Feature Friday | Tracie Stroud

It’s time for another edition of our Feature Friday series here at The Digital Press… and this week, we are excited to feature Tracie Stroud here on The Digital Press blog! This is Tracie’s second feature here on the blog (you can find her first feature from August  2016 HERE)… and whereas last year we used our feature series to help you get to know some fun trivia about your favorite designers, this year we’re going to use our designer feature series to give you a little peek into our designers’ creative spaces and more insight into their creative processes.

With that in mind, we asked Tracie to show us her creative space — where she works to come up with all of her fantastic digital designs. This is such a great work space, eclectic and bright, busy and cluttered, but she loves it! Tracie says that she does all her mixed media and watercolor artwork here, as well as her scrapbook design work. When she is doing mixed media work, she just moves her laptop and tablet out of the way, and all her art supplies are within arm’s reach.

We also asked Tracie to give us a “Top 5” list that is representative of herself at this point in life, and she gave us a list of her Top 5 Essential Oils She Can’t Live Without…

According to Tracie, “we try to avoid medications and chemicals as much as possible, so we use essential oils a lot. It was hard to narrow it down, but these are the 5 I absolutely couldn’t live without…”

  1. Lavender — we use this for any skin issues: rashes, insect bites, minor burns, eczema, etc. I also put it in an essential oil diffuser every night in our boys’ room to help them settle down to sleep.
  2. Peppermint — This is a must-have for me when I feel a headache coming on, or when I need a mid-afternoon boost without breaking out the coffee maker.
  3. Eucalyptus — This one is fantastic for colds and congestion. Be careful, though… it shouldn’t be used for small kiddos.
  4. Lemon — Lemon oil is a great stain remover, air freshener, and cleaning agent. I make a general cleaning mix with lemon oil, peppermint oil, a little white vinegar, and water and keep it in a spray bottle. I use it for everything, and I haven’t bought a chemical cleaning spray in years.
  5. Frankincense — This one can be a little pricey, but it’s worth it to us. I’m never without it. It’s a vital immune support oil. Anytime we feel a cold coming on, we put this oil on the bottoms of our feet, where the skin is thinnest, and it almost always keeps the worst of the symptoms away and shortens the lifespan of the cold. I also use it in place of Neosporin on open cuts and wounds.

As for her digital design style…Tracie creates fun products that look like real-world papers and elements from an art journal. She’s been designing for over eight years, and she loves the flexibility that the digital medium offers — letting her incorporate her art into her designs. The best part is that Tracie’s artsy designs let customers play around and express themselves, too! Personally, I love her “Rock the Shadows” layer styles, which can be found in her shop… and I use them on every single layout I create!

Here are just a few of my favorite items from Tracie’s shop at The Digital Press

Tracie’s products are super versatile and easy to use for all kinds of projects. Here’s a look at a few of our favorite projects that use Tracie’s designs…

I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about Tracie today, as well as getting a look at her work space and at some of her amazing products! And as if that wasn’t enough fun… Tracie Stroud’s entire shop will be 30% OFF throughout this coming week during her Feature week (the sale will end at 11:59pm ET on Thursday 4/27). It’s a great time to clear out your wish list of any items from her shop, at a discount!

Additionally, this week only — you can snag Tracie’s “Dance In the Rain” kit for FREE with any $10+ purchase in the Tracie Stroud shop at The Digital Press (this offer also ends at 11:59pm ET on Thurs 4/27)…

 


JenniferHigniteJennifer Hignite is a mom of three boys and new homeowner with her fiance in the mitten state of Michigan. When she is not scrapbooking, she enjoys photography, decorating, and shopping at Target.

 

 

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Tutorial Tuesday | Getting Kids to Smile at the Camera

Ever wish you had a few tricks up your sleeve for getting kids to smile at the camera? I’m here today to help!

It’s often hard to get natural smiles from kids… and let’s face it, simply saying “cheese” often leads to the some of the cheesiest of smiles. So what to do?

I’m the first to admit that bribery goes a long way, but the last thing we really need is blurry photos due to a sugar high and smiles covered in chocolate. Right? So… instead, here are a few tips that will help you get some natural smiles.

  1. Chit Chat — I have found that some kids are shy or nervous about making sure they smile, just like the practiced at home, which can look fake or forced. If I just randomly bring my camera down and start chatting about school or what they ate for breakfast or who their favorite super hero is, I can get them talking and they’ll smile without thinking about it and then the don’t even notice when I bring my camera back up and start snapping away.
  2. Catch them off guard — On occasion, I will say something out of the blue that kids aren’t expecting or make it seem that I’m trying to get a cute smile out of one of the children and end up getting great smiles out of everyone because it lightens the mood and takes the focus off of having to force a smile. This helps to get great natural smiles.
  3. Distraction — Distraction works really well when kids aren’t cooperating at all. My favorite technique is to ask them to make a silly face or a tiger face and I make faces too. The kids get distracted and start laughing or smiling on their own.
  4. A little humor — My son always makes a funny face when I go to take his photo. Always. He always looks constipated, but as soon as I say the word, he can’t help laughing hysterically. Of course, I’d never say that to a client, but other jokes work great. For example, if a kid is picking his nose, I ask if he has some tasty cheese-boogars that he can share.
  5. It is what it is — Many of my clients want picture perfect smiles, but I’m more of a lifestyle type person myself. I absolutely love photos where my kids aren’t smiling, whether is a posed shot or just a quick capture. I’m drawn more to eyes than mouths, so I’d rather avoid squinting eyes from big smiles. Sometimes kids just are who they are and I strive to capture them in the moment. If I don’t get smiles, it’s no biggie… I get a lot of great shots anyways.

Want some examples of these tricks in action? Here is a layout I created using a few photos of the silly faces my daughter makes…

Next time you are photographing kids and find that you’re struggling to get a natural smile from your subject… give a few of these tips a try, and see if they don’t help you capture a fantastic shot or two!


FarrahAbout the Author  Farrah Jobling is a member of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She lives in Denver with her amazing family — Mike, Nicholas (9), Claire (7), Hope (2 yr old puppy) & Kringle (9 mo old bunny). She works from home as a photographer and enjoys scrapping her personal photos.

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Feature Friday | Karla Noél

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of our Feature Friday series here on The Digital Press blog! Today, I am super excited to be showcasing the very talented Karla Noél! This is Karla’s second feature here at TDP (you can find her first feature article from October 2016 HERE)… and whereas last year we used our feature series to help you get to know some fun trivia about your favorite designers — this year, we’re going to use our designer feature series to give you a little peek into our designers’ creative spaces, and more insight into their creative processes.

With that in mind, we asked Karla to give us a little peek into her creative workspace. She just recently moved, however, and so nowadays her “current workspace” is actually just her sketchbook, according to her. Here’s a little look at some of her creative magic taking place with pen and paper…

We also asked Karla to share with us a Top 5 list that is representative of her at this point in her life, and this is what she came up with…

Karla’s Top 5 List of Tunes She Loves to Listen To While Designing…

  1. When It’s Only Me and the Music by Jem and the Holograms
  2. Nicotine by Panic at the Disco
  3. One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston
  4. Middle Finger by Bohnes
  5. Go the Distance by Michael Bolton

She also shared some fun trivia/information about herself, for those who are new to her designs, given that she’s been on a design hiatus for the better part of this past year or two. So as a bonus, for those who don’t already know Karla… here’s an update! 🙂

  • I’m a self-taught jack-of-all-trades designer since 2003. Thanks to Google, coffee, and the passion for creative everything.
  • Since then, I have had my biggest blessings… 5 wonderful children, including 2 sets (!) of twins.
  • With digital designs and scrapbook pages… I only make pages with my own designs. Not because I don’t like the design of others… but because I know exactly what I like, and so I just make it myself! LOL
  • I was going strong for years… but since 2007, my personal life was falling apart, and after 11 years of marriage, my husband left us in September 2014. That’s when I stopped designing regularly 🙁 …and lost so much, from my belongings, to my van, my home, and my children.
  • I’m slowly working on coming back! Taking my time… making sure it feels right… finding myself after all these years. I’m finding that I have naturally evolved into a new designer with a different outlook. A new me… hoping that I will be accepted by the creative community once more, when I make it back. It helps having a creative fiancé, too! <3 hehe

As for Karla’s design style… it is distinctly her own. From her use of color to her fantastic hand-drawn elements and word art stamps… you can always recognize Karla’s products as being hers!

Here are just a few of my favorite products by Karla Noél

Also, here’s a look at just a small sampling of the gorgeous projects that have been created using Karla’s products…

Isn’t it all so fun and inspiring? 🙂

I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about Karla and looking into her creative space! I have great news — because during her entire feature week, you will find all of Karla’s products on sale 30% OFF in her shop at The Digital Press! (the sale will end at 11:59pm ET on Thursday 4/20). Check your wishlist, and don’t miss out on this great chance to clear your favorite items off it — at a discount!

Additionally, this week only — you can snag Karla’s “Epic.Ness” Collection for FREE with any $10+ purchase in the Karla Noél shop at The Digital Press (this offer also ends at 11:59pm ET on Thurs 4/20)…


Gaelle About the author Gaelle is a member of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She lives in France with her hubby, her two sons and her kitty. She loves digiscrap and discovered this activity in 2012, since she’s totally addict and scrap to keep memory her everyday life. Her family is definitively her principal source of inspiration.

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Tutorial Tuesday | Creating Keyword Sets in Lightroom

I love using Lightroom. When I first began using it, it was solely for the purpose of photo editing; I do almost all of my photo editing in Lightroom. After playing around in the program for a while, though, I started using it for keywording (a.k.a. tagging) my photos for organizational purposes — and eventually I also began using it to tag my digital scrapbooking supplies. The more I use Lightroom, the more I love it. Keywording in Lightroom is quick and easy… and helpful! …and that’s what I am here to share with you today.

For a long time, I did all of my keywording simply by typing in the keywords I wanted to use (saving to the file’s metadata)… and/or by clicking on the keywords that showed up in the “Recent Keywords” set. One day, however, for whatever reason… I noticed there were up and down arrows immediately to right of the “Recent Keywords” set. Hmmm. Why had I never noticed that before? Nested under “Recent Keywords” was a option to save and edit a keyword set. Finding that option was a great time-saver for me. Keywording is definitely not one of my favorite tasks, but I consider it a necessary part of my scrapbooking/photo-editing process and I welcome any and all shortcuts I find to speed up the process. I bet you will too!

So, before I show you how to create a keyword set, in case you haven’t been using Lightroom for keywording I first want to give you a quick how-to for basic keywording:

  • When you’re in the Library Panel press CMD/CTRL+K to access the Keywording Panel.
  • From there you just type in the keywords you want added to the metadata of your photo. *NOTE* You can add multiple keywords to a photo, simply by separating the keywords with a comma. For my example, I used the keywords “Barbara, BAU, Grant, Lauren, Scott, Stonehenge, UK” because these are the words I will most likely use to search for this photo at some point.

 

As I mentioned above, I find that creating Keyword Sets is a big timesaver. I’ve got a couple of standard keyword sets that I use. Some standard sets I find useful are for different sets of family members. I like to tag all the individual family members in my photos so I can quickly access photos of individual people. Yes, that is very detailed and perhaps more detailed than some people would want to go with their keywording… but the process actually goes quickly, and it saves me so much time down the road when I’m looking for photos.

I have three basic sets that I use all the time:

  1. “Us At Home” is a set of keywords I use all the time for my core family (my husband, kids, dog and at home keywords)
  2. “May Family” is a set of keywords of the names of people on my side of the family.
  3. “Unzen Family” is a set of keywords of the names of people on my husband’s side of the family.

 

From there, I’ll create keyword sets for individual holidays and events, vacations, etc. — any keywords that I feel I’ll use over and over for a particular set of photos. I’ll save these keywords to a temporary (or permanent) keyword set. It saves me time and speeds up my keywording process.

So, now you probably want to know how to create a Keyword Set. This is the very simple process:

  • Click on the little up/down arrows to the right of “Recent Keywords”
  • Click on “Edit Set”
  • Type in the keywords you want included in the set (each set can hold 9 keywords). Hit Tab to move from box to box.
  • When you’ve entered in the 9 keywords you want included in the set click on the down arrow next to Preset and choose “Save Current Settings as New Preset”
  • Type in a name for your preset

 

That’s it! So easy, right?

And the benefit is that after doing this, when you’re keywording images at a later point in time you can choose between using your “Recent Keywords” and any of the other Keyword Sets you’ve created. Such a time-saver! Give it a try. I hope you find that creating and using Keyword Sets in Lightroom speeds up your keywording/tagging process, as well.

If you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments of this post and I’ll get back to you. Also … if you’ve got any Lightroom shortcuts of your own that you’d like to share with us, feel free to share them with us in the comments, as well!


Barbara UnzenAbout the Author:  Barbara Unzen is a member of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She’s a mom to two teenage kids, a 19 year old son and a 17 year old daughter. In her free time she loves to digi scrap, take photos and hang out with her family.

Hybrid How-To | Custom Watercolor Tags

Hello everyone! It’s Saturday, and time for another edition of Hybrid How-To… and today I’m going to show you how to use digital stamps to create customized tags (and/or other projects).

Supplies Needed

  • Digital stamps (I used stamps from Speechies and Love This by Rachel Hodge, and also This Life March Stamps from the Juno Designs shop)
  • Digital Kit (I used In Living Colour by KimB Designs)
  • Watercolor paints or distress inks
  • Laser printer
  • Optional — Minc foiling machine

Instructions

I used Microsoft Word to create my project… but of course you can use just about any word processing or image editing software. You will need to arrange your elements (stamps, etc.) on the page in a way that is conducive to printing. Don’t forget to leave some white space around each element (and around the outer edge of the page as a margin).

*TIP*  In Word, I set the ‘Wrap Text’ option to ‘In Front of Text’ so as to be able to easily move the elements around on the page.

If  you have access to a laser printer, then you can print your document before painting. However, if you only have an inkjet printer, you must decorate your page first before printing or your images will run.

Once you have your stamps printed… you can let your creativity run wild! Use watercolor paints (or similarly-styled inks) to create unique backgrounds. Here’s a look at what I did…


*TIP* Use washi tape or masking tape to secure your page to a board or desk. This will help the paper stay flat (rather than curling).

Color your tags as you wish — use ombre effects, splotches, etc. — it’s up to you. I even left a few of my images blank so that I could color them in after I had cut out the pieces.

When you’ve finished, carefully remove the tape and allow to dry. It’s a good idea to place a heavy book on top to keep the paper flat.

OPTIONAL EXTRA STEP — Because I used a laser printer, I could add foil to my pieces using a Minc machine. To do this, you place the foil on top of the paper and feed it through the machine. The foil reacts with the toner… which melts and grabs the foil. Foil is available in a rainbow of colour and adds a real luxury to your pieces. Check this out…

Finally, you will cut out your pieces (adding extra color or ink as you wish). You can die cut or use a cutting machine to get really creative if you wish.

Here, you can see that I created a card with one of my tags…

You can also add them to scrapbook pages, pocket scrapping projects, or even planner pages! Here’s a look at a few pieces I thought could work well in a memory planner…

Isn’t this easy and fun? Now you can create something unique with your digital stamps, and hold the end-product in your hands!

Want to give this project a try? You can earn challenge points towards the April 2017 challenges here at The Digital Press if you share your finished projects with us. Check out our monthly challenge information in the CROSSWORD SECTION of the forum.


MoragAbout the Author  Morag Cutts is part of the Hybrid Creative Team here at Digital Press. Morag has been an avid scrapper and photographer for ten years.  Although she adores the flexibility and creativity of digital, Morag can’t resist playing with paper and embellishments – so hybrid scrapping is the perfect medium for her!  Morag lives in the UK with her hubby, two kids and recently adopted puppy.

 

Feature Friday | Dunia Designs

It’s time for another edition of our Feature Friday series here at The Digital Press… and this week, we are excited to feature Dunia from Dunia Designs here on The Digital Press blog! This is Dunia’s  second feature here on the blog (you can find her first feature from September  2016 HERE)… and whereas last year we used our feature series to help you get to know some fun trivia about your favorite designers… this year, we’re going to use our designer feature series to give you a little peek into our designers’ creative spaces and more insight into their creative processes.

With that in mind, we asked Dunia to show us her creative space — where she works to come up with all of her fantastic digital designs. This is such a great, clean, simple work space (you should see mine, in comparison!).  And doesn’t this space perfectly reflect her design style, which is also clean and simple?! 🙂

We also asked Dunia to give us a “Top 5” list that is representative of her at this point in life, and she gave us a list of her Top 5 of her Favorite Pastimes:

  1. Reading: At the moment, she reads “The Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allan Poe.” Since she wants to improve her English, she reads a lot at the moment.
  2. Walking: She loves to walk with her friends in her neighborhood.
  3. Playing: She loves playing with her kids. During the winter, they play a lot of board games… like Clue, Monopoly, Jingo, etc.
  4.  Netflix: She is addicted to Netflix. A few of her favorite series and films are: Sherlock, House of Cards, and Stranger Things (among others).
  5. Listen to music: She is a Rock-n-Roll person, and especially loves older music from artists like Led  Zeppelin, Metallica, Motorhead, ACDC, etc.

 

As for her digital design style… Dunia creates beautiful kits and collections that are perfect for traditional digital scrapbooking pages, as well as for pocket scrapping-style layouts and projects. She is known for her fantastic pocket cards. Whether you are a scrapper who is documenting everyday life… or individual holidays, vacations, or events… her products are perfect for clean and simple-style scrappers.

Here are just a few of my favorite items from Dunia’s shop at The Digital Press

Dunia Designs products are super versatile and easy to use for all kinds of projects. Here is a look at a sampling of just a few of our favorite projects using Dunia’s products…

I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about Dunia Designs, as well as getting a look at her work space and some of her amazing products! And as if that wasn’t enough fun… her entire shop will be 30% OFF throughout this coming week (the sale will end at 11:59pm ET on Thursday 4/13)!

Additionally, this week only — you can snag Dunia’s “My Kind of Day” Collection for FREE with any $10+ purchase in the Dunia Design shop at The Digital Press (this offer also ends at 11:59pm ET on Thurs 4/13)…

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About the author  Astrid is a member of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She lives with her husband and her 2 teenage/adult kids in Germany. As a mini-jobber with only 10 hours/week, she has plenty of time for her digital scrapbooking hobby. She has Netflix and Amazon Prime, and is addicted to nearly all series. Vampires, zombies, vikings… it doesn’t matter; she likes everything. She loves the ocean and the summer heat, but lives in the opposite: mountains. Therefore, she loves visiting her family in Algeria or the south of France.

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