Free Digital Photo Mask and Back-to-School Layouts

My cousin kindly offered me the use of several photos she took of her kids on their first day back to school this year. I immediately noticed, in the above photo, the "dead" space above the little boy's head, not to mention the distracting glare. So I custom-designed a photo mask to deal with that space
It's basically a soft focus with the title cut out in the upper right corner, right where the distracting elements are in the photo. Here is the photo clipped to the mask and then placed on a very simple layout:

Note: I also used the dodge tool in Photoshop CS3 to lighten the area behind the words, to make the glare even less noticeable and to make the words stand out.

The accompanying page:

. . . and the two page layout:

So, cuz, what do you think??

I must apologize to my customers that I was only able to make 3 Back-to-School photo masks. I had intended to make 8 or so, but client orders have been coming in so I've been very busy with photo-book and digital scrapbook projects. Designing my own products has to take a backseat to my custom-designed layout work, since that is really the main focus of my little biz.

I do have some templates already made, just need to finalize them, zip them and upload to 4shared. I'll be working on getting those up over the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, click here for a FREE download (at 4shared) of the Back-to-School photo mask featured in this post. Enjoy!

Birthday Card Digital Photo Collage

I made this card for my son's 32nd birthday {wow!} and wanted to share it here since some of my family and friends who knew I was working on it, wanted to see it. Now that the birthday is past I can post these pics. By the way, the card was very well received. Rodrigo's dad, and wife, Dianna, probably enjoyed it just as much as Rodrigo; Dianna because she loves to see photos of her hubby when he was little, and his dad because he remembers those days well.

I create custom-designed greeting cards, to order, for any occasion!}

I also made the envelope {how cool is that?} using two pages torn out of a travel magazine and these directions by wikiHow. It was super-easy, eco-friendly, and added a really fun touch to the card. Not to mention, since I had neglected to make my card a standard size, I didn't have an envelope to fit! However, I liked the end result so much that I will probably be making envelopes for all the cards I send from now on.

I located some of my favorite photos of Rodrigo during his first year of life and scanned them into digital format. I restored the faded color {these were originally stored in the now infamous magnetic photo albums!}, cleaned up some dirt and scratches, sharpened them a bit, and then popped them into a collage template {a modified version of Scrapbook Etc.'s SBEQuickCollage303 which you can find here}.

I added the arrow in the top left photo pointing to my pregnant belly, and a bit of text to each of the other photos.

To make the card I simply printed out the photo collage and then adhered it to a folded piece of cardstock using black photo corners, for a bit of an old-fashioned look. You can either type up a sentiment, print it out, and glue it inside, or just hand-write it. Easy!
Seeing the photo on the top right really brings back memories. I hadn't the first clue what to do with a baby! It's pretty obvious by the look on my face. Rodrigo's dad didn't know any more than I did, we were just kids ourselves, but we managed; we just figured it out day by day.

I especially love the bottom left picture where Rodrigo is covered with the yellow-and-white gingham tied quilt I made for him, and which he carried around for years {his blankie}. What you can't tell from the photo is that Rodrigo is in an infant seat on the floor of the front passenger seat of our 1960 VW bug {as seen in the top left photo} - that's where he rode whenever we went anywhere. Every time we went around a corner too fast he would tip over!!! Yeah, no car seat laws in those days, I guess it's a miracle he even survived, but I'm SO GLAD he did!

Happy Birthday, Rodrigo! Love you!!

Digital Photo Masks and One is FREE

{paper & elements by Summer Driggs}

Two new photo masks for Back to School pics, and I'm going to give you one FREE! It's got a crookedy, whimsical, and swirly-curly look for girls' back to school photo. I used it with a photo of myself from wayyyy back in the Dark Ages, when I was in about the second grade. I didn't want to put the year on because then everyone would know how ancient I am!

In my layout I added a thin white stroke to the mask, and also a drop shadow. Here's the mask I used, and this is also the one that's FREE:Here's the second Back to School photo mask, the one for boys:

What a fun messy, grungy look, don't you think? Perfect for boys! Here's a layout I made with the mask:

{paper and butterflies by Olga Unger}

Again, I added a thin white stroke - I think it makes the outline of the words stand out much better. This time, instead of a drop-shadow, though, I used the Bevel/Emboss layer style and selected "Down" instead of the default "Up." This makes the mask look as thought it's been pressed down into the paper. I love the look!

If you'd like the second mask you can purchase it from my online store here (set of 2 includes the free mask!), or simply download the free mask from 4shared here.

Create a memory today!

Four Seasons Clipping Masks AND a Freebie!

Well, I was supposed to be working on Back-to-School clipping (photo) masks but I got distracted when I discovered these other masks I had start to create awhile back! I decided to finish them up first, then go on to the Back-to-School masks.

I had a lot of fun creating these, and then using them in layouts. Here is my layout using all four masks:

(paper & element by Amy Clegg)

You could do a similar layout with photos of your kids from each season, or your baby's first year of seasons, document your garden in each season, whatever your imagine comes up with!

The masks work great individually, too:

My photos are only so-so (I am not a great photographer -- yet), but if you've got totally awesome photos of the four seasons in your area, you could do them individually like the layouts above, perhaps use a more coordinating background than I have, print them out, and frame and hang them as a quartet as home decor. I can envision that looking pretty nice! Or, how cute would it be to do the same thing with baby's first year photos, framed in white, and hung in baby's room?

I'm getting some great ideas, and I hope you are, too.

You can get all four of these clipping masks in my online store here for just $1.49!

If you'd like to try one of the masks first (FREE!), simply sign up to be notified via email whenever I update my blog. Use the "Opt In" button on the left-hand side of my blog and, in the comments section of the form, indicate which mask you'd like. I'll send it to you via return email.

Thx for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Freebie for Digital Scrapbookers

Today is my birthday so I have a gift for you: two photo masks for birthday layouts!

I made these really large, they nearly fill a 12 x 12 canvas so in addition to resizing the mask and using it for a single photo, you could leave it at the large size and put a collage of photos inside (something I've been wanting to try).
Download them both at 4shared or mediafire along with a copy of my new Terms of Use which states that my digital designs and products are ALL copyright-free!

{Sorry, links have expired, but you can still get the photo masks here.}

You may recall a tutorial that I wrote recently on how to use photo masks? A lot of you downloaded it, and left me nice comments or sent emails. I'm glad to hear it was useful for so many of you. Because at least one person (who is using PSE 5 & who has become a goldmine in feedback) was still having trouble I added some more descriptive step-by-step instructions. I've updated the tutuorial and re-uploaded it to 4shared and mediafire. If you are using an earlier version of Elements, and had trouble with the first version of the tutorial, try this new one!

The tutorial is also copyright-free per my TOU so go ahead and share it with your friends and fellow digi-scrappers, pass around the link, or even post the contents on your own blog or website. Credit to me is appreciated but not required, as are small donations.

If you'd like to give ME a birthday gift? Send me your layouts (or a link to them) using any of my products! I really enjoy seeing what people do with my humble offerings. There are so many talented designers out there Be sure to let me know whether or not it's ok to use your layout on my blog and/or website.

Stop back by soon for more FREE photo masks - in honor of Father's Day and Graduation.

Now, go scrapbook something!