Mindless Scrap

This was an odd challenge, LOL! I learned how to make my tubes blink! It was a fun tut, but mostly because I didn't have a scrap kit, I just picked up elements here and there and colorized them and put the together. Then putting the blink in was almost too easy. I am not sure I like blinking tubes. It's a little creepy, if you ask me, LOL! But who knows, I may want this kind of instruction for something else. Tutorial Used: http://www.candystreats.co.uk/psptutWinkofanEye.html .

I won the Scrap Kit Challenge! This is where we are given a scrap kit, and we have to do something with it, and can't use any outside elements or papers. This is so neat! :D .

In this challenge, I was given the top photo of the horse, and told to edit it in any way I choose. No animation. I actually had a blast with this one. First I added the motion trail with my Eye Candy. Then I practiced with coloring to black and white, and then applied chocolate to it. I duplicated the image and applied a Gaussian blur. I shrank the original and added borders to both images. I added the wording, and fiddled with the coloring until I got it to a point I liked. (Click on the image to see a larger version of it. I think it looks better larger). Neat stuff! Tutorial Used: None .

Ooh, this was tough! But it was neat. I enjoyed it. But the tut used a different version of PSP than I have, and it was hard to match up what they did. I had to change the settings a bit, but I think I still got the flavor of the challenge. With the settings they provided, it made mine all dark and shadowed. I don't know if I did something wrong before I got to the curves, or if I was just doing the curve settings incorrectly, but when I tried to duplicate the tut, it looked terrible. I moved the settings around until I got the picture back to black and white, instead of charcoal grey, then I fiddled with it a bit until you could read Chicago. Finally I was okay with how it looked. To start with, I had to erase the background on the original. It was way too dark. At the end, I did colorize a frame to use with it, or two frames, actually. It just didn't look finished to me without that. It also seemed to lesson the glare of the yellow slightly to sort of temper it wi...

I'm so excited! Someone told me about this internet group that is a teaching group for PSP. They call it PSP University. I signed up, figuring what do I have to lose? It's a teaching group, and it's free, two of my favorite combinations in PSP land. ;) The group is set up with classes. Undergrad, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. With lots of classes within each of those categories. You start at the beginning and work your way through. Cool! The undergrad courses focus a lot on the basics with being copyright compliant. Boy, where was that a couple months ago, when I was screwing up right and left, huh? LOL! I started with the undergrad classes, and in one night (okay, it was a long night sitting up worried about a loved one in the hospital, and no work to go to in the morning), I zipped through all eight of the undergrad classes. So far, I've passed them all! Yay! And they sent me the final exam yesterday. I took it and submitted my test. Now I jus...

This tutorial used Gorjuss tubes, which by now I'm sure you know, I'm not crazy about. I'm sorry, I know everyone else in the whole world thinks they are adorable, and I can't give you a clear cut explanation for what it is I don't like about them, but I just don't. Maybe they're just too youthful for me, or too girly, or something. A friend suggested that maybe I find them creepy because they just have eyes, LOL! Perhaps she's right. Whatever the reason, I can't do the tag with the suggested art. I think she's a wonderful, talented artist. I wish I had that kind of talent. But it just doesn't fit with my tastes. Well, I created it pretty much as the tut said. But it just didn't satisfy me, even with my favored artists. I tried adding bling to it, but that didn't do it for me either. So then I completely started over, and picked the colors and the elements I preferred. That was much more satisfying. I am a craftsman, or ...

I did this tut for fun. It had some interesting techniques in it for doing the background with plug ins. It also had some techniques for highlighting the edges of the flowers, which was neat to learn, but in this case, I'm not sure I liked the effect, at least on these particular photos. To me, it made the flowers look wilted or dead, LOL! Yuk. But I've also had people tell me they like the colors better. (I don't, but I guess I'm more of a bright yellow kinda gal.) I did it both ways. First I did it just like the tut (only with a different tube). That's the darker image on the bottom. Then I remade it the way I wanted to see it. That's the brighter yellow image on top. See which one you like better. :) Tutorial Used: http://www.sophisticatsimonepsptutorials.com/tutorials/BlackEyedSusan/BLACK_EYED_SUSAN.html .

I liked the looks of this. Not much in the challenging department, but I liked the denim feel of it. I like my tube better, though you can't go wrong with Garvey. I did play with plug ins to dress it up a bit. Tutorial Used: http://sites.google.com/site/rosestutsandtags/ftu-kit-tuts/angelflight-scraps/layers-of-lace

I thought this was an interesting look. I love the vibrant blue. And it was very challenging to make, because that whole frame is from scratch! Cool. I loved doing all the frame panels and adding the gold trim in between. I used this on a Mothers Day card I took my MIL in the hospital. She seemed to like the design, too. Tutorial Used: http://www.artistrypsp.com/Jemima/Tutorials/2007/MD07/MD07.htm .

Ah, a birthday challenge! Make a tag for a buddy's birthday! Fun! Here's my attempt. I couldn't find a paper I liked, so I made my own. And one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, Forever Young, is something I often send to my friends on their birthday, so I created a word art with the Forever Young on it. :D I added flames to the candles on the cake, and glittered the name. I recolored the balloons, and added confetti over them to make them more festive. I was pleased with the results. Then I altered it somewhat to make it more generic for future use. Tutorial Used: None

This challenge was to use specific scrap kit, and use no outside elements from another kit. I was pleased with how it turned out, and especially like my experiment with the animation. That was Eye Candy Nature, Water Drops, Condensation. I shrunk the water droplets way down, and got them moving. I thought it looked kinda nice, in a peaceful kind of way. Like a nice summer mist. :) Tutorial Used: None

Hey, I won again!! This was the coloring challenge, Fairy Princess. Wow, it was a tough one, too. The image was sketchy, with lots of disconnected lines, so the coloring was rough going. You couldn't flood fill, you had to paint it all on. But it was challenging, in a very good way. And it was really satisfying to WIN, LOL! Tutorial Used: None

Okay, I admit, I think the lady Santa is, well, creepy. But the background was cool to create, and so was the border. I might do this again near the holidays, and use a different tube that I find more attractive. They referred to this as the "sexy lady" but I just don't get that, lol. Tutorial Used: http://www.camthalion.com/lady_santa.htm

I liked this one for the work on the textures. I love tutorials that make you do things from scratch! Tutorial Used: http://www.camthalion.com/each_day.htm

This was a cool one, too. I like these tuts because they are not ordinary. I had to create bevels and use scan lines filters and use borders differently than I normally do... It was very fascinating. Tutorials Used: http://www.camthalion.com/Tutorials/timeisahealer.htm

Another tut, just for the heck of it. And another really interesting one! I liked this a lot. Not because of the way it looks, but because of what it had me doing. Again, it was creating something from nothing. There weren't elements and everything provided for you. You had to create it from scratch (except the tube and the butterfly). The background was fabricated from color and filters and stuff. Very challenging and interesting!! I am not crazy about teal blue, so I did mine in shades of pink. Tutorial Used: http://www.camthalion.com/Tutorials/ButterflyDreams.htm .

Now we're talking! I stumbled across some more tutorials. These are a little more advanced, using techniques and tools that are new to me. YAY!! I worked with gradients, with fur textures, with flood fills, with bevels, all KINDS of stuff! I loved this! It was fun, it was new, it was challenging! The design was okay, but I loved that I could do this all from scratch. How absolutely COOL. And there are other tuts on the site, so you'll see more of this kind of thing. Hey, I even liked the fonts. Tutorial Used: http://www.camthalion.com/love.htm

This was just for fun. I look for tuts that use PinUp Toons art, and stumbled across this. I thought it looked very sweet and innocent. A friend of mine must have agreed, because she wanted one for her daughter to hang in her room. Her daughter is also internet savy (like all kids her age I guess), so I made her the matching siggy, complete with animated butterflies. I hope she liked it. I moved the butterflies into a slightly different position, though. For some reason, on the sample, they almost look like fruit flies or something, ROFL! The seemed better suited a little ways away from the girl. This is very easy, but quite charming. Tutorial Used: http://designsbyirishlass.blogspot.com/2009/04/spring-daze.html .

This was strictly for fun, and because I love the looks of this tutorial! Adorable. I made it for everyone in my online group of moms that I've known for ages. One friend said it needed it kitten (she loves cats, so I added a kitten to the top of the bird house. I don't know what it is about this tag, but I love it. Just love it. Very easy to make. Tutorial Used: http://designsbyirishlass.blogspot.com/2009/04/spring-friendships.html .

Well, what do you know? Another Rocker Chick theme! How fresh! @@ I wasn't going to buy the tube for this one either. Just didn't do anything for me. I knew I had the little rocker with the heart tattoo from Popeye Wong, so that would work just fine for me. I found this tut to be rather simple, and didn't interest me much due to the overused rocker theme, so I got bored and started to play with the Eye Candy Nature plugins again. How cool! I added the lightening. Very fun. That made this tut worth working through. Tutorial Used: http://bnbtutorials.blogspot.com/2009/04/rock-chick.html .

Boy oh boy, the rocker chick theme is a common one, huh? I'm not a heavy rock fan, my styles steer more toward folk music, but I wanted to compete in the challenge. So I searched for some rocker tubes in my collection. It was a bit more cartoon looking that the tube used, but quite frankly, the one used doesn't look all that cute to me anyway. (Why do rock chicks always look so pissed off?) I also didn't care for the microphone in the kit. But there was a companion tube with a mic, so that worked better for me. The bouncing font was an accident, and I was going to fix it, but it seemed to go with the blasting speaker theme, so I left it, lol. I played with some more plug ins with this. That was interesting, but I'm not sure I'll use it again. We'll see. Tutorial Used: http://sites.google.com/site/kylietutorials/listentoyourheart .

This tutorial came from that Tut for You Tag for Me challenge game that I play. I loved the looks of this. The original had a lovely tube too, but I also liked how it looked with my Pinup Toons tube. Very simple tut, but very pretty results. Several friends liked it, so I made them tags, too. Tutorial Used: http://designsbyirishlass.blogspot.com/2009/03/delicate-spring.html

This challenge was to take their photo of a tree, and edit it in any way we saw fit. I played with my Eye Candy Nature plugins, and added some ice to it. But that seemed too conventional, so I also added fire, LOL! I didn't win, but I thought the look was rather interesting. Tutorial Used: None .

This challenge was to follow the tutorial on how to remove a background, then post a before and after photo. Yeah, you've seen it before. I reused my little experiment on background removal. But hey, he's so cute, I just love showing off my adorable little greaser, LOL! .

I rather liked this challenge. This was where they give you the tube, the frame, the font, the mask and the brush, and you are to apply it as you see fit. You have to be sure to use all the given elements, and you can only add a couple outside elements. I added the huge star. That was a plug in. I liked the looks of it. I never thought that I would use that plug in, but hey, it fit! Then I added the HSB noise to the little stars in the frame. I really faded out the mask, though. It looked rather gaudy when it was full opacity. And to my surprise, I won the weekly challenge with this! WOOOHOO!! Tutorial Used: None .

I'm not sure why I do these texture challenges, lol. I usually don't care for the results. This one was a viney leafy looking texture. I didn't have anything that really worked with the texture, so I put it on my son's face. I thought the laughing face with the leaves all over it kind of described my little outdoorsman, LOL. I don't expect this to be a winning design, but I'm learning about textures, so maybe it will pay off down the road. Tutorial Used: None .

This was for a scrapbooking challenge (as opposed to a siggy challenge). This is a full size scrapbook challenge. Wow, I never thought I would get to this point. I really liked this kit. I love the colors. I also liked the nature elements included. So I had fun working on this. I didn't try anything much new, used my background eraser techniques a bit, tried a little perspective shadowing. The photo was taken by my DH, and that's my nephew walking with my then toddler son. I love that photo. I was just very happy with how this turned out. Tutorial Used: None .

In this challenge we were given a scrap kit. We were to use only this scrap kit, with no additional elements or papers from other kits. I had a tube that I didn't think I would ever use, but it looked so much like this kit that I had to use it, LOL. I was just clowning around . (wink wink nudge nudge) Tutorial Used: None .

They came up with a weekly challenge where you have to create your own tag, no tutorial. You can use kits or whatever, but no step by step instructions. It's all about your own creativity. I used a scrap kit that was offered by Autism Speaks a while back, but I don't think it is available any longer, so I can't give you a link. The Papers, frames and elements all came from this kit. Tube is Popeye Wong. You can find it here: http://www.popeyewong.com/eng/toons.htm. It's called Hitgirl. The briefcase came with my software, under Tubes, Office. I just did a color adjustment to turn it from brown to black. The mask is a combination. I used a puzzle piece mask that I received as a goodie in another group. I wasn't happy with that alone, because it took up the entire background, so I merged the group and applied a heart shaped mask, Vix Mask 184, over the top of that. Then I duplicated the mask twice and positioned the three hearts in a linked chain from the to...

Okay, I'm really behind in my posts, so I'm going to try to catch you all up to what I've been doing. This could take a while, LOL! I've been very busy. And learning all kinds of stuff! This design is called Vintage Emphemera. Don't ask me what that means, I haven't a clue. I wasn't really crazy about this tut because it used a cluster frame that really did most of the work for you. Kind of a bummer. But it is very feminine and pretty. I kind of liked my tube better than the original because of the colors. But you can't go wrong with Jenesko. She's fantastic. You can tell when I start getting bored with a tut - I start adding plug ins, LOL. Tutorial Used: http://sites.google.com/site/kylietutorials/vintageephemera .

This was a cute kit. I was pleased to see they had a blue color scheme AND an orange one, because I'm more a fan of the orange than the blue. So that left me a happy camper, lol. I tried a new plug in on this called Metal Work. I may use that again. I wasn't completely sold on it, not yet, but it was interesting. I have been looking for a plug in that gives a metallic look without losing the color of the original. This is at least closer to what I was looking for than what I've found previously. I actually liked my version better than the original. :) Tutorial Used: http://designsbyirishlass.blogspot.com/2009/04/femme-garden.html .