Here’s a tip for you when working with various templates or QuickPages.

• Place your photo in the layer above the placeholder.
• Resize your photo to be close to where you’re going to crop it.
• Temporarily hide the photo layer by clicking on the “eye” (visibility icon) in the layer palette for that layer.
• Select the placeholder layer and get your wand tool.  Since placeholders typically have one solid color, it’s a sinch to select the area cleanly.  Click once inside the placeholder and you should see a marquee selection appear.  If the boundary isn’t what you want, then you may need to tweek the selection, but I’ve never had that happen.
• Keep the selection and click back on the “eye” visibility icon to show the photo again.  Verify that the photo is placed inside the selection because you’re going to cut out everything outside the marquee selection in the next step.  If the photo isn’t placed exactly where you want it, then deselect your selection and go back and repeat the steps after resizing your photo.

 
Now, make sure your photo layer is still selected and invert your selection by clicking Select, Inverse (or CTL+SHF+I).  This will select everything you want to delete.  Now press the delete key.

What you’re left with is your photo exactly placed inside the placeholder with the photo matting remaining the same.

Get her entire store* 30% on January 18, 2010 (est)
store • blog

Tell us about the day you woke up and said “I want to be a digital scrapbook designer!”

I certainly have a love for “creating” things, whether it be music, art or word art!   About four months ago, I finally decided to take the time to play around with PSE (that I had purchased over a year ago and had never touched) and I started creating some word art, just for fun.  Gradually, as I became more familiar with Photoshop I began to really get hooked on making fun and unique word art; eventually, I began posting them on my blog as FREEBIES and it has been fun to see the interest in something I have created.  Just like so many people, I enjoy creating beautiful and inspirational designs that others can use in their personal projects, whatever they may be.  I still have a lot to learn, but I am sure having fun in the process!

Inspiration is everywhere, but what are the things that catch your eye?

I love a good laugh…so really any saying that brings a smile to my face!

Out of all the products that you have created, which one is your favorite?

Which one is most popular?

Describe your style.

I would say that my style is definitely a combination of things:  elegant, funky, funny, inspirational, classic, decorative, grungy, etc.  I try to incorporate a myriad of “styles” into my word art, depending on the expressions I am using.

What is one thing about digital scrapbooking that you couldn’t live without? i.e. Undo, templates, color changing, fonts

Easy….the undo button!!!

What colors do you find yourself drawn to with designs, i.e. bright, funky, soft, earthy etc…

Rich colors, earthy, grungy, classic

Tell us (or show us) what your work area looks like.

I share my office with my husband and he is a “neat-freak” so it is usually clean and tidy!  He set me up with two screens, which makes working with several different programs at the same time so much easier.  He’s awesome!

What does your family think about you being a digital scrapbook designer?

My husband and kids both think it is great; they are constantly giving me ideas and inspiration.

What is one thing about yourself that others might not know.

I gag when I smell or see donuts, and I cannot stay away from ice cream if it is in front of me, especially plain old vanilla!

What other hobbies do you have?

Art, sketching portraits, piano, singing, home decorating, learning to play the guitar, playing board games, reading good books, watching good movies at home with my husband.

Tell us about you, what you love, what you hate, your family, your friends.

I am a married stay-at-home-mom of three beautiful children: 9,7 and 4. I was born in Utah, but have lived in several different places including Arizona, Japan and Ohio. Before I had my children, I taught Japanese in both a high school and a junior high setting at The Waterford School in Utah and loved every minute of it….OK….most every minute of it! Since that time, I have been fortunate to be able to stay home with my little ones and support my husband’s desire to serve in the military. He is an Army Intelligence Officer and loves the work that he does everyday (what work that is, I literally have NO idea!!!) I just know he loves it, and that is all that matters. My kids are my little angels and I love them dearly: two boys and a precious girl, who is so much like me it is scary! They really are great kids.

I consider myself a wife first, a mom second, and an artist third. For the past ten years or so, I have not been able to spend too much time in the art department, but that is changing now that my kids are a little older. My husband bought me a guitar for Christmas and I am slowly learning some chords….slowly! And, I have started sketching again, something I regret I haven’t done in a while. A few months ago, I began playing around with word art and got hooked pretty fast. I love turning something bland and uninteresting into something visually fresh and exciting. So word art, for now, is my “thing” and I absolutely love doing it. My family, my friends and my beliefs inspire my work and I hope that others will be able to use and enjoy my creations, because I truly love what I do

* $1.00 Pixel’s and Gotta Grab It Products are not included in on the 30% sale.

A thought…

My photo today has nothing to do with the prompt.  I recently found some M&M’s I’ve not seen before, coconut flavored, and let me tell you.. they are yummy little pieces of happy for your tongue.

But today’s prompt really isn’t a prompt but a thought.  I apologize for going a little off course.

Today, while flipping through the channels, I landed on a music video by Johnny Cash singing “Hurt”.  When this version first came out years ago, I was taken aback by it, as I was more familiar with the NIN version, and was stunned into silence listening to Johnny Cash’s gravely voice sing lyrics that were once screamed by NIN.  I’m not a big fan of country, however, I have a strong love for Johnny Cash.  He reminds me of my grandfather, and my grandfather was a huge fan of Cash.  As a child, I remember sitting in my grandfather’s car, with a tape in the tape player, and the warbling of Cash’s voice vibrating the air around me.  The is something about his voice that captivated me and made me love a type of music that I didn’t normally embrace.  To this day, when I hear Johnny Cash sing, I think of my grandfather, who passed away 9 years ago, before he had a chance to know his great-grand children… before he was given a chance to see what I knew I would become… and today, as I watched the music video on the television, I wanted to take a picture of my grandfather for today’s picture.. but instead, all I can offer is a picture of my M&M’s…

What is the 365 Day Challenge?

The challenge is pretty straight forward; take a picture every single day for an entire year.  To help motivate myself, and you, I will be posting every day in 2010 with prompts (ideas) of things you can photograph.  You can use these prompts to help you find a subject for you photo, or you can take a picture of whatever jumps out at you first.  Interpret the prompts as you wish.  Some days it may be a word, or a quote or even a photo itself.  What you take from it is totally up to you!  On the days where you’re stumped, go outside of your box!  Look around your house and find something that inspires you, uplifts you, makes you ponder, and photograph it.  Everything that is around us is photo worthy, we just have to open our eyes and give it a chance!

Whether you take your picture with your camera, your cell phone, or if you scrap a week at a time, we would love to see what you’ve done.  Feel free to upload to the 365 Challenge Gallery, and join us in the 365 Forum to chat about our day!

Don’t forget to grab our official 365 Challenge Blinkie!

Get her entire store* 30% on January 17, 2010 (est)
store • blog • gallery

Tell us about the day you woke up and said “I want to be a digital scrapbook designer!”

I am not sure I actually woke up one day and decided I wanted to be a digital scrapbook designer, I sort of just drifted into it without really realizing what I was I was doing!!!  I’ve always made my own stuff and I’ve used Photoshop for years and I made my own papers for craft project for years also and one day was trying to do something and I couldn’t get it right, by that time I had not long since got the internet and decided to make a search for what I was trying to do, that’s when I discovered the world of digital scrapbooking.  Although that wasn’t the day I became a designer as such it was the day I designed my first ‘kit’!!  It took me another two years to pluck up the courage to ask Stacy if I could sell my designs in her store though!!

Inspiration is everywhere, but what are the things that catch your eye?

Oh my, everything catches my eye!!  I have found inspiration just about everywhere from the supermarket to bus stop!  I’ve always been keen eyed and look at everything in detail.

Out of all the products that you have created, which one is your favorite?

I have too many favorites, do I really need to pick just one?  Okay then ……Rubber Ducky might be my favorite at the moment but I think I’m getting a new favorite with the one I am creating right now!!  My favorites change often!!

Which one is most popular?

That’s hard to tell, I think it might be this one, Life Blooms.

Describe your style.

I don’t really know how to describe my style, do I have one?  I guess I do but I don’t know, I try to change a little with the times and try to keep up with the trends!!

What is one thing about digital scrapbooking that you couldn’t live without? i.e. Undo, templates, color changing, fonts

Hmm, I think the ability to be able to print my layouts out myself, does that count?!!  I couldn’t live without that, I love that I can print them and have them in albums I can let my boys thumb through and then just be able to re-print them if they muck them up.

What colors do you find yourself drawn to with designs, i.e. bright, funky, soft, earthy etc…

I like all colours bar pink!!  I have made several kits containing pink now and I’m proud of myself each time I finish one!!  I find pink really hard to work with for some reason!!  As for colours  I like best, I don’t know, I prefer bright colours to pastel ones but I love earthy tones too.

Tell us (or show us) what your work area looks like.

Oh my, this is an embarrassing one, do I really have to tell you???  Okay well try to picture this, you’ll laugh I am telling you!!!  My computer is in the closet in my bedroom.  Due to lack of space I have no choice.  I live in a small 2 bedroom house with 3 boys.  A couple of years ago we had to exchange bedrooms with the boys so they had the larger one so we could fit a third bed in the room without doing a triple bunk!!  So we got the small room and had to squash everything in this little tiny room which isn’t much bigger than our double bed.  So the doors came off the closet and the table went in, I share my closet with my husband who makes music so as I sit at my desk I have an electronic keyboard under my left elbow and an electronic saxophone hanging at my head!!  If we work at the same time we have to move to let each other in and out of our chairs!!  We put shelves on the back wall of the closet and that’s where my printer, scanner and DVDs are and if you are wondering where we put our clothes well we have a standing wardrobe on the landing outside the bedroom and the rest of them are in boxes under the bed.

What does your family think about you being a digital scrapbook designer?

Well I think they are proud of me!  I hope so anyway!!  My boys love that I can make them anything and always put my name down to help with school activities that requires anything ‘arty’.  And my husband is always letting people know what I do, he is proud to hand out my store address to his clients, he has got many a client interested in digital scrapbooking!!

What is one thing about yourself that others might not know.

Is there anything you all don’t know about me?!!  Okay here’s one snippit:  I used to work for a glass engraver years ago back home in England and I engraved a piece, a crystal bowl, for Prince Charles.

What other hobbies do you have?

I did have lots of other hobbies but now I tend only to have the time for digital scrapbooking!!  I did all kinds of crafts though everything apart from knitting and sewing!!!  I’m not good with needles I guess!!  I’ve done everything else from paper sculpture to lace making and love everything, just wish I had more time!!

Tell us about you, what you love, what you hate, your family, your friends.

Not much to tell about me, I’m a very normal person!  I have a husband and 3 sons but I bet you already know that!!  I was born in England, have travelled the world on cruise ships and now live in QC Canada, my life is totally different now to what it was when I was young and for someone who does not like ‘change’ I think I’m doing okay to survive this although I don’t find it easy at all.  I miss my family and friends back home a lot.  My husband’s family are not the same.  My life here is hectic, all three of my boys have behavioral problems which makes it very difficult, I get little help (actually NO help) from my husband’s family here and I only really have one friend in QC who lives a couple of hours away so I do feel like I am doing this on my own and it gets tough sometimes.  My husband has the craziest job and is away a lot, when he works he works from early in the morning to really late at night or early the next morning so can go a few months at time without ever seeing the boys and I have noticed that things are harder when their father is not around.   My biggest challenge is homework help for my boys!!  Thankfully only one needs it at the moment, I have two in school but the second one is a little genius thank goodness!!  My eldest has dyslexia among other things and so he needs a lot of help, I am not the best for helping him but I have no choice, not only do I have the language against me (he goes to French school, I have no choice with that either) I am dyslexic also and so I have that against me aswell, I have to somehow read the homework, understand and then explain it to him, I have a really hard time with that but do the best that I can, it’s all I  can do!!  And in the very little spare time I get in between all that I sit here in my closet and design my kits!!   That’s my life in a nutshell!!

* $1.00 Pixel’s and Gotta Grab It Products are not included in on the 30% sale.

Grab the freebie she has added to her store as well!

The Weather

Stacy here again!  I’m going to be honest with you all.. I didn’t take any pictures today.  I’ve been working on a top secret surprise for the site and I lost track of the world today.  This all falls into the “it’s okay to miss a day here and there in this challenge”.

So, for today’s prompt, I’m sharing a photo from last week.  We’ve been having some crazy weather here in Nebraska, and the recent weather is “freezing fog”.  The fog ends up freezing and crystallizing on the tree branches and the sight is simply breath taking.  I woke up to see the trees cover in a white moss and grabbed my camera as I was headed out the door to take my daughter to school and my workout at the Y.  I’m so glad that I did, because I’m in love with the pictures that I took.  The trees looks so magical covered in white, stunning actually.

So today’s prompt is to capture your local weather as it’s make a beautiful impact on your life.  This prompt may need to be saved for a different day, but it’s here to use anytime you realize that the sunshine just made you smile.

What is the 365 Day Challenge?

The challenge is pretty straight forward; take a picture every single day for an entire year.  To help motivate myself, and you, I will be posting every day in 2010 with prompts (ideas) of things you can photograph.  You can use these prompts to help you find a subject for you photo, or you can take a picture of whatever jumps out at you first.  Interpret the prompts as you wish.  Some days it may be a word, or a quote or even a photo itself.  What you take from it is totally up to you!  On the days where you’re stumped, go outside of your box!  Look around your house and find something that inspires you, uplifts you, makes you ponder, and photograph it.  Everything that is around us is photo worthy, we just have to open our eyes and give it a chance!

Whether you take your picture with your camera, your cell phone, or if you scrap a week at a time, we would love to see what you’ve done.  Feel free to upload to the 365 Challenge Gallery, and join us in the 365 Forum to chat about our day!

Don’t forget to grab our official 365 Challenge Blinkie!

Get her entire store* 30% on January 16, 2010 (est)
store • blog

Tell us about the day you woke up and said “I want to be a digital scrapbook designer!”

It was kind of decided for me. I’m in graphic design business for several years. When I gave birth to my son I started designing stuff to decorate his photos. Some of them I posted on my blog. A few people saw my designs and contacted me. Why not arrange them in coordinating kits? I had no idea digital scrapbooking was so fun. I was hooked immediately.

Inspiration is everywhere, but what are the things that catch your eye?

I find inspiration in old fairy tales, children’s stories and songs, my son’s smile everyday little things trigger ideas, if only  I had the time to design all day long.

Out of all the products that you have created, which one is your favorite?

1 Beautiful World.  It was so fun designing this kit. Children of the world are the future and I can see that our children have more respect and love for their planet than we do.

Which one is most popular?

Spring Swirled

Describe your style.

It is shabby, whimsical and fairytale dreamy

What is one thing about digital scrapbooking that you couldn’t live without? i.e. Undo, templates, color changing, fonts

I wouldn’t live without my photoshop styles and brushes. I have created a huge collection that helps me give different textures and styles on my designs.

What colors do you find yourself drawn to with designs, i.e. bright, funky, soft, earthy etc…

I like most colors. I like vivid or pastel. I don’t like  monochrome kits I prefer many colors and love to try many combinations.

Tell us (or show us) what your work area looks like.

Well its a bit messy. My Computer, pen tablet, scanner and all around  my pastels my watercolors, many pencils, papers and stuff like that and of course my son is on my lap, he loves to watch me paint.

What does your family think about you being a digital scrapbook designer?

They are a bit concerned that I’m always preoccupied with lots of stuff and tired but they all love my designs and my prints.

What is one thing about yourself that others might not know.

I’m an open book.

What other hobbies do you have?

Archaeological illustration, Painting, web design, graphics design, jewelry making, collecting and customizing bjd dolls and lots of studying

Tell us about you, what you love, what you hate, your family, your friends.

I love my job in Archaeology and my other job as designer. I have a great need to make stuff with my hands like painting or sculpting or even stitching, it’s sth I had since childhood.   I try to find time to devote to my husband and my 2.5year old  son who I adore but sometimes I feel it’s not enough. Some friends of mine gave everything up for their family and I feel guilty for not doing the same. But I try hard to make it work and I think I’m doing ok. I always keep in touch with my friends and it is so great I made so many more friends through scrapbooking. Thank you all so much for supporting me all this time and for choosing my designs.

* $1.00 Pixel’s and Gotta Grab It Products are not included in on the 30% sale.

Just for Kicks

  It was warm out today, for a change and so very nice. So I opted to dig in the closet for some more “comfy” shoes. While digging, I came across my favorite sandals like ever, and I just so happened to be wearing a red sweater so I decided they needed wore again. They are quite special to me and I got them for a heck of a bargain.  

So for today’s prompt, take a photo of  the kicks that get you through each day, or your favs, or the kiddos pile up or to signify your hate of em! Here is mine:

What is the 365 Day Challenge?

The challenge is pretty straight forward; take a picture every single day for an entire year.  To help motivate myself, and you, I will be posting every day in 2010 with prompts (ideas) of things you can photograph.  You can use these prompts to help you find a subject for you photo, or you can take a picture of whatever jumps out at you first.  Interpret the prompts as you wish.  Some days it may be a word, or a quote or even a photo itself.  What you take from it is totally up to you!  On the days where you’re stumped, go outside of your box!  Look around your house and find something that inspires you, uplifts you, makes you ponder, and photograph it.  Everything that is around us is photo worthy, we just have to open our eyes and give it a chance!

Whether you take your picture with your camera, your cell phone, or if you scrap a week at a time, we would love to see what you’ve done.  Feel free to upload to the 365 Challenge Gallery, and join us in the 365 Forum to chat about our day!

Don’t forget to grab our official 365 Challenge Blinkie!

We’ll be back tomorrow with another designer interview, but for Friday, January 15, 2010 enjoy a coupon from Sweet Digi Scraps!

Head on over to her store and when you purchase $5 or more of her products, you get $3 off! Just enter the coupon code SDS3off5 during checkout and the discount will appear.

Coupon is good until January 31, 2010 and 1 use per customer please!

I Feel Pretty

  My daughter wanted to chime in today when I was cleaning my nails up and repolishing. Everyone else was napping, so it was just me and Stevie time. So instead of just painting, I got the nails out that was left from halloween. She enjoyed so very much having the fake nails on, and was showing them off all day (well at least til dinner when they started to come off LOL) But she kept telling me “Mommy, I am pretty” And it was just the sweetest thing.

So for today’s prompt, take a photo of something you do for yourself, or makes you feel good, Or makes someone else feel good- or even just something nice you did for someone else (Anything to signify the act ).    Here is mine:

What is the 365 Day Challenge?

The challenge is pretty straight forward; take a picture every single day for an entire year.  To help motivate myself, and you, I will be posting every day in 2010 with prompts (ideas) of things you can photograph.  You can use these prompts to help you find a subject for you photo, or you can take a picture of whatever jumps out at you first.  Interpret the prompts as you wish.  Some days it may be a word, or a quote or even a photo itself.  What you take from it is totally up to you!  On the days where you’re stumped, go outside of your box!  Look around your house and find something that inspires you, uplifts you, makes you ponder, and photograph it.  Everything that is around us is photo worthy, we just have to open our eyes and give it a chance!

Whether you take your picture with your camera, your cell phone, or if you scrap a week at a time, we would love to see what you’ve done.  Feel free to upload to the 365 Challenge Gallery, and join us in the 365 Forum to chat about our day!

Don’t forget to grab our official 365 Challenge Blinkie!

Get Cherie’s entire store* 30% on January 14, 2010 (est)
store • blog • gallery

Tell us about the day you woke up and said “I want to be a digital scrapbook designer!”

When I started digital scrapbooking in 2005 there wasn’t much product to choose from. I remember getting frustrated that I couldn’t find what I needed. So I started figuring out how to create my own items. Becoming a designer was a slow process, I never woke up one morning and decided I wanted to do it.

Inspiration is everywhere, but what are the things that catch your eye?

Anything random and interesting can easily catch my eye. A christmas decoration, a piece of vintage jewellery, a tshirt slogan, little nick knacks in a homewares store, an interesting shell on the beach, a lollypop in a candy store or a piece of junk in the gutter of the road.

Out of all the products that you have created, which one is your favorite?

Goodness! That is like asking a mother to pick which child she loves more. Do I really have to pick just one favourite? If I have to pick just one it would probably by “Oh Nostalgia” which is a little mini kit, but it has so many gorgeous elements in it and I adore the colours. I’ve actually designed and ordered a personalised bucket handbag using this kit and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Which one is most popular?

The most popular kit would be “Always and Ever” a wedding/love themed kit that I created in 2007, then updated and re-released in 2009. It seems to be an enduring classic. I created it for my sister’s wedding album and it just has so many uses with all the different elements in it..

Describe your style.

I definitely trend towards the real/realistic elements these days and love texture/depth in my papers. So you will almost always see a crinkle or a fold and loads of texture in my paper designs. As far as colours/theme/inspiration goes, I am eclectic and try a bit of everything.

What is one thing about digital scrapbooking that you couldn’t live without? i.e. Undo, templates, color changing, fonts

My wacom tablet. I don’t draw, but I do find it invaluable for doing fiddly extraction work. I also love my scanner, my DSLR and am a font junkie.

What colors do you find yourself drawn to with designs, i.e. bright, funky, soft, earthy etc…

It really depends on my mood. Some days I love it brighter/bolder, others I prefer softer/earthy.

Tell us (or show us) what your work area looks like.

I have a big L shaped desk with a hutch. To my right there is my printer and my Canon 8800F scanner. Underneath is my pc tower with inbuilt card reader. In front of me is my wacom graphire tablet, my LCD screen, my headphones and my pink speakers. In the corner of my desk my Canon DSLR lives. I use a gaming grade mouse because it is light and resposive for my work. To my left there are boxes and tubs full of craft supplies and found bits and pieces. My desk lives in the living room where I can keep a close eye on my son when he is not at school.

What does your family think about you being a digital scrapbook designer?

My son thinks it’s great and tries to name my kits sometimes. The rest of my family don’t seem to see it as a serious profession.

What is one thing about yourself that others might not know.

I do not drive a car. I walk or take buses/trains and used to ride a bike everywhere. Well meaning family and friends have tried and failed to get me to drive enough to even think of taking my driver’s test. Being a passenger in a car accident 7 years ago pretty much cemented my dislike of cars entirely. My car was a complete write-off.

What other hobbies do you have?

Believe it or not I love getting messy with glue occasionally. I’m just too scissors challenged to paper scrapbook. I love doing crafts and my most recent effort was making a 3D pinata car for my son’s birthday. I also love to bake and my son usually gets messy in the kitchen helping me. Our last baking attempt was making chocolate balls for christmas.

Tell us about you, what you love, what you hate, your family, your friends.

I am 33, live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and am a single mum living with my son. My friends will tell you that I am very down to earth and what you see is what you get. I really dislike people who pretend to be who they are not. We have beautiful beaches where I live so I love going to the beach and feeling the sand between my toes. My favourite time of year is definitely Chirstmas time. I love all the colour, sparkle and lights. I am a self confessed facebook addict and have my own fan page there. I love the Twilight series, but am not a fan of the movies. I am a book lover, but older books make me sneeze (allergies). I love listening to music while I’m busy doing things at home, as it helps me focus. I am a little too into GLEE (I used to be in the school choir in highschool) so I find myself relating to it a lot as a lot of the popular kids did choir and musicals. I am very passionate about digital scrapbooking, so much that I have actually introduced and taught friends and family this wonderful hobby. I hope someday soon to teach digital scrapbooking in addition to my designing.

* $1.00 Pixel’s and Gotta Grab It Products are not included in on the 30% sale.