IllustratingStories.com

Digital Scrapbooking & Collage Freebie

Download TheGreatOcean.zip (24272.9K)

We're so happy to announce a new FREEBIE for your digital (or hybrid) scrapbook and collage projects.  What makes it awesome is that we love this paper pack so much ourselves.  It was a blast to create!

We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!  Happy creating!

ATC Art Exchange

Today, we are excited to announce our second art exchange. This one will be an Artist Trading Card (ATC) project, with the theme Childhood Stories.

Our first exchange (a fatbook) opened up our world to some amazing artists. We had a wonderful time sharing stories, deadlines, and eventually finished pieces. If you haven't had a chance to walk through our fatbook, you can see it here.

To play along in the ATC exchange just go to the 2010 ATC Group in our tribe and join the group. NOTE: Our tribe is on the Ning Network, you will need an account (it's free!) with Ning to join.

The Details....

• You need to sign up by February 15th
• You will create a certain number of ATCs (number is determined by how many people participate, we will know this by February 16)
• When your ATCs are done, package them up and send them to us by March 15th (we will provide an address to those in the ATC group)
• We will compile the ATCs from all of the artists and then send you an ATC from each artist. We will also be making a fun holder/stand to help display all of that gorgeous art! All of this will be shipped back to you the first part of April. 
• There is no fee to participate in this exchange. You will of course have the cost of your supplies and the postage to send us your ATCs. We take care of shipping the finished ATC collection back to you.

What materials are used for ATCs?  Anything you want (that isn't harmful, toxic, or breakable).
See some examples...

• Youtube videos of ATCs
• Google videos of ATCs

What kind of art is included?  Anything goes: Scrap pages, printed digital art, mixed-media of all sorts, wax, canvas, etc.

What size are the ATCs?  2 1/2 X 3 1/2 inches (6cm X 9cm) (these will not be bound, so use up all of that space for your yummy art!)

How long to complete the ATCs?  Your ATCs need to be sent to us no later than March 15th

We are looking forward to exchanging art with another wonderful group of creative souls. During our first exchange, we shared glimpses of the finished pages as they came in. It was a taunt really, we didn't give you much to see. Be forewarned, Liz's evil laugh may make a return visit as we share little bits of the ATCs.

Let the fun begin!

 

Demo: Photoshop Shape Layers and Paths Tools

Before I get to the tutorial, I have two reader link-shares to pass on (did I mention we love y'all?  Well, it's true):

• Our friend Reenie sent us a link for an awesome digital imagery site (perfect for collage and other illustrated stories):  http://vintageprintable.com/wordpress/.
• Our friend Karin clued us into a new Photoshop brush site called C.S. Photoshop Brushes.

Both sites are...well,...yummy!  We're in love!

Thanks again for those shares Reenie and Karin!

........................................................

And now, the video...

This short video demo illustrates how to use the Paths and Shape Layers Tools in Photoshop (CS4) to create custom shapes, confine text within a shape, and stroke along a shapes edge with a dotted outline. This tutorial is useful to scrapbookers, collage artists, and art journalists interested in creating their own elements for their arts and crafts projects.

Enjoy and happy creating!

New Freebie for You

Download Swirl Freebie (43.7K) -- perfect for scrapbooking, collage, art journals, and more!

We have a new digital FREEBIE as a thank you to you, our readers.  We love you!  Thanks for following us and for contributing your ideas, thoughts, stories, and questions.  Your input and friendship mean the world to us!

Anniversary & Appreciation

Happy February!

This month marks our second anniversary and we are going to say thank you all month long with...

• Four (maybe more) free digi collections for our existing Digi Capers customers, these collections will also be available to purchase in our store for new customers
• A free digi collection for our tribe members, join by Friday February 5th to receive this collection
• Four free downloads for our readers
• A heartfelt giveaway and more

The last two years have been a whirlwind of new friendships and amazing discoveries. We are very blessed to have a community of enthusiastic readers that have made our lives richer. Thank you for taking time to spend with us. We look forward to many more years of sharing our stories.

Celebrate good times, come on! (sung Cool and The Gang style)

Studio Time with Crusade #36

This week in the studio, Liz and I used scraps, pencils, and scissors to create our own stencils and masks. The inspiration for this experimentation came from Michelle Ward and her GPP Street Team Crusades.

We had so much fun, enjoy all of the laughter in the video.

Thanks Michelle!

Tutorial and Tour: Photoshop Selection Tools

The following tutorial was inspired by IllustratingStories.com reader, Heidi Marling.  She was curious about how Smart Brushes (a Photoshop Elements feature) worked.  After looking into it, I found a great tutorial on the topic by Adobe.  However, it got me thinking about selection tools in general.  And, I thought it might be useful to have a tour of various tools with a little bit about why certain ones are better for certain jobs.

And, that's what the following video is about:  Photoshop selection tools.  Whether you are a digital scrapbooker, a digital photo enthusiast, a collage artist, or just interested in Photoshop, understanding which selection tools work best for the task at hand is useful.  This tutorial demonstrates the Rectangle Marquee, the Quick Selection, the Magic Wand, the Lasso, and the Magnetic Lasso tools.

As always, enjoy and happy creating!  Also, thanks for the great idea, Heidi!