June Calendar Day

Ahhh, sweet June has arrived!  Summer is on its way!  Only a few more days left of school for my kids, and the lazy days of summer will be upon us.  I'm not sure what we're doing this summer, but I'm hoping for plenty of days at the beach!  What will you be up to?

I finally got to work on my June calendar, which to me looks more whimsical than lazy days of summer but here it is:

I really like the color scheme of this collection called Snap Happy by Dani Mogstad.  I picked up this digi collection, which has a boat load of images, at Snap Click Supply for 1.99 during the One Buck Wednesday sale.  You should check this sale out if you haven't already, but be careful, it's dangerous to your wallet!  Luckily, DH doesn't read this blog.

Getting back to the calendar, there's only a few things I did differently.  I made my own checkerboard pattern for the grid, and I used the pre made tags included in the collection for the days.  I also used the included alphabet for the title and numbers.  The only place I used a font is for the noted holidays or events for this month.  As much as I like the alphabet for the numbers, it made getting them all lined up a bit more difficult than if I had used a font because each number was on a separate layer.  Of course if I had named the layers as I went along it would have made it much easier!  Hint: Naming layers as you drag them onto your project is a good habit to get into, it helps you keep everything straight as you work.  But you already knew that, didn't you?  Well, let's just say it took me a while to realize it, OK?

Here's what I used in case you like what you see:
Snap Happy Collection by Dani Mogstad
Background Masks Collection by Samantha Walker
TXT Modern Mom (font) 

Hope your summer is a crafty one!
 

Mid March Calendar Day...In Like A Lion!

Yup, March certainly came in like a lion!  We had snow the second day, and where I live if there's snow on the ground the kids don't go to school.  Good grief!  I used to pray for snow days growing up in New York.  We were lucky if we got one!  So far my kids have had a total of 9 snow days!

So, this calendar has been done for over a week now.  I just got to printing it out today.  Then I realized I never posted it!  Guess my mind's been on other things.  So here it is, a combo of what March is all about, St. Patrick's Day and the blustery weather:

In Like A Lion. Out Like A Lamb!

Instead of the usual calendar grid I decided on the shamrocks, much like the calendar I made last month with hearts.  I clipped two papers on to a mask from a set by Samantha Walker.  The mask shape made me think of clouds, so it seemed appropriate for this calendar.  Since I don't have the charmed life graphic set the shamrock is in, I imported the pdf that's included in the cut it set into Photoshop and did some copying and pasting to create the rows.  To make the month and year title I created the shadow effect like I showed in this post.  To be honest, this isn't my favorite calendar.  I've got a severe case of the winter blahs.  I am so done with the cold, and it's really getting in the way of my creativity.  I'm hoping this month really does go out like a lamb, I need a taste of spring!  I do love the set In Like A Lion from Lettering Delights that I used, however.  The lion and lamb are so cute!

Speaking of cute, there's something else that's been taking up my time lately, and it is VERY cute.  Stay tuned, I'll be revealing that tomorrow!

Here's what I used for the calendar:
In Like A Lion Cut It Set
In Like A Lion Paper Pack
Charmed Life Cut It Set (Shamrock)
Background Mask Collection by Samantha Walker
SNF Simon Says Font
LDJ Fanciful Font
LD Charming Bold Font

Go out like a lamb and Have A Crafty Day!

Happy New Year!... and My January Calendar

I hope you had an excellent New Year's and you're ready to start a new year!  My main goal this year is to craft more, post more and shop less!  Of course I'll do that tomorrow since I just finished buying a ton of files at Lettering Delights!  Today was the last day of their site wide sale where everything was $1-$2 and on top of that there was a coupon.  I can't resist a sale like that.  The only thing I have a problem with is having so many files to choose from!  As I downloaded my newly purchased files I noticed all the other files I already have and realized I haven't used a lot of them.  I really want to put them to better use, hence the goal to craft more and shop less.  Do any of you have this problem?  I can't be the only one!

Now on to my January calendar which really didn't make much use out of those files, although I did use one to create the grid for this calendar.  I did something I've never done in Photoshop, create a grid with the marquee tool.  The calendar grid from Lettering Delights was a bit thick and I wanted something cleaner looking.  So I imported the grid and drew on top with the marquee tool using the LD grid as a guide.  I think it worked out pretty well.  Of course I added shadows to the January and 2014 using the method I did a tutorial on in this calendar day post.  I really didn't add much else to this calendar as I thought the paper did most of the work.  I liked it so much I didn't want to cover it up!  Snowy and chilly, just what January should be like!  The funny part is in my neck of the woods I haven't seen much snow!  I am truly grateful for that!

So there you have it!  I think I really like how basic this one is.  What do you think?  I did create another one with paper behind the grid, but I think I like this one the best.  Thanks so much for taking a look and reading my rambling!  Feel free to leave a comment!  In case you're interested, here's what I used for this calendar:

Echo Park Winter Wishes Paper Pack 1
SNF Honeycrisp font (January and numbers)
SNF Chantilly Lace font (2014)
Hip Hip Hooray Everyday Calendar cut it project

Christmas Tree Card with Lettering Delights

One of my favorite things to do is use Silhouette Studio Designer Edition (SSDE) to apply textures to card bases and shapes.  It's the only reason I decided to buy a Silhouette Cameo since I already had a cutting machine.  So here's a card I made using an image and digital paper from Lettering Delights.  It's very simple to create and if you don't want to go through the print and cut process it's easy enough to cut the card base on a paper trimmer.

For this card I created a 4.25x11 rectangle for the base.  For a shape to apply the paper to I created another 4.25x5.5 rectangle.  I made sure this rectangle was set to no cut since I only wanted to print the shape.  I filled this shape with patterned paper from the Claus Applause paper pack and put it above the card base. I love doing this because it not only saves ink by leaving the back side of the card blank, but I think it looks more professional.  I then created the smaller rectangle (3.925x.810) for the sentiment and colored it white and placed it above the card base.  I selected the type tool and typed in Merry Christmas, sized and colored it.  The brown frame was created by yet another rectangle 4x5.25 and sizing two smaller rectangles on the inside.  To make the open space I went to Object, Modify, Subtract.  This frame was cut twice and glued together to add a little dimension.  Next I cut the tree in colored cardstock at the imported size which is 4".  I wanted a little dimension for the tree so I made a .20 inset of the base layer and cut this from cereal box.  If I had made the inset any larger it would have made the shape two pieces because of the narrow distance where the tree meets the star.  I would have liked the inset shape a bit smaller, but you can hardly notice it and this method is much easier than using foam tape to pop it up.  To cut the card base I did use the print and cut method because I just like doing it!  There you have it, a very simple Christmas card!  Thanks for looking, and don't forget to let me know what you think! 

Items used for this card:
Silhouette Studio DE
Silhouette Cameo
Core'dinations Cardstock (green,blue green, red)
American Crafts Cardstock (white card base for printing)
Bazzill Cardstock(brown frame)
Claus Applause Cutset  (on sale until 12/22/13)
Claus Applause Paper Pack (on sale until 12/22/13)
SNF Cheer Squad (font) (on sale for $1!)
(I am not an affiliate for LD or ScrapNFonts)

Calendar Day and a Photoshop tidbit I learned

So here's my December calendar!  I can't believe 2013 is coming to an end! (Why are these letters so small?  Beats me!  They get bigger down below!)

While making this calendar I learned something so I thought I'd share it here in case I forget then I can always come back and look!  I learned how to make a shadow in Photoshop for the '2013' on the calendar.  There is more than one way to do it, but I think the way I show here is the easiest for me.  Here are the steps I took:

1.Type the characters and under the layer style menu choose stroke.

 2. Select the size (#pixels) and color of the stroke (this is a matter of preference) and click OK.

 3. Create a new layer and draw a rectangle using the rectangular marquee tool.   Fill the rectangle with the same color as the shadow (teal) using the paintbucket tool.

 4. Put the rectangle layer under the character layer (brown), choose the rectangle and shadow layer (teal), right click and select merge layers.  This allows you to separate the layers in the next step.
 

The rectangle is between the bottom shadow layer and the brown letters

 5. To separate the two shapes select the original characters (brown)with the magic wand, right click and choose layer via cut.

6. To make the shadow a solid shape, first duplicate the original (brown).  Close the eye on the top copy because it is above the original and you won't be able to see it unless you do!  Select the original with the magic wand and color it the same color as the shadow (teal) using the paintbucket.

7.Now all you have to do is select both layers and merge them.

8. You now have your original characters as well as a solid shadow shape!

So, was that too confusing?  I've never really written a "tutorial" before if that's what this is!  I'm sure plenty of you know how to do this (it was a revelation for me!), so this isn't for you!  Actually for me it would have been easier to go into Make The Cut and create a shadow in less than 5 seconds, but I happened to be in Photoshop and I was too lazy to open another program and go through that process.  I don't think it's a bad idea to learn things in more than one program either, makes you super knowledgeable!  In case you're interested here is what I used for my calendar:

Carta Bella Merry and Bright digi papers and elements from Jessica Sprague
Calendar Builder graphic set (grid and 'December') from LD
Fonts (all from Scrapnfonts):
SNFSimonsays
SNFSimonsays3D
SNFSunday

See ya later and just keep crafting!  Of course, you could leave a comment too!