Awards

I'm so tickled...Jill spotlighted my A Is For Apple tutorial on her blog, woohoo, I feel published, pmsl! She also said some very sweet things...I'm still blushing...and then she totally made my day by passing on these two awards to me! Thank you so much, Jill, you big Sweetie! You can find Jill's blog, CreatedByJill (which is full of fun stuff) here.

and this one, which I cherish:

This particular award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.

The rules for the awards are simple:
"Post the award on your blog, acknowledge the fabulous person that gave it to you and pass it on to at least 5 other blogs!"

The talented and wonderful ladies that I'm giving these awards probably all already have them, but they are all deserving of receiving them again, with my love and thanks for all of the friendship, teaching, sharing and inspiration they have given me and others:

MayK of MayK's Creations

Butter of
ButterflyFlutterbyCreations

Lou of Simply Devilish Scrapz

Simone of
Scrappy Bit Of Fun

Serina of Stylin' Serina

Tutorial: A Is For Apple

Tube of choice: I'm using the adorable art of Suzanne Woolcott.

You must have a licence to use this or any of her images, which may be obtained here.

PTU Scrapkit Taste of Home by CreatedbyJill.

Thanks for this huge, gorgeous kit, Jill!

Mask: here I don't know where I got this mask.

If it is yours, please let me know so that I can credit you or remove it.

Open a new image 600x600. You can crop the finished tag, if you like.

Open the mask from the supplies and load into your files.

Open paper 3, copy and paste as a new layer. Apply the mask, fit to canvas, source luminance and hide all mask ticked. Merge group.

Open paper 9 and go to the materials pallette and load this paper as a pattern into your background, then set the foreground box to transparent. Using your preset shapes draw a large circle in the center of your canvas. Convert the layer to raster, and add a light drop shadow.

Back in your material palette, set the foreground and background to the same color (any visible color will do) and using the preset shape tool, draw out a narrow rectangle slightly narrower than the width of your tag. Convert to raster layer. Selections, select all, float, defloat. Open paper 8, copy and paste as a new layer. Invert selection, then hit delete. Selections>select none.

Duplicate the layer, resize the new layer by 80% and move down and to the left. See my tag for position. Enhance photo>clarify.

Open the flowergarden element, copy and close the original. Resize by 80%, paste near the bottom of the tag. Add a simple dropshadow.

Click into the smaller rectangle layer and bring to top.

On your materials pallette change your foreground color to a different color, and your background color to transparent. Go to preset shapes, create on vector, line width 10, draw corner to corner over your square to create a border. Convert this layer to raster. Using your magic wand, click inside the border, and copy and paste paper 14 into the selection. Selections>select none. Add an inner bevel at this time, if you like.

Merge visable the two squares. Duplicate the layer two times. Line the squares up on the left side of the tag.

Select your magic wand tool, and holding down the shift key, click into the centers of the top and bottom squares. Open paper 6, copy and past as a new layer. Go to selections>invert, then hit delete. Now click into the center of the middle square with the magic wand, copy and past paper 5 as a new layer, Selections>invert, hit delete.

Open the apple banner element, and paste as a new layer. Resize by 80% and position above the top narrow rectangle. Move this layer below the top square.

Resize the apple basket element by 60% and place at the bottom right of your tag. Resize and place elements of choice into each square, and bows or other embellishments as you please. Add your tube near the center, and add your credits. Add simple drop shadows to all elements, and this drop shadow to the tube: -1, -1, 50, 5, black and then 1, 1, 50, 5, black.

Add your name, merge visable, crop to suit and save as a .png.

Scrapkit-Rainy Days

Available only from The Padded Cell.

There's much more in the kit than shown, 24 papers and 64 elements in all.

Happy Scrapping!

New Layout

Lookie, lookie, I learned how to make my own blog layout! I used the beautiful scrapkit Afternoon Tea by Kristi of Scrappin Divas Designz. Be sure to check out the store, she has some truly beautiful scraps and some nice CU items, too.

I've been MIA with computer issues, grrr...I'm currently working/playing from my DH's laptop, which is proving to be challenging when playing with graphics. But I guess every new challenge is another opportunity to learn something. Yeah, that's it, (wink)...and now, I have to get busy. I'm working on a couple of tagger sized scrapkits, one of which will be available next week only at The Padded Cell. The other will be available here on my blog the same day, so keep your eyes peeled. I also have a couple of new tag tutorials in the works, who knows when I'll get those finished, *snicker*. So many pies, so few fingers!

As Gilda said

...it's always something. I just survived my computer going up in flames last week (yes, actual flames, lol), and as I always try to learn something from my mistakes, heh heh, I upgraded my power source (which is what burst into flames) and a few other things that had to be replaced...because I ruined them hitting the flames with my kitchen fire extinguisher...to make another long story short, yesterday my processer gave up the ghost because it couldn't handle the new hardware. *sigh* So, until Number 1 son can get down here to replace my motherboard, I'm stuck on hubby's laptop. No graphics programs, no access to my files...wah! The silver lining to my personal cloud is that I've had time to catch up on my favorite blogs this morning.
Well, when I can get back here with goodies, I have a treat...my first scrapkit, yay me, lol. It was inspired by a color challenge at The Padded Cell, and I got completely carried away. It was supposed to be a mini-kit, but it went past 75 elements, so it's not so mini after all. I'll have the previews and download linked as soon as possible. *bigger sigh* New tutorials in the works, too, so keep an eye peeled for those. In the meantime, I guess I'm going to get caught up on my ironing or something equally glamorous.
Omg, I almost forgot...that challenge by Jill (CreatedByJill)that was making me so crazy...I tied with Lady Disney so we both got to win Jill's incredibly adorable new scrapkit, Sweet Spring. Omg, what an incredible kit... everything under the sun and the sun itself is in this kit! And if that somehow wasn't enough, she has a freebie addon on her blog, too! If you only buy one scrapkit this Spring, this is the one to get, boys and girls.