Plaid + Double Freebies

Hang around me long enough you will find I love plaid. There were moments when I had hate for it…I went to parochial school and wore plaid everyday for many years. Its a trial by fire…if you can still stand plaid after going through puberty with all your lady parts restrained in it, then it must be love. *wink* 

I have a pair of those L.L. Bean Jeans lined in flannel plaid for winter…it never seems to get cold enough long enough, but I wear them anyway and happily sweat.  Its important just to be able to turn the cuff skyward and see the warm flannel plaid lining smiling up at me. I just hung them on the door of the closet yesterday to remind me of the promise of winter. “Someday a cool breeze will blow,” they whisper. 

I am going to get some plaid love out of my system…

 Madras Plaid Styles and JPGs

Easy Papers Madras Plaid Styles

• Open up a 12x12inch 300 ppi image. If you start with a Transparent image you will need to flood fill some kind of color in there. It won’t show, the Style will overwrite it.  If you want your quick even quicker. Start with a 12x12inch 300 ppi solid colored image and save yourself a step.
• Pick a Madras Style and apply it.
• Bang…Plaid Paper.

Some light texture has been added to each Madras Style.

Go with that or you can add one of your favorites over the top.

Second Chance Freebie

Grab this from my last post about Madras Plaid Styles and JPGs…

More Plaid Stuff

Dana Conditt has a Plaid Action at DigitalScrapDesigns   that she let me play with…it was super fun creating papers this way. Really Easy TOO! Using these photos…

…I made this paper freebie for y’all.

http://www.divshare.com/download/12381276-9a4

Playing with this Action I came up with a few good tips to pass along.

• For larger plaid sample less colors.
• If you have trouble getting your crop to fall on the colors you like. Pull a Guide to the spot you want. Then go to View>Snap To>Guides. Now when you use your crop tool it will stick like magic to your Guide for trouble free sampling.
• Finished papers often look even better if you hit them with a sharpen filter. Sometimes 2 or 3 times can really change the look.
• Not enough of the one color you were after? Change the plaid layer to Greyscale, Add a Layer, and overfill with the color you are after, and Change the layer property of your colored layer to “Overlay” and see what you get.  Play around with these Layer Properties and Opacity until you are happy.
•   Adding Textured Overlays and Brushes turns these basic plaids into fancy papers for your next kit or layout!

• When you find a plaid you especially like the style of, Greyscale it and save as is for use later as a super quick plaid making Overlay. Weee!

FYI, The basic plaid papers in freebie are not textured, waiting for you to add your favorites. WHOO HOO! Oh, the Sketchy Doodle Brushes on the fancy paper will be available next week…I want to make a few more.

Many Thanks to my friend Dana for letting me play with her Positively Plaid Action! Weeee!!

Happy Friday!

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Edited: August 27th, 2010

Dig Dig Smile Smile Freebie Freebie

Okay, for all my grumpy mutters digging has turned out to be more fun than anyone expected. Yes, there are stones as large as our heads and the soil is hard, but we get to watch the sunrise come up every morning, and we are getting used to the heat.  My sons are fun to work with and always have some wonderful stories to tell, we catch ourselves laughing so hard we wonder what the neighbors might think we are up to over here! LOL! We are only digging a few hours a day in the morning so its not really as hot as it could be.  We are finding muscles we forgot about. There is a lot of flexing going on these last few days! Each day we have a break through… like when we found the actual tank, then an edge, then another, a handle, then another. Finally we found a cap. That was Monday! A Great Day, Monday! The day we discovered there was a second tank was not as good a day! LOL! That was Tuesday!

So we are going to have to dig another hole to drain both tanks. I did insist we take today off digging to change two tires on the garden tractor. We had been hauling the diggings by hand, pulling the little garden trailer ourselves. HAW-Mule-HAW! It worked out fine, but it was slow and tiring. Now we have two shiny new tires on the garden tractor and we are feeling pretty smug, no more mule hauling for us!!! WHOO HOO! The second hole in the ground starts tomorrow! Weeeee!

We tried this to get quick trick to seat the tires!

Playing with fire is fun! I did not even burn myself! WeeHOO! Dillon ran the hose nearby just in case! One kind of wishes there are more tires to do this to when its all over! *giggle*

I can’t resist showing one more, SUPER cool! If I used the aerosol to light the tire my sons would flip out! After they put me out they would think I was the coolest mom EVER!

Oh! Nearly forgot… I want to show you all the hole. Hold on, let me run out and snap a picture. BRB.

Here is our hole! I KNOW! Just what you imagined…a big hole in the ground!

6ftx6ftx4ft deep. (1.82m x 1.82m x 1.21m deep)

I measured out the square based on our calculations and we found the edges right where our digging lines were. Amazing!! Yet, when we went to dig the corners, there were none! LOL! Surprise! Round House, Round Tank! LOL!

I have a freebie for you! For listening to me talk about a hole in the ground and all the weirdness surrounding it. You should get a treat!

Kim B Designs Color Challenge is a doosy this month…every month really! Click the image to find out how you can get her posting bonus!

This is my freebie gift kit made with Kim’s Swatch for August.

Primitive Pink

http://www.divshare.com/download/12249981-b1c

Well, that dinner is not going to make itself, so I best get a move on. Happy Wednesday Everyone!

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Edited: August 11th, 2010

CU TOP 20 Black Styles for Photoshop

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

The Top 20 Black Styles counted down by yours truely! When my friend Kristine ( Yep! Owner of Kristine’s Place) said, " Hey how about making some black styles?"  She got me thinking. I looked through my style sets with new eyes. I had a few black styles I had made for myself but for the most part each time I wanted a tinted black solid color I had to digitally mix it up. If I was on the ball I save it as a swatch. Most often I didn’t save and I had to do it over and over. Not hard, but wouldn’t it be great to have a few to quickly click on right in my Styles Palette? So I made a dozen tinted black solid styles and used them for a few weeks to see how helpful they really were. Very! It was a snap to click a black style and get a tinted black fill, edge, line, whatever! Sure one can call up on Hex Black #000000 anytime that’s simple without a style, but clicking around in the color picker for a bit of red/black or purple black…well that’s just tedious and then one has to remember to save as a swatch. Something I often forget to do even after I have color picked my heart out and got the right color I get busy playing with it and forget to make a swatch.

So I found the ready made Tinted Black Solids a real timesaver.

Once I narrowed  the black solids down to the best ones Blackberry, Black Coffee, Blackboard, Black Smoke, BlackWalnut, Black Water, The ones I relied on again and again. I turned my attention some glossy styles and highlighted styles that look their best on black. I thought that would be pretty easy, but I found it to be quite a challenge since black can rob depth from a highlight or gloss. Re-working them again and again really paid off. I find myself using each of these quite a bit. BlackGloss, BlackMatte, BlackFlat, BlackIce.

With the Top 10 Solids all set, it was time to play with patterns. I used my thinker box to come up with some transparent patterns for everyday use. BlackLace, BlackStripes, BlackStripedFur, BlackStars, BlackChecks,  Each one is a happy surprise when used OVER a color layer. See demo. Really loved the versatility of these! Try the Black Lace over Red…VAVOOM!  Last in the show are the solid patterns. I focused on what entered my mind as black, Black Jeans, Fossils, Granite, Snake Skin, Tonal Black Checks, and Obsidian Stone. In the last week, alone, these solid patterns have been the basis of papers, a few frames and I printed out a photomat for a graduation certificate using the Granite Style. Piece of cake! So easy!!

To sum it up, Top 20 Black Styles are seamless, using large PNG images for high quality and low repeats. I just couldn’t narrow it down to 20 so there are 21 unique ones. 23 total. The 2 Stripe styles are counted as one, same with the Snake Skin style. Its just so much easier to use these with one horizontal and one vertical stripe. Saves a bunch of flipping. Who wants that when you Styling? HOOT!

Original Styles created by Jodiann Cates using Photoshop CS3. Using her own photos and Photoshop made PNGs as well as CU photos and PNGs of other artists, CU Custom Shapes of other artists.

PS7, PSCS, PSCS2, PSCS3, PSCS4 and PSE compatible.
Drop Shadow Free.
Quality Checked.
This purchase contains:
23 Top Quality Black Styles; Seamless and adjustable in .ASL format 300 ppi.

1 Text Document with Unpacking and Installing Instructions.
CU4CU  CU  PU  S4H  S4O Commercial License Included.
You may use these PS Styles to create your own products to sell. With the
exception of using them to build Styles Sets or Patterns Sets for resale

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

Check out this limited time freebie offer by Kristine of Kristine’s Place!

Freebie Alert!

Thanks ‘Stine!

Quick and Easy Floating Check Paper Tutorial with Top 20 Black Styles

This is so easy!

To Buy Styles…

Top 20 Black Styles at Kristine’s Place

Top 20 Black Styles at Digiscrap Warehouse

Top 20 Black Styles at DigitalScrapDesigns

1. Open a transparent image. I choose 300×300 image at 300ppi

2. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks17

3. Duplicate Layer. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks16

4. Add New Layer.  Keyboard Shortcuts: PC> Shift+Control+N  Mac> Shift+Command+N

5. Move Black Checks 16 Layer to Top.

6. Merge Down.

7.  Again. Apply Style: Jodiann’sTop20BlackChecks17.

No freaking out, it will look like nothing happened, roll with it, Sweetie!

8. Double Click Ctrl+Shift+N Layer. Apply DropShadow.

9. All Done! 

Here is a close up…

You can chose to recolor one or both of these layers.

10. Save as a  PSD layered image ( .PSD) for easy changes and recoloring.

11. Then Save as a JPG, reducing the Quality to 8 ( no less). Quality barely suffers, yet paper is now more compact for sharing. ( Thanks Kimmie!)

By playing with the opacity settings, adding an edge then blurring it for a softer look this is what I came up with.

Sinclair the un-affected cat gives us all much needed advice! WHOOT!

Happy Weekend Precious People!

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Edited: June 11th, 2010

Grand Opening Sale!!

The Official Grand Opening Sale at Kristine’s Place Starts Today!! WHOO HOO!!

Sale Runs Through April 30th, enter code: HootinApril50 to enjoy  50% off EVERYTHING!! Adding new items throughout the month! Yippee!!

What’s Everything you ask? LOL! Here is a peek…

All previews link to store

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Edited: April 1st, 2010

Want another chance at My Spring Green Alpha?

This month’s second chance giveaway!!

I love this its so easy!!  Pick one of these…

• Follow Me on Twitter, then send me an email saying you did. 
• OR
• Friend Me on Facebook, then send me an email saying you did.
• OR
• Friend Me at Digg Or Press any Digg This button on any post.  I am just installing the Digg Plugin so if it doesn’t work right away, hold on a day or two and I will get it worked out, then send me an email saying you did.
• OR
• If you have a social site that you love and I haven’t joined, send me an invite and that would count for a second chance too. WHOO HOO!

Once I get your email I will send you the download link back and BAM! Second Chance! Cool?

Thanks for playing!

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Edited: March 11th, 2010

Second Chance Giveaway!

Want another chance at My Beautiful Dreamer Posting Bonus from last month’s Lyric Challenge? 

I love this its so easy!! 

• Follow Me on Twitter, then send me an email saying you did. 
• Friend Me on Facebook, then send me an email saying you did.
• Friend Me at Digg  Or Press any Digg This button on any post.  I am just installing the Digg Plugin so if it doesn’t work right away, hold on a day or two and I will get it worked out, then send me an email saying you did.

If you have a social site that you love and I haven’t joined, send me an invite and that would count for a second chance too. WHOO HOO!

Once I get your email I will send you the download link back and BAM! Second Chance! Cool? 

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Edited: February 7th, 2010