. Do not use the links on the last post, but use these:
pink
blue
By the way, I am really sorry that the downloads are so slow, at least they were for me.
I hope you enjoy the freebies.

Happy Scrapping,
Jennifer

Digi-tips and freebies

Sorry friends, that I said I would be back in a week and flaked. But here I am!

What's up today:

1. Paint Shop Pro Tip

2. My First Freebie

1. Paint Shop Pro Tip #2

So here is today's Paint Shop Pro tip. It is really simple, but it makes a difference for my pages. Posting pages on the web, I have to downsize them. I save one copy at no less than 200pixels per inch to print, and one at 72 ppi to post in galleries. When I shrink my pages, sometimes my text and some shapes look terrible. I don't know why, but I discovered something that helps. Any vector layers in Paint Shop Pro (I use X1) do better if I convert them to raster layers before I save. Ok, ok, I will back up.

In PSP there are three types of layers. Here we are concerned with 2 of them. A raster layer is programmed in pixels, little colored dots. A vector layer is programmed as complete shapes such as a square, a star, or a letter. In PSP, text is automatically made on a vector layer when you first type it. That is the only way you can edit it.

Once it is all fixed, you can change it to a raster layer, but then it is just a bunch of pixels. So you can change the color and so forth, but you can't re-write it or change the font. Vector objects do not lose quality by resizing like raster graphics do so it is best to do all the editing in that mode.

But for some reason, when I convert to raster or merge it with a raster layer below it, the text looks better in the compressed jpeg. It is hard to see at this size, but I will try to demonstrate. On the page below, the age of my friend Miriam is written on each frame as the number of months. I forgot to change that text to raster or merge it with the frames. However, the other text e.g. "..BA..BY.." had been changed. The text for the ages has way worse jpeg artifacts (little marks around it). Can you see what I mean?

[Credits: Background from Hearts kit by Stellarific Creations.Glitter and journal tag from Sea of Stars by Stellarific Creations, available at: http://www.stoneaccentsstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_40&products_id=958. Photo strip frames by KariQ. Papers inside the frames (recolored) from Going in Circles by Joni, available at: http://ahhhscrap.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49_48&products_id=235Fonts Hearts Delight by 2peas and First Grader.]

You can convert a layer a few different ways. One way is go to layers menu and choose convert to raster. Or right click on the layer on the layers palette and choose convert to raster. I don't think you can convert from raster to vector, so your only chance to undo is the Undo command (control+z).

2. My First Freebie Offer

Ok, here goes: I have two backgrounds available as freebies. I need feedback to see how you like them. I won't require it like I did last time (I got no response), but I greatly appreciate it. The previews are resized and additionally compressed. The actual files are 2400X2400 pixels. Here they are:

blue

pink

Terms of Use: Please do not share my 4shared link. If you would like to share these freebies, please direct people to this blog. These freebies are for personal use only, not for any use that generates income. If you post pages that use these freebies, whether as is, recolored, or otherwise altered, please give me credit (Jennifer Hodges). Thank you and Happy Scrapping!

Link to Scrapbooking Specials here

I have connections... to freebies. Yesterday I wrote about a sale of Stellarific Creations. There is actually even more to it. She has freebies, not only on her blog, but also in the Stone Accent Studios newsletter. The newsletter is now in pdf format and requires the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (9), which can be downloaded for free here.

That's not all! Learn all about Stella and how she got into designing, plus link to her products that are 40% off (see below) in the DigiScrappinKreations newsletter.

That's all for tonight. More happy scrapping!

Don't miss this!

Today's Features
1. Sales for Stella
2. Freebie Talk
3. Paint Shop Pro Tip #1

1. Sales for Stella
This week is a great week for Stellarific Creations, which I help with advertising. She has been chosen for the Designer Spotlight at TWO of her stores - Stone Accents Studio and ScrappinDigiKreations. To celebrate that, she is having 40% off sales at both stores.





I have the honor of making layouts for her. My second to last post shows a layout with her Petalicious kit, which is one of those on sale this week.

2. Freebie Talk

I want to give freebies, but I also want feedback. So here is what I will do. I will show 2 backgrounds at web resolution. If you like one, send me a comment saying what you like about it, and I will send you a 2400 x 2400 pixel version of it. (You may comment on this blog or e-mail me at jhodges18@gmail.com. I will need your email to send it to you). Next week, I will show how many people liked which things and I will do the same thing again with another pair of backgrounds. I am hoping to start posting at least once per week. This week's backgrounds are at the top of this post.

3. Paint Shop Pro tip #1: flower-like embellishments made easy
I hope to present tips every week that I have learned using Paint Shop Pro. I use X1 and I am about to install X2. One thing I love are 'reflection effects.' By going to the Effects menu, and selecting reflection effects, you can choose kaleidoscope, pattern, or rotating mirror. Today I am talking about kalaidoscope.
1. Take any photograph with pretty colors and apply the kaleidoscope effect.
2. Click on the little die (as in dice) for random settings. Do this multiple times to get an idea of what the program can do.
3. When you get something that contains a round shape with petals and you like it, press ok.
4. Select the shape using your choice of selection tools, copy and paste to a new document (control+c then control+v). There may be some clean up to do, but then you have an embellishment!

Happy Scrapping!

Finally another post!

Contents of this post
1) A popular page
2) Creative team news

Hi everybody!
1)I have been having great fun on ScrapbookFlair. I think I am now officially clinically addicted. It's a wonderful site where people share and give comments on digital scrapbook pages. From people's comments, I think I am getting better (but most people just say 'great page' which tells me nothing). Here is a page that lots of people seem to like:

Background and elements are from the Michael kit by Demiurgia Designs available at Digital Scrapn Designs. I made the bucket. Fonts are HorndonD, Funstuff, and DomCasual.

This was for a challenge in Scrapbook Flair. The challenge was to make a list of things you want to do before you 'kick the bucket.' I didn't realize this page would be such a hit. Amazingly, I actually won the challenge - that is my very first first-place on the site! Still, I don't know what made it such a hit. Can you tell me?

2) I have also started making layouts for 2 store creative teams: Digital Scrapn and Ahhhscrap. The CT at Ahhhscrap has a group to help us learn about designing, which I am excited about. Between these and working for Stellarific Creations (see previous post), I am learning a lot about the digi-scrap business. But I still have lots to learn.

I joined another team!

This week I started as designer assistant for Stellarific Creations. I am already learning a lot about working the web, and the digi-scrapping business. I get to make layouts for her too, which I don't mind at all :). This one used her Petalicious kit:




This page shows my husband, friends, and me dressed up in costume. No, it wasn't Halloween. It was Purim. Purim is a Jewish holiday when people dress up in costumes and rejoice, celebrating courage and victory for the Jewish people. The holiday is mainly a children’s holiday, like Halloween is. Girls often dress up as Queen Ester because Queen Ester spoke up and saved the Jewish people in the story in the Book of Ester (in the Bible). The little girl at the bottom of the page, my friend Elyse, is one example.

Do you like her designs? Check out her blog at http://stellarificcreations.blogspot.com/.




The second page is on Purim a year later. This page uses my own gold and silver backgrounds, plus a string and fabric heart (recolored) from Stone Accent Studios.

My graduation pics

My graduation was actually over a month ago, but I have been busy even since then. The 'professional' pictures the university had taken were not very good, besides costing a fortune. So my husband took some of his own.

Buddha says:
"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that final victory comes."



[Credits: The tags are from SBF graduation collection. The blue flowers are from aneczkaw.The pink flower is from Becky Wallace.The other designs are my own (background & frame).]

This is far from final victory but it is still an accomplishment. I graduated with a non-clinical degree in speech and hearing science or speech pathology. Because of a dispute regarding one of my disabilities (a back problem called disk degenerative disease), I was not allowed to finish my clinical training. I am still fighting it, but at least I got my masters degree. What I can do with it is another issue.

So in the mean time, I am looking for jobs other than speech pathology. Most important for my sanity, I keep scrapping :)

I joined a creative team!

I am really excited! I just joined the creative team for Rachel Clark Desigs. Her blog is at http://rachelclarkdesigns.blogspot.com/. Here is my first layout with her designs. The kit is Carribean Rush, which is available in her store: http://stoneaccentsstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=24. It's even on sale right now!

This page shows my friend Ahnnah playing with her electronic cat. This really is the ideal pet!! :)

Artist Trading Cards

I tried out another challenge at Stone Accent Studios (SAS) and got carried away. The challenge was to make an Artist Trading Card with a personal mantra, prayer, or inspiration. I made a bunch of them and now plan to give them out at a dinner party for my bat mitzvah (a Jewish ceremony for accepting religious responsibility).

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are 2.5 by 3.5 inch cards to trade with fellow artists. Two of those I made are shown below.

For this blue one, I used Julie O's Delicious Berry Blue kit from SAS and a Shalom font obtained on the internet. The verse is a traditional Jewish prayer.

For this brown one, I used my own background and a tag from Creative Victorian. The verse is another Jewish prayer, translated by Rabbi David Cooper.

A new kit

I made a new kit for the SAS May 2008 Color Challenge. I have a small preview here. I would love comments. Tell me what you like and what you don't. If I get a positive response, I will make the kit available as a freebie. Here is a layout using this kit:

Check out the Color Challenge Gallery at SAS -- Stone Accent Studios: http://www.stoneaccentsstudio.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=535

Their homepage is www.stoneaccentsstudio.com

Its a great site.

Welcome to Scrapping Tiferet

Welcome to my new blog. I am an avid scrapbooker. It saves my sanity so often -- what great therapy! I will be posting some of my scrapbooking, hoping for comments. After I get enough comments to know what people like, I plan to post some freebies. For now, here is one of the few pages I have made using only my own designs.



Do you like this page? I entered it in scrapbook page contest on brickfish.com. Brickfish has a ton of contests, many related to photography and art. Check out the link to Brickfish below. Oh, I don't mind if you vote :)

I am sure I will get used to putting more of my life online soon. Then I will reveal more about myself. For now, I am just getting started.

Thanks ahead of time for any comments.

Jennifer