BLOG CHALLENGE | NOVEMBER

Hello! Welcome to the November blog template challenge! I am excited to host my first challenge and hope that you will join me! But first things first! We have the winner for the October Nope or Yup! challenge picked! Again you all rocked it this month. If you want to take a peek at all the awesome entries, you can find them HERE.

The lucky winner for this month is Shar!!!

Congratulations Shar!!! You have a notification on your TLP account.
All other participants also received their 25% discount coupons via their Lilypad accounts. Please make sure you check your messages everyone and if your coupon didn't come through send an e-mail to pinkreptiledesigns at gmail dot com!

Here's Shar's gorgeous page:

For this month's challenge, we have something a little different for you. I [Rikki] made a template which is basically the background of a page that you fill with the papers or paint etc. of your choosing and then go from there. It is a very easy approach and gives totally different results based on the kinds of papers you choose. Go for a monochromatic look or pick colorful bold papers, it is totally up to you. Once you have the background done it is very easy to finish the page by adding your photo(s)- framed, stroked, as you wish -, a few elements and you're done. The papers are enough of an eyecatcher.

Here's the template you will be working with and here's YOUR LINK to download:

Here's what the lovely Pink Ladies made based on this challenge prompt:

My own page [Rikki]With Autumn Trails collab.

by Marilyn
Marilyn used a number of Mirjam's white papers to blend them into her snow photo. :-) She also intentionally moved a few of the masks to use as framing for her photo.

by Gaëlle
Gaëlle made a page with the You Can Do This collection


by Carrie
Carrie used the Check Out My Ride collection.



by Karen
She used the Blue Skies collection


by Fe
With You Can Do This collection.


and by Christa
Using the Limitless collection


Now it's your turn to create! We can't wait to see your take on my template!

Make sure you use at least 75% of Pink Reptile Design products on your page. Once completed, just upload your page to one or all of your galleries and post a link to your layout in the comments section of this post before the next challenge goes live on December 15th.

ONE favorite page will be chosen as the winner to receive a 10 dollar coupon to the PRD store, but really everyone is a winner, as all other participants receive a 25% discount coupon to the Pink Reptile Designs TLP store. So all the more reason to join in on the fun, right?!

Wishing you tons of fun and Happy Scrappin'!

SCRAP INSPIRATION | DON"T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

Over the years, I have come to embrace the dark background paper. It can add depth and richness to a page and certainly makes photo’s pop! I find a variety of subjects can suit a dark background – my favourite subjects tend to be photos that are taken in the dark - fireworks, concerts, birthday celebrations but I have even used it for a first day back at School Layout just for a change! Halloween is also a favourite and a natural subject for a dark background.

For a comparison, I have used this month’s BYOC from Pink Reptile Designs – You Can Do This! It is always great to use a template if trying a colour scheme or technique you are not confident with – it takes out one variable, so you can concentrate on extending yourself without worrying about composition. I firstly used a neutral background, which doesn’t look too bad but I think the photo appears a bit out of place.



By swapping the white patterned background paper for a dark background paper, the photo suddenly becomes more prominent and I also love how the elements also pop.



Black and white photos also suit a darker colour scheme. Cynthia has also used this Month’s BYOC for her stunning page. How deep and rich do the red’s and greens look when placed on a black background?



Dark blue works equally well, Marilyn used Mirjam’s October BYOC Pure & Simple along with a vintage photo to rock a patterned dark background. Notice how well alpha’s stand out on a darker background. Light/ White/ silver alphas also are outstanding, brilliant for Christmas pages.



This beautiful page from Mirjam has a minimalist feel that suits darker papers so well - I do not have the discipline for such restraint, to my detriment! It also highlights that even keeping the same tones with a darker background can result in a very memorable page. Love this effect so much!



Also from Mirjam, a grey/pink/green combo- notice her vellum work, especially with the cutouts - so good! Vellum is much underused in digi land, such a standout on the darker papers. Again the white journalling is subtle but can be an element in itself. The page would appear to be unbalanced without it.  So many good things to be inspired by here!



Lastly I have to highlight my very favourite kit from Pink Reptile Designs, A Slice of Lemon– I go to it again and again. It has a limited palette of black, white and yellow.  To soften the plain black paper, I have used Gesso It 2 and paint splatters, balancing it with brighter patterned paper. To make the white journalling easy to read, use a bold text.



Just about all kits have dark papers included in them, so jump on in and make it a feature of your page. You will be surprised how often you will go to that option once you have given it a go!

TUTORIAL | EASY WAYS TO RECOLOR

One of the perks of digital scrapbooking is the ability to make things “match”. It might mean adjusting the colors of specific digital supplies or adjusting the colors in your photos themselves. I’m going to cover four different EASY recoloring methods for digital scrappers.

Replace Color

This is one of the simpler methods of adjusting your color. But it doesn’t work on every color. And you can’t really change your mind and adjust it, you’ll have to redo it. In my example, I’m going to change a blue ribbon to red. My screenshots are from Adobe Photoshop CC.

First, I’ll open up a new document and drag in my blue ribbon. I’ll use my eyedropper tool to select a color red that is close to my goal.



Then, hit the X key. This will change your swap your foreground and background colors. You want your preferred color to be your background color so you can access it in just a moment.



Go to Image on the Tool Bar, pull down to Adjustments and then over to Replace Color. This will open a dialog box. Use the eyedropper to click on your image in the area of color you want to replace. Adjust the Fuzziness slider until the area to be changed is highlighted white. Then click in the Result color box to be able to select the new color. You have that color saved as your background color. This will open the Color Picker box so that you can tweak your replacement color if necessary.



Next you can adjust the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders until you achieve your goal. Now our blue ribbon is red.



This is the first way that I learned to recolor an element. As I learned later, there are easier ways. Note that if we change our mind about the color we’ve selected, we’ll need to do it again. Later, I’ll demonstrate another alternative that is adjustable.


Hue/Saturation Adjustment

If the color you are trying to change is distinct like the light blue in this ribbon, a Hue/Saturation adjustment might be even quicker.



Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. This will open a dialog box. Because the ribbon I want to change is a fair representation of Cyan blue, I can change the Master pull down box to Cyan so that any change I make ONLY affects the cyan colors in my selection/the ribbon.



Then, I’ll adjust the Hue slider to the right toward the red color. Because the red I want is brighter, I’ll bump up the Saturation and darken the Lightness until I’ve achieved the color I want. You’ll notice the white in the ribbon doesn’t change.




Desaturate THEN Hue/Saturation

So what if the ribbon isn’t cyan but orange which doesn’t have a channel option to strictly isolate it. You can Desaturate the ribbon (shortcut Shift-Ctrl-U), changing it to gray scale. From the toolbar, select Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Maybe even bump up the contrast with a Levels adjustment (shortcut Ctrl-L). This will gray out your ribbon.





Then you can add a Hue/Saturation adjustment, Image


It’s our prerogative to change our minds and neither of these methods has been easily changeable. The last method I’ll demonstrate can be altered. This time we’re going to add an Adjustment Layer.


Desaturate THEN Adjustment Layer

For this example, I’ll change both the blue ribbon and the orange one to become red.



I desaturate each ribbon, Image>Adjustments>Desaturate and then go to the bottom of the Layers Palette to add an Adjustment Layer.



Adjust the Hue by using the Colorize button or the Hue slider and then use the Saturation and Lightness sliders for customization.



Now if I change my mind and want the ribbon to be blue I don’t have to redo it this time! I highlight the Adjustment Layer and select another color in the Hue slider and fine tune with the Saturation and Lightness sliders. NOTE: You can also change the blend mode on the Adjustment Layer to Overlay or to Linear Light and/or decrease the Opacity for a different look.



The examples I’ve used have involved ribbons that were fairly easy to recolor. Obviously, multi-colored items will require additional steps like using selection tools, such as the magic wand tool, the lasso tool and/or the pen tool to select portions of the items you wish to recolor, but the concepts and terminology should give you some guidance that can be translated to more complicated elements.

There are a myriad of ways to recolor using Adobe Photoshop. These options are merely a few of the choices available to you as a digital scrapper. If you wish to explore additional ideas, there are tutorials available in the help section at Adobe.

What’s your go-to method for easy recoloring?

_________________
Stacia

NEW: NOVEMBER BYOC | YOU CAN DO THIS

I love this time of year!! The weather is getting colder, the leaves have almost fully changed in color and everyone is busy starting to get ready for the holiday season. The colors are richer and cooler in tone.. the deep reds, the cool teals, the deep yellows.. so inviting and oh so cozy! It is also when we start spending more time inside doing those "indoor" projects we have been putting off because of the nicer weather all Summer.

Having said that I am also very aware that these first weeks of Autumn are not just about pretty colors and coziness. For many people the start of Autumn is difficult because of anxieties or feelings of depression.

That's why I wanted to create a set of products that focus on victories. Products made for scrapping those big and little milestones you never thought you'd achieve or to scrap yourself a much needed moral boost page to help concur that road block ahead. Everything you need is included.

ALL new products are 20% off through November 4th but of course there's special offers for newsletter subscribers!!! Not a subscriber yet? Click HERE to join the gang!

YOU CAN DO THIS | ELEMENTS
A great set of 60 quirky and unique elements  [68 in total] in all kind of shapes, sizes, textures and styles. Especially made for scrapping those big and little milestones you never thought you'd achieve or to scrap yourself a much needed moral boost page to help concur that road block ahead. Everything you need is included. Now it's up to you to turn those stories and feeling into a page. You know you can do it!

YOU CAN DO THIS | PAPERS
A great set of 10 beautiful, timeless patterned papers, 10 alternate color combinations PLUS 11 gorgeously textured matching solids. Which makes this a fantastic pack of 31 papers in total!!

PATTERNS PLUS ALTERNATES

 

YOU CAN DO THIS | ALPHA
A realistic go to stitched upper and lower case alpha with numbers and punctuation that comes in 10 easy to use and re-use colors! Perfect for mixing and matching and creating eye catching titles. Also cute as tiny monograms.

YOU CAN DO THIS | TEMPLATES
Rejoice in the little things, give in to whatever tugs at your heart...and off you go!
Let these 4 amazing 12 x 12 templates help you scrap those big and little milestones you never thought you'd achieve!

[Contains  PSD, .TIFF and .PNG files. Shadows are included in all file formats ]

 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and Happy Scrappin'!