Delicate Cuts with the Silhouette Cameo

The possibilities of die cutting are fascinating to me.  I have been working on lots of new projects and experimenting to see how intricate I can make my designs.  I wanted to share a few sneak peeks at some original images I have been able to cut with my Silhouette Cameo.

I think of these cuts as "cobweb lace" since some many of the lines are about 1/16 of an inch and some are even thinner.  I am using the tip of a quilling tool to hold the cuts for the photos if that helps you understand the scale.

I am amazed that these cut so well.  I was able to just lift the finished designs from the mat with only a few tiny pieces that needed to be pushed out.

Several people have asked for more information about the Creative Memories software that is on sale this month.  Memory Manager 3.0 is the photo editing and organization software and StoryBook Creator 4.0 is the digital scrapbooking (and so much more) program.  (Both programs are 35% off until the end of April (so Memory Manager is $25.97 and StoryBook Creator is $42.22 - if you already have an earlier version of the program, the upgrades are also on sale).

Photo editing makes such a difference - you can often turn a "so-so" photo into something really special.  I used Memory Manager to edit this photo.

After you edit the photo, you can get creative with the many design and layout tools in the StoryBook Creator program.  I used an oil painting effect on this photo.

You can start from a blank page or work with professionally designed templates to create your layouts.  The StoryBook program comes with over $75 worth of free digital content and you can also use digital content obtained from other sources in the program.  

If you'd like to see the full original post about these photos and some more digital pages just click HERE.

In honor of National Scrapbook Day, there will be a 35% off sale on all digital content from Creative Memories from April 27th (Friday) to May 5th.  There will be lots of other items on sale and I'll have the details for you in another post.

I'd be happy to help you with specific questions - both of these programs are easy to use and have lots of advanced features for a very reasonable price (particularly when they are on sale!).

Today is the last day to leave a comment to have a chance to win a card kit from the class I taught last week.  Click HERE to go to the post about the class and leave your comment with a helpful tip for your fellow crafters!  I'll draw and post the names tomorrow.

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Time to Fall Back

Today is the day we go back to standard time.  I am very fond of the "fall back" day and I sometimes play a game and turn the clock later in the day so I get the feeling that I am actually gaining an hour!  The part I don't like is sunset at 4:30 in the afternoon (and it will only get worse until January).

My trip to Maine was great.  I enjoyed talking to the group and meeting some new people.  We had a lovely turkey dinner so it was like an early Thanksgiving celebration.  I was exhausted by the time we got back and needed to rest and take the night off (even though I really wanted to work with my some of my new finds). 

I wanted to share this photo of some roses that are still blooming.  We saw them in a garden in town when we were walking to the Antiques Fair.  The faded blooms just appealed to me - the last roses of summer in November!  The photo above is my original image directly from the camera - no cropping or editing.

After some photo editing magic (done with Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0) I had this image.  I was thinking of adding a quote or short poem in the lower left corner and using this for a card.  To do that, I added the edited photo to a new project in Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0

I started to play around with the images and used one of the filters to create a rose "tile" (you can see the 3D edges that were added.

It is always interesting the see the subsidiary patterns that form when you arrange symmetrical groupings of the same image.

To create this image, I rotated some of the roses in the lower left corner.

I grouped the four tiles and then made another page with four of the groupings.  The rotation shows the original shadow and creates the uneven effect with the borders.

This final image is made up of sixteen rose images in groups of four that are mirrored and flipped to create the symmetrical pattern. 

Even though I started with just a simple photo, I was able to create something unique and pretty in a short amount of time.  I will print out some of these patterns I have been making so I can use them for projects.  Once again, I wish that I could use my Imagine to print 12 x 12 copies of the images that I create in addition to the images that are on the cartridges.   Maybe someday...

In the meanwhile, does anyone have a suggestion for a good but not too expensive wide format printer?  I think that may be on my wish list for Christmas...

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Digital Sale at Creative Memories

Quite a few people have contacted me with questions about the programs I use to do photo editing and digital pages and projects.  I use the two Creative Memories programs, Memory Manager 3.0 for photo organization and editing and Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 for digital scrapbooking and other projects.  These programs are quite powerful and offer sophisticated options but are quite easy to use with lots of great support on the Creative Memories sites.

The two programs are independent - you do not need to use both if you are happy with your photo organization and editing.  You can easily import your photos into the StoryBook program even if you edit them in another program.  There are also some basic photo editing options in the StoryBook program.

I posted some digital pages a few days ago (HERE) and then I found out that Creative Memories is offering a "Digi WOW" sale for the month of August.  The StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 (for PC) and the sbcStudio (for Mac) are 50% off (sale price $32.48) for the download version (no shipping costs!).  All of the downloadable digital content for both programs is also on sale at 30% off.  I am a Creative Memories consultant and i would be happy to help you with an order if you do not have a local consultant that you work with.

I did a few quick pages for this post with some photos of another neighborhood friend.  I think little girls in tutus look so cute!

There is a lot of information about these programs on the site HERE. You can find videos about various functions and more help on the training tab HERE.

A new upgrade to StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 (it will be 4.0) is coming soon.  I don't know all of the details yet but in the past there has been a specially priced offer for the program upgrades when they are introduced.    If you don't have version 3.0 you won't be able to upgrade to 4.0 from 2.0.  There is also a 50% sale discount on the upgrade (sale price $9.98) so people with the older program will be ready for the upgrade to 4.0.  Details about the price and timing of the upgrade will be announced at the Creative Memories Annual Showcase later this month.

You can find more details about the "Digi WOW" sale on my CM personal website HERE.  To get a really good look at the digital content, click HERE to find the index of PDFs for all of the various options.

The sale will run until the end of August so there is plenty of time to contact me for help with any questions you may have.  I will be more available next week - things are chaotic here with the floor resurfacing and I will soon be blocked from entering my craftroom - but I will have a laptop with me!


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A Digital Page or two...

Earlier this month, I took some photos of my little neighbors in our back yard.  They were running down the hill and smelling the flowers and generally having a lot of fun.  It is difficult to capture good photos of small children in action, but I had my camera with me and so I gave it a try!

This was one of the photos I took - she has a cute expression but there is a day lily stem on top of her head and the lighting is not very well balanced.  Thank goodness for digital photography and photo editing software!

 I use the Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0 program to do most of my photo editing and the StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 program for my digital pages.  Both of these programs are relatively inexpensive and easy to use but they are capable of producing fairly sophisticated results.  As you can see above, I was able to crop and fix the lighting and other problems to produce a very sweet image (of course - she is adorable so that helps!).

Once I completed my editing and corrections in Memory Manager, I brought the photo into the StoryBook Creator program and applied various effects.  The one I like the most was this "oil painting" effect.  It is amazing what a few clicks of the mouse can produce!

I made the photo as large as possible and layered it on some summery background paper.   One simple word is all it takes to title this page.  I think it would be great on a calendar.

While I was at it, I decided to try a few more pages.  This one started off as a pre-designed page but I eliminated some of the elements and rotated others to get this result.  The items I used are from the Cottage Garden digital collection.  The swirls and butterflies add a feeling of motion that remind me of the children running up and down our small hill.

Here is another page with the same phrase but different papers and another photo that was taken at nearly the same time.  These are papers from the Reminisce spring digital addition.  Both pages have just one photo and the same sentiment but the style is definitely different.

An easy way to work on a layout is to start with a predesigned page from one of the books.  You can then click and fill the various shapes and "tweak" the page to suit your photo and story.  You can also use these digital page designs as inspiration for your paper pages.

This is the page I made using the book blank page as a resource.  The colors are more subdued so the photos really pop out.  I particularly liked this quote.

I hope you are having a nice weekend.  We'll be doing more painting today - we are on the fourth (!) color choice for our bedroom walls - I hope this one works out...  I also need to clear away all of the kitchen counters before the floor sanders come - now that's a job!

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All from one tulip photo...

Thanks to everyone who followed the Creative Charms blog hop and the Disney Pixar blog hop.  Some of you are new to my blog.  I hope you will enjoy what you find here and that you will continue to visit and join in with some of our discussions.

The Grand Prize for the Creative Charms hop will be posted today on the Creative Charms blog.  I will draw the winners for the small items on my blog for both hops and post the names later today.  I should also have some information about the new Creative Charms Kit and Deal of the Month to share later today as well.  

The Grand Prize Winner (of a new Gypsy!) for the Disney Pixar blog hop will be announced on Wednesday.

I wanted to show you the original photo of the tulip that was at the top of my post a few days ago.  This is straight from the camera and there is a lot of distraction in the background.

Here is the photo after cropping to a square, adjusting the color and light and removing some of the twigs.  It usually looks better to have the main image off center a bit.  This photo still has some leaves at the bottom that are light in color.

I used the cloning tool to remove any of the items in the background that take attention away from the lovely tulip.  This photo could be used on a card front with a quote or greeting in the dark area.  I wanted to try some more experiments with this image.

 

I dropped out the background to save just the tulip image.

Then I played around with some filters to add effects.  Here I "posterized" the image and added some wrinkles digitally.

 

I cut out a triangular section and then repeated it to create a new shape with a kaleidoscope effect.

This is easy to do as long as you pay attention to the amount of rotation and align the images carefully.

Next, I trimmed the image to an octagon shape.  I combined these in rows of six at two inches to fill a 12 x 12 page.

I also added a background square and experimented with the color combinations.

The possibilities are truly endless - and if I don't like what I see I can simply "undo" (this is one of the biggest benefits of digital work for me).

The various background colors give many different looks - the amount of contrast is the most important factor to make the colors blend or stand out.

By altering the hue I can create a totally new design.  It is hard to believe that this new page started from a single orange tulip.

I did all of this editing and manipulation with the Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0 and StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0.  Both of these programs are easy to use.  If you would like to know more about the software and you don't have a local consultant that you work with, I would be happy to help you.

Please check back later today for the winners - and let me know if you have any questions.  For those of you who are new, you can click below or near the top of the right column to subscribe to my blog so you will receive updates via email when I post something new (once a day).

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

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Creative Memories Cricut Cruise Contest starts today!

Today is the first day of the Creative Memories Cruisin' With Cricut Contest.  I am one of five consultants who qualified to submit a layout and now our layouts will be posted on the Creative Memories Home Office Fan Page for people to vote for their favorite.  If you are on Facebook, I'd really appreciate it if you would take the time to visit the page and (I hope!) vote for my layout.  If you would ask your friends and connections on Facebook to also vote for me that would be fabulous!  Apparently you can vote once a day for the next week - the voting ends on November 23rd.

Here is a LINK to the contest page. If that doesn't work, here is a LINK to the Creative Memories Home Office page.

I'd love to win this cruise and take my husband on a fabulous anniversary trip - we will be married 30 years in January so this would be perfect timing.  Who knows - maybe I could even get him to do some crafting!

I decided to do a heritage page and used the Reminisce Accents cartridge. We had to use Creative Memories products exclusively for the layout which was easy - I chose the wonderful Reminisce papers and used both the paper and the digital versions to create my page.  Here is a Design Studio screen shot of my final preview for the layout design.

The gray areas represent photos of my grandmother, my mother and myself all taken when we were about 18 years old.  My grandmother's photo was taken in 1910, shortly before she was married.

My mother's photo is her high school gradutaion photo.  I tried both scanning and taking new photos of the images.  Sometimes the scanner is so sensitive that it picks up the texture of the paper in older photos and a new photo of the heritage photo will give you a better image to work with.

My photo is from a theater production in my first year of college and was taken by Flip Schulke, a famous photographer for Life, National Geographic and other magazines (his daughter was a friend and classmate).  It was the only photo I could quickly find of myself at that age - I need to get some more photos from my Dad.  It is in a permanent frame but I had scanned it before it was framed so I had the digital image.

By bringing all three photos into my Memory Manager 3.0 software, I was able to edit them to have a fairly uniform color and intensity.

I did some test cuts using other papers just to make sure that my sizes and placement were accurate.  I only had a few sheets of each paper so I wanted to avoid making a mistake on my "good" paper.  The photos were sized at 2 1/2 inches square and the rest of the layout fills in the open areas.

I knew I wanted to add quite a bit of journaling so I decided to do the photo section of the page as an 8 x 8 digital layout.  This also helped me to make the photos just the right size and further adjust the color balance to make the images as similar as possible in tone.  I used the same papers in the digital Reminisce Power Palette to keep the look consistent.

I created the digital layout in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0.  I started by creating a page map for myself with the photo and text sections carefully aligned.  (I use high contrast colors to help see whether I have everything properly aligned).

Then I could click and fill the areas and type in my text.  I color matched the blue to the background paper and also worked out the spaces to leave for the names that I welded in the Reminisce font and cut with Design Studio.

I welded two border sections to the top and bottom of a rectangle to create the frame or mat for the 8 x 8 page.  I made a few tiny adjustments in Design Studio to get the cut size to work out evenly.  I used my Precision Point adhesive to attach the blackout borders to the back of the frame.

 

The Precision Point Adhesive was essential for the names.  I put a tiny dot of adhesive directly on the page so I could add the dot of the "i" in the proper position.  The Reminisce Accents font welds beautifully and it cut nicely from the Brick cardstock.

 I used my clear layout ruler (available at any art store) to help me keep the long "Generations" title straight on the page.

Here you can see the layers of the page and also see what a good match the digital and physical papers are.  I was able to apply soft edges to the photos and the journaling spaces to help smooth everything together.  I printed the layout on matte photo paper and trimmed it to fit the page.  I added another layer ( 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches) of the same gold paper I used for the title and frame blackouts to mat the layout.

I tried to stay true to the mission of letting the pictures and journaling be the focus of the page - but still add some interest with the lovely cuts from Reminisce Accents.  I tend to be a "flat scrapper" and prefer pages that I will put in albums to be free of extreme 3 dimensional elements.  A page that I might frame is another matter entirely!

If you have any questions about the materials or techniques I used, please leave a comment or email me.  If you could help spread the word and "get out the vote" for me  I would really appreciate the help!  I "need" to be on this cruise - my friend Okie needs some adult supervision!

Once again here is the LINK to the contest page and here is the LINK to the Creative Memories Home Office page.  You can vote once each day - the contest closes next Tuesday, the 23rd.  Thank you!

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