Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Click: Contrast

It's Jennifer Larson sharing some ideas about photography. 

Whenever I post about photography, I feel compelled to share that I am not a photographer: I use either a point-and-shoot or my phone, and I do little processing of the photos after. (For the next photos, I used my iPhone 6, and I used PicTapGo, primarily Lights On, AutoColor, and Crispity.) Still, there are some things I do to make my photos look a little better.

Every summer I take pictures of my perennial gardens. The photos sustain me during the winter (and it's a lot easier to take photos of my flowers than my boys--they stand still much better!). I spend a lot of time trying to make the composition of the shots look better, and the thing I've been focusing on lately is composition. Here's how I've used contrast within the composition to make the shots more interesting:

Texture

When I take pictures, I look to combine different textures in my shots--in the above photo, the smooth daylily leaves contrast with the intricacies of the columbine blossoms.

Color

Pictures in my garden automatically have contrasting colors--the green of the foliage versus the color of the bloom. Here I captured two floral colors that contrasted sharply--the pale Siberian iris and the lush color of the peony--in addition to the green. (For anyone who has kids that are Pokemon fans like mine, does the central iris look like a Pokeman to you too? It does to me!)

Light

This is a hard one--too strong a contrast will make the image difficult to see. I took this shot of a perennial geranium in my shade bed with more dappled light. The blossom is in full light while the leaves and wood mulch are shaded. This draws more attention to the blossom.

Shape

The contrasts between the smooth, almost linear daylily leaves and the star shaped leaves of the potentilla and the even more intricately star shaped blossoms of the allium make this shot more interesting. The contrasast in shapes invites the viewer to look deeper into the image.

Background

"Background" isn't really a design term, but I thought about it with this shot. I wanted to flowers to be in the foreground,  but it looked much more interesting to capture the rusted birdbath and the pale lamb's ears and the lawn in the background than to just fill the frame with peony blooms.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gives you ideas to play around with this summer when you are taking pictures.

 

Jumpstart Week | Technique

Welcome to day 4 of Jumpstart Week.  This week we are looking at the different ways that you can jumpstart your scrapbook page.  We looked at Photos, Colors, and Design so far.  Today we will look at techniques.

Trying a new technique is a great way to jumpstart a page.  There are so many different techniques that I want to try on my layouts!  For my “Beach Love” layout, I really wanted to try hand-stitching on my page.  After I put down some papers and my photos and got a general idea of where I want to stitch, I stitched the word “LOVE” and an arrow in the upper left hand corner.  I also stitched a star on the lower right corner to balance things out. 

You can even stitch on Project Life journal cards. I stitched the speech bubble onto a 3x4 journal card and adhered my photo inside it.

On this layout, I hand-stitched the sun rays using twine.

Another technique that I wanted to try on a page was emboss & resist with watercolors.  I did that on my layout about going to AT&T Park for baseball game.

Here’s a close-up of what the emboss and watercolor resist looks like.

If you’re interested in trying this technique, I have a video tutorial on my blog here.

For my page “Catch a Wave”, I wanted to simulate looking at things underwater through a porthole, so I created punched out circles on the bottom of the page and filled some of them with two layers of vellum and sequins and wood veneers in between.  I think this see-through effect is a fun look.

Another technique I love is filling cut-outs with patterned papers underneath.  For my layout below, I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the circles with hearts in them, and filled the hearts with coordinating patterned papers underneath.  Pretty fun!

Lisa O created this layout by using the punched out negative space paper strips as mats behind her photo.  She had punched out a bunch of butterflies and saved a few strips of the papers to use for the layout. So clever!

Jennie also wanted to use the negative space of a die cut on a page.  The mat with the hearts cut out really pop off the page!

Laura O wanted to try some Photoshop actions on her photo.  Laura says, “I used a photo action (Adrienne Looman Little Kisses).  For something like this I always duplicate the photo to apply the filter and keep the original.  I know that someday I might want to see how things really looked.  With this photo the effects of the filter were so fun and super saturated I was inspired to scrap it with this polaroid frame and colorful papers.”  Photoshop actions are a great digital technique to try!

Jennie wanted to incorporate letterpress into a 12x12 layout.  She used that technique to create this page “The Great Outdoors”.

Another technique that Jennie wanted to try was to use large photos cut up into several smaller slots on a Project Life layout.  That looks so cool!

Want to use up all your alphabets?  Why not use the leftovers to create some visual interest?  Jennie used it as part of her title + as an embellishment/page element.  So creative!

There are many techniques that I still want to try.  I keep a list of them in Evernote so that if when I have some time to experiment, I can go down the list and try something out.  Trying out new techniques is a great way to jumpstart a page!

 

Imperfect Photos | Day 3: The Clone Tool

The Clone Tool is used to replace a piece of a photo with a different piece of the photo. It’s used most commonly for removing unwanted objects and correcting any damage, and is such a useful tool for scrappers.

Tutorial: Using the Clone Tool to Remove Objects or Scenery

...or in my case, a photo-bombing leg.

You can see that the original picture is completely improved with only the filters, but my husband stepped into the shot and it was messing with the feel of my layout. Off with the leg! Just kidding. But I am going to erase it from the photo.

If I were printing these photos for a paper/paste layout, I would go through the cloning process over the whole picture - just in case the crop changed once I started my layout. But because I'm creating a digital layout PLUS I'm lazy, I don't want to have to go through the whole cloning process on the parts of the photo I don't need.

So before I begin, I clip my photo to the size mask I want for my layout. Select the clone tool. It’s right next to the eraser tool and looks like a stamp.

Hold down option and select an area of the photo that will blend well with the part that needs to be erased. I had plenty of clear sidewalk to choose from. You can change the size of the selection brush by tapping the left and right bracket keys. Let go of the option key and carefully click down on the parts of the photo you want to hide.

Repeat this process until it’s all covered up.

And the finished layout without the leg - 

 So that's all there is to it. It's a pretty handy little tool.

I hope you've enjoyed my tutorial today!

Imperfect Photos | Day 1: Filters and Actions

I’m so excited to bring you a whole week of posts about using those not-so-perfect photos on layouts! I’m not a photographer - I have no idea how to work my camera - and most of my photos are taken with my phone. So I’ve become pretty good at fixing them, or boosting them, or sharpening them, or cropping them in really sneaky ways. All in an effort to get those photos into our family books! Even though some photos aren’t the greatest quality, they’re important to us anyway, right?

Filters and Actions

Today, I’d like to talk about filters and photo actions. These are my life-savors, and can make a huge difference in the photos. All of my photos go through some sort of post-processing before going on a layout, but I wanted to make this post more about helping the photos that aren’t great to begin with.

For this layout, I used some photos of my daughter in her fabulous hat. I took the photos with my phone while we were watching a softball game. I wasn’t really worried about the best light or the best angle. I just wanted to hurry and take the pics before she decided to run off again.

Here they are, side by side, before and after applying Pioneer Woman’s photo actions for PSE - 

A subtle difference for sure, but one that makes her face brighter, the hat sparkle, and the image crisper. And you can even see her little freckles!

This next photo was a mess. We were in a dark room with terrible lights that cast a yellow hue on everything. Blech. Plus it’s blurry. But out of three photos, this one was the best.

I used the Pic Tap Go app to help me –

It’s still not perfect, but you can see both eyes, and the black and white contrast makes it a little funky and cool. The way the photo turned out helped to inspire the colors, design, and even the title of my layout - which hopefully is a little bit funky and cool.

Laura used Pic Tap Go app to brighten up this adorable photo of her son.

What a difference a couple of filters can make! 

I hope this will help you get started on the post-processing of all your photos – both the good photos and the not-so-good photos. Come back tomorrow for some tricks to help with the inevitable blurry photos.

Instagram Week | All The Other Fun Stuff

So we've covered getting your photos off your phone, and using them in layouts, minis, project Life and photobooks. Today I'll share a bunch of fun stuff to take things a step further with your photos.

 

 

Filters

The first thing is using the filters in Instagram. This is one of the things I like most about the application. You can use the built-in filters to give your photos a unique look. 

Laura shared this layout, and said that she used her favourite filter on these photos: it's called Brannan. Each filter gives a different effect, and in this case Brannan "richens deep colors while softening neutrals, adding a sepia-like effect to your photos à la 19th century." To see more examples of what each filter does, check out this post on Mashable.

Filters can help make a "meh" photo more interesting.

Before

After

I used one of my absolute favourite filters here: Earlybird. I love the softened tones and the frame. Speaking of frames, here's another tip from Laura. She prefers to print her photos at home so that she can resize them how she likes to suit her pages, and also to make sure that the frame doesn't get cut off when printing.

If you love the look of Instagram filters but don't use the app, you can use free actions in Photoshop to create the same effect. Here is a great article explaining how.

Apps

Camera Phone photography apps abound. There are apps to help you edit photos i.e. the exposure, colour, etc;

And also apps to help you add text to photos and to make collages.

 

Christine loves using apps like Phonto, Over, Rhonna Designs, and A Beautiful Mess to write on her Instagram photos before printing out. Android users you'll be happy to hear that we have a version of Phonto too!

For making photo collages she uses the Diptic app on her iPhone and iPad. It's also available for Android phones.

For editing photos I have seen lots of great reviews about the following apps:

Snapseed  | Android Version

VSOCam

Camera+

For my Android phone I love

CameraZoomFX

and PowerCam (free!)

Amy recommends Pixlrxpress for Android phones too.

The great things with these apps, is that you can do your photography and editing, and then share the enhanced photo to Instagram directly.

 

Freebies

I came across some fun freebies you can use with Instagram photos for your pages.

Here's a PSD layered template from Cathy Zielske for creating 3x4 cards.

 

You can use this template from Simple Scrapper to make a digital or hybrid mini album.

 

I like this simple template from Kelly at September Blue that she used in her December daily last year.

 

And finally, if you don't print at home, here is a free Photoshop Action that will format your Instagram photos for printing on a 4x6 photo sheet.

Follow us!

I mentioned that we have our own Instagram account for write. click. scrapbook., so you can click over to follow us.

And you can follow these team members too

Amy |  Christa | Francine | Jennifer H  | Jennifer L |  Lisa | Stephanie | Sue

I hope you enjoyed this week! Before I sign off, do you have any other tips or phone apps to add? Share them in the comments! 

Digi Scrap 102: Day Three - Actions

Hey there! I'm back and today we are going to take action! Well, okay we are really only going to talk a bit about Photoshop Actions. Photoshop Actions are basically just a recorded set of steps that you can run when you want to perform a task. (Don't you wish there was a action that would do the laundry?) Most scrappers use Photoshop Actions on their photos to convert to black and white or add a cool effect. There are other actions as well though. For instance, there are actions that resize and sharpen pages to put on the web. Text actions can change text into cool looking epoxies or chipboard. There are even actions that will literally scrap a page for you step by step!

Do you have a task that you perform repetitively in Photoshop CS? You can record custom actions. For instance, I recorded an Unsharp Mask action that uses Scott Kelby's recommended settings (Amount: 85% Radius: 1 Threshold: 4) and I use it on almost every photo I edit, quite a time saver. Unfortunately, Photoshop Elements does not have the custom actions feature.

However, you can run actions in either Photoshop CS or Elements. You just have to be sure that the action you are downloading is compatible with the program you have. I'm going to share a few of my favorite free actions here with you. Give them a whirl!

 

Actions for Photography

Pioneer Woman Actions (PS & PSE) - we've mentioned these actions time and time again here because they are truly amazing!

TIP: When the action is finished running, you can select the layer the action is on and use the drop down next to the word Opacity to lessen the effect. I find I run the Pioneer Woman's Boost at about 60% when I use it. The same with Seventies - one of my favorite actions in her sets!

 

Coffee Shop (PS & PSE) - Rita at the Coffee Shop offers a wide array of actions in both PSE and PS formats. I simply adore her Butterscotch Vintage action. It's just stunning! Be sure to check out her black and whites too!

Texas Chicks (PSE) - this site offers a few great Photoshop tools in action form. I use the Defog action and the Noise Reduced all the time. Worth signing up for the newsletter to get access!

Instagram (PS) -  I live in the dark ages and don't have an iPhone or even a smart phone. I have this really old flip phone with no keyboard or anything. So I can't take photos with my phone and use the app Instagram. Well now I can simulate that! This set of actions will take your photo and create similar effects to Instagram! Fun!

Rob Carr's Black & White Action (PS) - This was hard to find. I downloaded this action years ago and it is my favorite black and white conversion method. It really creates crisp, stunning black and white conversions. The action stops you in places and let's you tweak the conversion. Really cool!


Digital Scrapbooking Tools

Resize & Sharpen for Web - when posting layouts or photographs online it's important to sharpen them correctly. As well, using this action will easily resize your image to the size you wish.

Polaroid Frames - Polaroid frames are so retro and add interest too. This action set easily converts your image to have a Polaroid frame!

Installing Actions

Now you are probably wondering, I've downloaded all these actions now what do I do? You'll need to install them. I could go on and on for pages and pages here, but it's probably better to send you over to Wendy Zines' tutorial to get you started! Once you have the action loaded. You can open the Actions palette and click on it to run it.

I'll be back on Friday with some random tips and tricks. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for an awesome giveaway!

 

Welcome to the Factory!

Did you have fun shopping? I hope so. Today is our biggest day. We need to sketch our book and then begin building the base pages. So much to do. But we have two days to do it as tomorrow is give.away.day. Hmm. Someone brilliant must have put this schedule together!

Before we get started, though, I wanted to assure everyone that everything we are going to digitally do this week can also be created with paper and trinkets. Instead of Cntrl-C you will cut with scissors, and instead of Cntrl-V you will paste with adhesive. But the scrapbooking basics remain true for everyone. So if you want to make a mini-album (or four) please play along. Everyone is invited. Everyone.

Marnie's Homework Completed

SKETCHES
Before I went shopping, I sketched out my albums so that I would know what sort of products I was seeking. Here is the plan for my four books. (I really will do just one this week, but thought that if you hadn't found a sketch for your ideas, maybe your photos/theme could fit into one of these.)

Me & My Cousins
This album is a rotation of four pages. Here they are.

My Address
This album will be one repeating page. Here it is.

I Love This
This album will also be one repeating page. Here is Sara's sketch from long ago.

The Pool: my paradise
This album will be a repeating 2 page spread. Here it is.

CHOOSING THE PRODUCT
Me & My Cousins
We have 7 cousins so I need a kit with at least 7 options for cardstock/patterned pairing. Because I used a Paislee Press kit on the first book, I think I will stick with another for this next one. Not only are her papers lovely, but I hope it will feel more like a unified collection when all of them (how hopeful does that sound?? all of them. Guess I will be busy...) are together on the shelf.

Here are the three I am selecting: Correspondence, Lemonade Stand, and The Fancy Collection. (I am two years behind, and so I thought maybe I would make all three at a time. Nothing better than assembly line efficiency!)

My Address
This one just needs one set of cardstock/patterned paper and a fun embellishment. I am going to use Libby's A Very Very Very Fine House. I like the elements and think they will be sweet additions.

I Love This
Why stray from perfection? Sara was spot on with her use of Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday line. If my digi version is half as cute as her paper one, I will be thrilled! Sara rocks my world.

The Pool: my paradise
This one needs a handful of patterned papers and a couple of basic elements. In some fun summertime colors. Things that will go well with aqua water blues, hot pink swimsuits, lavender goggles, and red swim shorts. That's quite a list so I have selected Crystal's Sweet Summertime collection. I am positive it will be just the right fit.

Today's Assignment

It is Wednesday and I promised you that today we would be assembling our page backgrounds. Reading through your comments, I know that we are all at different levels of expertise. I am going to try to walk you through each step. If you know how to do that step, do it and move to the next one.If you don't know how, click over to the tutorial page and hopefully you will be able to walk through the step by steps. If you have questions or get stuck, please leave me a comment and I will see if I can clear it up. Also, I am no photoshop genius. I am not going to rock anyone's world with great new tricks. Instead, I hope to teach you to use a few streamlined methods to help you make it through a whole photobook without petering out or getting discouraged or running short of time.

Ready, set, let's go team!

SIZE MATTERS
When I create paper minis, oft times I start with the album size and work from there. More often than not, that which I had in my mind was not available to purchase, so I would just go ahead and create my own.

My renegade ways had to be tempered with digi minis. Now I am limited to the sizes that the publisher chooses. And there are many differences between the different publishers. So you can choose your album on the basis of the publisher, or you can choose your publisher on the basis of your album. (That is how I found VioVio. I wanted to put my 8.5x11 pages into a book, but Shutterfly doesn't print that size, or that orientation. So I went looking and found this comparison. I thought VioVio was a good quality bang for your buck. (I am more willing to shell out a couple of extra dollars than I am to accept a poor quality paper or printing.) So I tried it. And it worked well!)

Here is a list of what sizes they each print:

Square
If you make a square album, any adjustments for the full bleed (that's the term for when the publisher puts the printing right to the edge of the paper) can be made at the end. I would suggest this if you are a first time book maker.
Shutterfly: 8x8 12x12
VioVio: 3.5x3.5  5x5  8.5x8.5  10x10  12x12

Landscape
Shutterfly:  5x7  7x9  8x11
VioVio:  3.75x2.5 Mini-Book  5.25x3.5 Mini-Book  7x5 Mini-Book  9x7 Photo Book  12.5 x 10 Hardcover Portfolio Book  11x8.5

Portrait
Shutterfly - doesn't print portraits
VioVio: 6x9  comic size (6 5/8x10.25)  A4 size (8.3 x11.7)  8.5x11

We have now completed our sketch, selected our product, chosen our size and publisher. Congratulations! Let the assembly line begin.

BUILD YOUR PAGES
1. Install the digital kit - First, we must download the new products from the store to our computers. Step by step instructions may be found here.

2. Opening a new document - Once you have photoshop open, please create a new document. Select the size according to the size of your book pages.

If you are creating a book for Shutterfly, please refer to this page for the proper working measurements. The "in bleed" size is the size that your page document needs to be. The "in trim" is the size that your page will be in your printed book. Please note that the difference will be cut off. DO NOT PLACE ANYTHING OF VISUAL INTEREST IN THIS SPACE. Similarly, try to keep your page design such that there are not any round the page borders or elements on the edge.

If you are creating a book for VioVio, please create a document that is 1/8 inch more per side. For instance, if you wanted to create an 8.5x11 album, your working pages should measure 8.75x11.25. Again, DO NOT PLACE ANYTHING OF VISUAL INTEREST OR NECESSITY IN THIS SPACE. It will be cut off.

3. Open the patterned/cardstock papers you will be using for the background - If your computer is as old and tired as mine, you may want to shut down every other open window to give your computer the best chance for success.

4. Resize your papers- This is the biggest place to save time. Rather than build page by page, build as many like parts as you can.

For instance, in my Cousins album, the first page is cardstock, the fourth patterned paper, and the third is the same patterned paper with a 1.5 inch vertical strip of cardstock (the same as on page one) on the left. Here were the steps I followed. (I did one round the long way, cutting piece by piece and assembling page by page and it took me hours longer. It really is worth it to be an assembly line.)

1. open 7 cardstock and 7 patterned papers - Once they were all opened, I tiled them and then move them around until I liked their pairings.

2. using the crop tool, resize each of the 14 one by one to 8 inch squares.

3. save the cardstocks as nigel1, lavender1, poppy1, etc.

4. save the patterneds as nigel 4, lavender4, poppy4, etc.

5. crop the cardstock to 1.5x8. do this seven times.

6. click and drag the cardstock to its patterned pair. do this seven times.

6. position the cardstock on the the patterned paper in the proper spot. do this seven times.

7. close the cardstock. do not save changes. do this seven times.

8. close and save the patterned paper (which now has a strip of cardstock) as nigel3, lavender 3, poppy 3, etc. do this seven times.

9. congratulate yourself as all seven sets of papers are now done. In record time.

The idea is to streamline as much as you can. If you need to crop each page a particular way, do all that cropping first. I follow this same rhythm with paper albums. I rarely build a mini-album page by page. If your album is variations on a theme, do as many of the repeating elements as you can at the same time.

Another huge time saver is batch processing. It makes use of actions so I am not sure if you can do this with Photoshop Elements. If you can, try it. I batch processed step 2, step 5, and step 9. Love that.

Now that your pinkie finger is cold, your hand cramped round the mouse, and your house has exploded around you, take a minute off! You did great!

Today's Eyecandy

Sometimes, digital photobooks can be just photos. When I first designed this book, I had journaling on each page. And then I realized that the photos sort of told their own story and I wanted to leave it at that. No words. Big step for me! hahaha.

Sometimes digital photobooks are actually just digital books as they are wholly lacking in photos. Let's face it. Your skills are too good to limit yourself to regular photobooks. Try something fun. And out of the box. It might just become your favorite new book!

Today's Freebie

Aren't four mini-album sketches sufficient? Seriously! What do you people want from me? I am just teasing....

Some Halloween treat toppers.Follow Candice's instructions for printing, trimming and use.

Download Boo eek

Good luck today. I will be adding more detailed tutorials throughout the day and checking comments for confused faces for the next two days. Please don't be afraid to ask, or correct, or chime in if you know a bigger better faster way.

A demain!

My random week ends with favorites.

We all have our favorites - food, shows, book, all-things-scrapbook-related, Dr Pepper and Bon Jovi. And that's what today's post is about. All my current favorite scrapbook goodness. Here we go!

Scrapbookers

I'm sure you all have your go-to scrapbookers when looking for inspiration. You know the ones, whose layouts are like eye candy. Two of mine are Susan Weinroth and Stephanie Howell.

I love how Susan designs her pages: the colors, the pattern paper, the embellishments. She makes me want to scrapbook 12x12. Which I totally would do if my pages would look like this:

 

Added bonus - she quilts. Fantastic quilts. And not only are the front of the quilts beautiful, the backs super fun, too. I need to learn to quilt.  A couple other favorites are this ruffle card and this pillow. I also really need to sew more. For more of Susan's work, check out her blog.

Two things Stephanie does on her pages I love? Her handwriting and the way she can just sprinkle embellishments (love the butterflies) over her page and it just flows and looks so good.  I tried it once. It didn't turn out nearly as cute.

You can see more of Stephanie's projects on her blog.

Actions

For Mother's Day, I upgraded from Photoshop Elements 4, to Photoshop Elements 8. Which means I can now use Actions, and that is very exciting. Well, at least to me, it is.  I immediately downloaded Pioneer Woman's Actions for Elements. And I immediately had a favorite - the Seventies action. Which I used on this photo of Mackenzie.

And then this one, of Emma and her friend Bree.

 

Seriously fun, and it makes me want to make every photo look like it came from the seventies.

Products

Have you seen the new Jillibean Soup line, Summer Squash Soup?  Oh how I want it. Love the colors and patterns - I already have pictures in mind to scrap with it.

Colors

I tend to use the same colors when I scrap - bright  shades of blue, green, yellow and pink. Kind of like these dresses I found at Target for Emma and Mackenzie.

I need scrapbook paper that looks just like that. In fact, how about an entire summer line built around it? Yes, please!

Border Punches

I love border punches. I use them on almost ever page I create. Two of my favorite punches are these:

Binding Edge

 

Scallop Edge by Stampin' Up

There are quite a few on my to-get list, including:

Bubbles by EK Success

Round Binding Edge by Ek Success 

Open Scallop by EK Success

Bumpy Road by EK Success 

Layouts in our Flickr group

I am loving these pages recently posted in the WCS Flickr group:

My Truck Story by TaraMcK 

I love how the colors just pop off the page, and the stacked Polaroids are so fun.

Target by sherrystamps

Because who doesn't love Target? I love that Sherry turned the tape that gives toilet paper a handle in to a scrapbook accent. Hee hee.

Layout 24 by A.N.D.R.E.A. (Just a link, couldn't get the photo to post - sorry!)

Beautiful page. Love how the photos are linked together.

And with that, my week is over. Thanks so much for stopping by this week. I've got one last question for you before I go - What are your favorites? Share some blogs, tools, Actions, layouts, products and more - let us know what you are currently loving in this oh-so-addicting hobby of ours.

"You're turning violet, Violet..."

"It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal!" Two references to the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, possibly one of the greatest movies ever!

Okay so indigo is technically a really really dark blue, but to my eye it reads almost black so I’m going to talk about black today. Black is the color of authority and power. It is popular in fashion because it makes people appear thinner. It is also stylish and timeless. Black also implies submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God. Some fashion experts say a woman wearing black implies submission to men. Black outfits can also be overpowering, or make the wearer seem aloof or evil.

Black and white conversions really help me put a layout together sometimes. If I need to use a specific color or patterned paper on a project and the photo doesn’t match, I convert it to black and white. A free b/w conversion action that I love is from the Pioneer Woman. She offers the actions in both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS versions. So head on over and download them today!

I love how these ladies embraced black and used the color as the main color on their layouts. Some scrapbookers use black backgrounds a lot, it really makes the color elements on the page pop. Give it a try sometime!

Jody Wenke used primarily black on this Halloween layout - I love how her black alphabet letters look so bold against the white background.

Tina Cockburn created a large black matte for her photo and title. The black makes the colors in the photo really pop!

I love this digital layout by Micki Devries from the Flickr gallery. Just some black lettering was all she needed to make her photo shine!

Next up violet! The color of royalty, purple connotes luxury, wealth, and sophistication. It is also feminine and romantic. However, because it is rare in nature, purple can appear artificial.

Today I’m sharing this printable purple faux bois (wood grain) paper from Paper Crave with you. How cute would that look on a page?

When asked which color they use least, most scrapbookers will say purple. However, this past season purple has been creeping into products and designs everywhere. Here are a few layouts from the Flickr gallery and the fabulous ladies in the collective.

Erin Sweeney used a pretty lavender as a background for this fun birthday page!

Karen Glenn used this oh-so-creative color palette - bright yellow green with purple - in the first Write.Click.Scrapbook gallery - Why We Scrapbook.

Lisa Kisch embraced the wonky colors in her childhood photos and pulled the out for this great Halloween page!

I’ll be going through the Flickr gallery tonight and choosing some layouts to showcase. Tomorrow I’ll pick a name for a little RAK. So if you want to play, show us a rainbow page today!

Sayonara Saturday

Well now, that was an adventure! Thanks for all of the fun comments and for participating in the makeover challenge!

Because I am shamelessly proud of His Royal Cuteness, I'll leave you with my favorite photo from our photo session this week-which didn't make it onto yesterday's scrapbook page. I'm guessing it will earn of page of its own.

This shot features the Urban Acid action I linked to yesterday and an edge burn action from my fellow Oklahoman (incredibly talented in every way), The Pioneer Woman. Her photography is stunning and her Photoshop actions are top-notch and free. You can download them HERE.

Hope to see you again here at Write.Click.Scrapbook!