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Scrapper’s Guide

April 2009

April Is Here!

April is a special month for me because not one, but TWO of my family members have birthdays in this month and Easter usually falls in April, which is fun, PLUS the flowers in Portland, Oregon go on parade. I think it’s the prettiest month of the year in the Northwest!

Introducing Two New Instructors

As you may be aware, Digital Scrapbooking magazine closed its doors recently, which was sad, but a happy side effect is that Molly Newman, who was on staff there, will now be creating tutorials for Premier.

Molly’s husband, Jim, is a professional photographer, and she is an avid photographer herself. A serendipity is that Molly lives in Portland, my hometown! We had lunch together in a quaint diner type restaurant and discussed what kinds of things YOU would enjoy knowing about working with photographs.

If you want to learn something in particular drop me a line at linda@scrappersguide.com, and I’ll make sure it gets forwarded to Molly.

A Note From Linda

Linda Sattgast

Second Instructor

Our second new instructor is Chere Edwards from the opposite side of the USA—Pennsylvania! Chere designs scrapbook kits, and she also loves to teach. She and I will be teaching a couple of tutorials on creating silk flowers.

It’s a perfect subject for April!

Have A Great Month

I’ve been learning some new programs lately using video tutorials, and I have to say that is my favorite way to learn. I just wish they had manuals like we do here at Scrapper’s Guide. I hope you enjoy this month’s kit and tutorials, and that you have a great month scrapping your photos!

Love and scrapbooking success,

What a fun page by Zhanlnd! I enjoyed the trio of little girls that form a visual circle on the page, as though she is running around in circles, something I would expect a two-year-old to do!Zhanlnd did a terrific job selecting the little girl out of the photo, and her page is imaginative and fun. The bright borders at the top and bottom complement the understated brown background, which allows for some splashes of color, but keeps your focus on the girl. Nice job Zhanlnd!

Top Pick Page by ZhanInd

Click on the pages to see a larger size in the gallery.

Soaring High Kit by Eva Kipler

Top Pick - March 2009

13 background papers

a set of alphas, numbers and some

punctuation

pink bead

circle shaped beads

heart shaped beads

leaf shaped beads

swirl shaped beads

3 assorted buttons

3 assorted flowers

border doodles (colored and bw)

border acrylic (shadowed and no

shadow)

felt flower (with and without bead)

stamp

fabric button

2 assorted frames

jewel swirls

leaves

words

pegs in 3 colors

ribbon bow

ribbon flower

string swirls in 3 shapes

tag

wordart

torn paper

flower sticker

vintage paper

ribbon wrap around in 3 colors with

separate shadow

Capture all the warm sentiments of years past with Vera Lim’s beautiful Memories -- our featured Premier kit for the month of April.

If you’ve been waiting for that perfect kit to scrap your heritage photos, your wait is over. Filled with realistic buttons, vintage stickers and stamps, beautiful beaded shapes and classic papers, Vera’s Memories will have you scrapping those precious heirloom photos in no time.

Not only is Memories great for creating classic layouts using heritage photos, but it works beautifully with today’s pictures as well. Check out all the great layouts designed by our Creative Team to see how versatile Memories can be.

All Premier Kit downloads are in the Members’ Area online.

Memoriesby Vera Lim

This month’s kit contains:

April2009

Meet our April 2009 Premier Designer:

Vera LimI am so blessed to live in the beautiful country of New Zealand with my wonderful husband and two littlies. I started my employment history as a DBA to an NZ & Australian company, following that I worked as a web designer to an IT company. Long story short I decided to quit my work and started being a stay at home mom since our second child was born, without knowing that it actually led to having my dream come true.

I found digital scrapbooking 3 years ago, not long after the birth of my son, Tobey. Digital scrapbooking opened a whole new world for me, it opens doors to my creativity. To me, digital scrapbooking is a medium to express my love of photos, creativity and emotions. After a year of doing digital scrapbooking, I started designing and had my own store. I love working with colours and textures, combined with my love of grunge, resulting in designs that I would call dreamy grunge. I also have several layouts published in scrapbooking magazines, as well as contributing tutorials and designs. Just recently, I tried my hand on hybrid scrapbooking, and I just loved it!! The combination is just perfect!!

Last but not least; life with 2 kids, a photography and design work sure get hectic most of the time. However I could say that this is the best time of my life and there is nowhere I would rather be.

Read more about Vera on her blog athttp://veralimdesign.com/blog/

Click here to find more of Vera’s beautiful kits,

available at veralim.com.

With each Premier Kit, you’ll receive a complete

This month’s

inspiring collection of

16 QuickPages

(7 double-page spreads

plus a cover and back) can

be dowloaded along with

the Premier Kit and will

allow you to complete a

beautiful album of your own

in no time at all!

QuickAlbum

Watch a video on how to use templates.

Susie

Jenny

Jen

All layouts on these pageswere completed with the

April 2009

Memories

QuickAlbum

Lisa Catherine

Linda/Chere

Vera Front & Back covers

Meet our new Tutorial Instructor:

Molly NewmanSince my senior year in high school, when I got a Pentax K-1000 camera for my birthday and started publishing an “underground newspaper” with my best friend, I’ve been fascinated with the power of images to tell a story. Years later, as the wife of a professional photographer and the mom of two active young subjects, photography still holds the same allure for me.

I’ve been writing about photography and digital photo editing for six years. As the author of CK Media’s five special issues on digital scrapbooking and the former associate editor of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, I never cease to be amazed at the creativity and technical skill found in the digital scrapbooking community.

Two years ago, my family moved to beautiful Portland, Oregon, and we’re loving every aspect of living in the Pacific Northwest. (Yes, even the rain!) We homeschool our seven- and nine-year-old sons and enjoy seeking out adventures both close to home and farther afield.

In addition to writing and keeping up with my family, I love reading, cooking, practicing yoga and--if there’s any time left--working on my terminally unfinished novel. My dream is to someday publish a “cookbook” of fresh, seasonal recipes and musings on life... illustrated, of course, with some beautifully shot and edited photographs.

You can check out my blog at redmolly.typepad.com, friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter (mollynewman). I’m always glad to make a new cyber-friend!

Read more about Molly on her website athttp://redmolly.typepad.com

I’m a work-at-home mom to one adorable 5 year old girl, and I’ve been married to my best friend Brian for the last 12 years. We live in Central Pennsylvania, which is a perfect locale for us because it’s close enough to all the big cities here but far enough away for some peace and quiet!

I started digital scrapbooking in January of 2006 while I was recovering from surgery. The lack of mess and the portability of the entire craft caught me right away, especially as I loved being able to take my laptop with me everywhere and save where I left off while being at home with my small daughter. I started to dabble in design in July of 2007 because I wanted to figure out how it all worked – and I have never looked back! I love being able to take a vision or a sketch in my head and make it into something that people can preserve their memories with.

I’m thrilled to be on the teaching team here at Scrapper’s Guide, as one of my passions is teaching. I also love to read, have a huge and eclectic music library, and am a crafty sort, dabbling in all sorts of physical crafts, as well as digital scrapping. I feel really blessed and excited to have this opportunity!

Chere EdwardsMeet our new Tutorial Instructor:

Read more about Chere on her website (coming soon!)

http://www.cherekaye.com/

Give any subject picture-perfect skin in just a few seconds. This technique allows you to create a final effect that’s soft and smooth, yet still natural in appearance. For an added effect, give your photo a Rennaisannce style high contrast or a delicately toned, vintage-style look.

Tutorial by Molly NewmanPhoto by James Newman

Soft, Smooth SkinVideo Lesson 1 Video Lesson 2

Silk Flowers

by Chere Edwards

Silk flowers never go out of style in scrapbook pages. With a few tools in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you can make your own flowers in every size and color imaginable to match any kit you’re using!

Page: by Chere EdwardsPhoto: by Chere EdwardsPapers & Elements: Memories Kit by Vera Lim

This month’s kit had so many possibilities that I’ve decided to share 5 designer tips you can use over and over with any kit. In this lesson, you’ll learn design technique, clipping masks, antiquing ele-ments, element placement tips and blending tips.

Page Design: by Linda Sattgast Photos: by Dana FryPapers & Elements: Memories Kit by Vera LimFont: Adler and PegsannaHMK

Page: by Andrea GravesPhoto: by Andrea GravesPapers & Elements: Memories by Vera LimFont: CK Ali’s Writing

by Andrea Graves

5 Designer TipsVideo Lesson 4Video Lesson 3

7 Silk Flower Tips

by Linda Sattgast

Use these 7 tips to make creating silk flowers faster and easier. The tips range from automating petal production to adding imperfections to double stacking, and more!

Extra TidbitsThe Custom Shapes tool has some ready-made flowers you can start with, but you may want to create your own from a single petal.

Below you can see the Heart, Raindrop, and Circle from the Custom Shapes menu, but don’t stop there.

What about the petal shapes we see in photos of flowers? I’m amazed at the variety of petals one can find in nature! I’ve shown just a few here.

To make it easier to arrange the petals, I’ve created an action that will work in Photoshop Elements 7 or in Photoshop. If you don’t have a program that supports actions, you can use the method demonstrated in Lesson 3.

Inspiration for Silk Flowers

When you select a flower out of a photo, you can make it look like a silk flower by adding texture to it. First press Ctrl J (Mac: Cmd J) to duplicate the flower layer.

Choose Filter > Texture > Texturizer

Use Scaling-150, Relief-3 and Choose bottom, left from the Light Menu. Click okay.

Get the Eraser tool and erase the center of the flower. Press Ctrl E (Mac: Cmd E) to merge down. You’ll learn how to give a flower a frayed looked in the Silk Flower tutorials.

Flowers already in the

Custom Shape Tool

Texture and frayed edges give

this flower a fabric look.

Premier Gallery PagesWe’d love to see your pages using this month’s kit! The Premier Gallery is for pages created using the current Premier Designer Kit and to showcase the techniques taught in the current month. Please create all pages for the gallery exclusively with this month’s kit.

We love seeing what you create with other kits, but just make sure you put pages featuring other kits in the regular Member Gallery, not in the Premier Gallery.

Thanks in advance!

Coupon Code & Premier Forum PasswordYou can find the April password in the Premier Members’ area. Once you’ve registered and logged in to the Scrapper’s Guide Forum, this password gives you access to the Premier forum, and can be used in our shopping cart to get an additional 10% off any purchase (except Premier membership).

April DownloadsAll links to download the Video Tutorials, Designer Kit andQuickAlbum are in the Premier Members’ area on the Scrapper’s Guide website.

Premier Log-In

There’s a link to the Premier Log-In page on the Scrapper’s Guide home page, scrappersguide.com, and also in every Digital Scrapper Tip of the Week email in the “Learn Digital Scrapbooking” section.

Additional Information

In the Premier Members’ area, look at the left navigation bar for a link to the Premier FAQ for information on the following:• Helpful hints for downloading• What to do if you go on vacation and can’t download your files• What to do if you lose your Premier issuesYou can also find links to additional videos and tutorials for Premier members.

© 2009 Scrapper’s Guide. All rights reserved. This content is for current Premier members only. If you have friends or associates who are interested in this information, please refer them to www.scrappersguide.com where they can sign up for their own Digital Scrapper Premier subscription. Do your part to prevent digital piracy so that we can continue to offer you valuable products like Premier.