Art Journaling - Heritage Style

For the last month or two I've been seeing "art journaling" layouts and kits and I've been wanting to give this style a try. Since often times art journal pages have no photographs and I have no photos of my "distant" ancestors, it occurred to me that an art journaling style of scrapbook page might fit really well with genealogy/family history scrapbooking. So I spent some time (too much time LOL) the last couple weeks, trying to learn more about creating a "painterly" feel to my background pages. And the timing couldn't have been better since I was inspired by Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge and an email received the day before from a distant cousin to write a blog post about Anna Maria Reinert - a 4th great-grandmother of mine.

I shared the resulting page on my genealogy blog and am posting it here as well. I am working on an art journaling pack/kit to use to create additional, coordinating pages.

Moonlit Oasis - Free for a Limited Time

I made it to Round 3 of the Next Designer Contest at DSS. This is traditionally the no-CU round. This year it was a little different. We could use CU, but only what was provided in the Grab Bag for winning the previous round. We were also told to add an accent color to the provided palette, and that part of the judging criteria is supposed to be how accurately we are able to colorize gray scale CU elements. In addition, we needed to list out what tools we used to create our elements. Once again, there need to be at least 10 papers and at least 24 elements. The inspiration for this round was another gorgeous photo from Captain Kimo. And here is my entry....


The gorgeous inspiration photo by Captain Kimo, from which our palette was derived, was of twin mosque towers in Bahrain. As I was thinking of a theme and title, I was inspired by the mid-Eastern subject of the photo. I started thinking about the Arabian desert and finally settled upon Moonlit Oasis as a title and theme.

My kit was created in PS CS5. There are 10 papers and 24 elements. The added color is violet.

For the papers, I combined standard PS brushes and textures with my own overlays, textures, brushes, patterns, etc and with the overlays supplied in the CU gift. 

The 24 elements are as follows:

those Created by me in PS using standard brushes, shapes, patterns and filters and CU as indicated:
pyramid, stone wall, stone well, palm tree (palm fronds are based on one of the CU leaf templates), two unique border elements, circle frame (decorated with swirl from CU notecard pack), film strip frame (used modified CU style), glitter flourish (used CU glitter style), leaf sprig (used a modified CU layer style), moon and clouds, rolled flower (used a modified CU style), tag (string extracted), pearl scatter, and washi tape.

those recolored and decorated/styled from CU gift:
butterfly clip, Journal block and pocket, 2 striped ribbons, square frame 

those extracted from my own photos/scans:
flower, fabric flower (button center from CU pack), stitched bow, stitched knotted ribbon 
[not many extracts in this week's kit, burned out on extractions last week, LOL]

And here is the preview:

Download links are available in the DSS gallery [link]. Sorry, download links expired.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out the other awesome entries!

Sailor's Moon - Free for a Limited Time

I made it to Round 2 in the Next Designer Contest at DSS!! This week we chose our own color palette from an inspiration photo. The kit needed to have at least 10 papers and 24 elements and have something to do with the moon. (The moon is the common thread throughout the competition this year.)

I went with a nautical navigation/sailing theme. My kit was inspired by the sailors of yore who sailed across oceans by the light of the moon and the stars! I  included sailing and beach elements.  I can see this kit being used for beach vacation layouts and maybe even heritage/immigration layouts!

You get 10 papers, including solids, traditional patterns and "artsy." All are 12x12 at 300 ppi and suitable for  printing. The 24 elements are: a weathered square frame, a decorated round frame, a lighthouse, sailing word art, a full moon, a metal moon, a metal star, a tag, a button, 3 unique flowers, tied grass, a knotted ribbon, ribbon ropes, a captain's wheel, an old compass, a telescope, a life preserver, a barrel cluster, a post cluster,  a fence, a bow and coiled rope. And here's the preview:

If you like it, you can download it from the studio gallery [link]. Sorry, download links no longer active.

While you are there, take a look at the other great kits being offered!

Free Minikit - Magical Moonrise

I've been on a bit of a design hiatus lately as I was focusing more on genealogy. But it's that time of year again and DSS is holding their annual Next Designer Contest. Round 1 started on September 1 and ends tonight at midnight. The theme of this round was Moonrise with a palette that included various shades of purples and blues. The requirement was to create a mini kit consisting of 5 papers and 12 elements. I wasn't planning to participate, but in the end I just couldn't resist! So here's my entry for Round 1: Magical Moonrise.

The kit consists of 5 12x12 inch papers, 2 solids and 3 patterned. The 12 elements are a frame, 2 paper flowers, a paper sprig of foliage, a knotted ribbon, a tied ribbon, a button, a journal tag, a glitter ribbon, a glass moon, a glass star banner and a sprinkle. All papers and elements were created at 300 ppi and are suitable for printing.

If you like it you can download it from the DSS gallery: [sorry download expired]. The download link will be active at least until October 1. While you are there, check out the awesome kits!

Enjoy!

Layout with Journey to America Kit

I'm working on a new kit called "Journey to America." I designed it with the idea of creating layouts pertaining to immigration -- so I definitely had the genealogist scrapper in mind! Since the kit is nearly finished, I decided to scrap a page or two to see how the elements work together. This is something I almost always do when I create a new kit. I was pretty happy with the layout, so I thought I would share it on this blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when the kit is finished - maybe another limited time freebie since that worked out pretty well with the American Patriot kit. In any case, here's the layout "Daisy's Journey."

American Patriot 2012 - Free for a Limited Time

Last summer I created a kit called American Patriot. I released it as a freebie in 2 parts - the first for Memorial Day and the second for the Fourth of July. This year I decided to revisit the kit. I added new papers and elements and reworked others. I am releasing the entire kit as a freebie for 1 week in celebration of the Memorial Day Holiday here in the United States. Here is the preview:

The kit contains 12 full-sized (12x12 inch) papers and 24 elements: a metal frame, a paper frame, a stamp frame, a wooden cross, a straight ribbon, a folded ribbon, a length of rick-rack, a stitched paper star border, 3 unique flowers, 3 unique bows, a wooden button, a wooden arch, a butterfly, a firefly, a puffy star, a circle of stars, a scatter of stars, a tag, a leaf and a sprig of foliage. All are created at 300ppi and suitable for printed layouts. While patriotically themed for Memorial Day, the kit is versatile enough for a variety of layouts.

If you like it, there are 3 zip files to download accessible from [this link]. Grab them soon as they will only be available for a week.  Sorry, this freebie is retired.

Enjoy the kit and the Holiday!

Some Recent Layouts

The Art Paper that I made back at the end of January has been the inspiration for an ever-expanding and evolving kit that I have been using frequently for my personal scrapping. In February I created a heritage layout for the 151st wedding anniversary of my 2x's great-grandparents Charles and Emma James. I posted that one on my genealogy blog. I liked that layout so much that I used it as the basis for creating a wedding page of my niece's wedding. I first altered the color tone slightly and then modified the cluster. Both versions appear below. (I know that I could have used a different background paper and different elements, but I just really like the original and wanted to make a new page quickly!)

And the last layout I wanted to share is another heritage page. It was made with my current free mini-kit, Spring Is In The Air.

Thanks for looking -- and don't forget to grab Spring Is In The Air!

Spring Is In the Air - Free for a Limited Time

Well, it certainly has been a while, but I decided to join in the color challenge at the Studio and create a mini-kit this month. The kit contains 6 papers (12x12 inches) and 12 elements: three unique flowers, a frame, 2 unique intertwined ribbon sets, a button, a tag, a bead scatter, a bead chain wrap for the frame, a paper butterfly and a torn paper border. Here's the preview:

This kit can be downloaded at skydrive: [link] but it will only be available for a limited time - so if you like it, grab it soon!

Sorry, freebie retired.

Creating "Art Paper" from Photographs

Teri Hanson of DigiZines by Teri has (for one more day) an Art Paper challenge on her blog [here]. Basically, she has posted a short tutorial on creating "art paper" starting with a photograph and overlaying texture and digi-scrap papers and elements. I gave it a try, and came up with this:

If you like it, check back in a few days. I am planning to incorporate it into a free mini kit. In the meantime, hop on over to Teri's blog and join in the challenge.