Friday, October 31, 2014

iDSD, your chance to win a future release and sales, sales, sales !

Happy iDSD everyone ! :)

I hope you are truly enjoying your scrapping time and all the sales. There are some great deals out there, and the Scrapyrus Designs store sure is no exception.

The more you buy, the more you save ! Up to 50% off !



And that's not all, you have the chance to win a Scrapyrus Designs future release, tailor made to your desires.

Link us up to the color / theme inspiration of your choice and 
if your entry is picked, you will win the release based on your inspiration.

It can be a picture from the web, a picture that you have taken yourself, an art work, maybe even a piece of clothing, anything that can get the Scrapyrus Designs creative juices flowing.

You are more than welcome to enter more than once, but please post it in separate comments.
Unfortunately, anonymous comments can not be considered unless the comment itself contains a name.
All comment between now and November 4th 23:59 EST (blog time) will be considered to win.

I can't wait to see what you come up with ! Good luck.


Friday, October 24, 2014

New Release: Indian Summer & a Freebie!

Even though Summer is my favorite season I have to admit that fall colors can just be stunning!  I can slide into the Fall season easier when it is an Indian Summer and I get to soak up the sunshine and warm weather as long as possible.  With all that rich sunshine comes some pretty brilliant fall colors which are captivated in Scrapyrus Designs new kit:  Indian Summer.  Those gold and red tones just light up the forest trees and make you believe you've dropped into an enchanted land.

Indian Summer showcases all those magnificent tones and will bring your fall photos to life.

Indian Summer: kit | worn papers | alphas | borders | journal cards | extra papers | bundle


Look for more incredible kits, deals, and bundles in the Scrapyrus Designs Store at Scrapbook Graphics.

To see the larger previews of the individual parts just move your mouse over the thumbnails.

Just look what the CT has created with this stunning collection:

 by Connie
by Carol

The lucky winner of this kit is Diane Howard. Congratulations !
Please send an email to scrapyrusdesignsteam at gmail dot com to claim your prize. You have to claim it within one week.

Are you subscribed to the Newsletter? If so, your freebie will be this quick page! Sign up today so you don't miss out on future freebies!

Newsletter freebie:

And another freebie for you, loyal blog readers!!  Here is your free set of numbers coordinating with Indian Summer collection :

http://www.mediafire.com/download/v6hyu5bz6a2e0b2/Scrapyrus_IndianSummer_nb.zip

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Scrap Stacks Feature: Sweet Heart

Scrapyrus Designs is featured in this month's Scrap Pack at ScrapStacks!  You can get all 4 kits/templates shown for just $5.00!  Click on the image below to pick up this great deal!

http://scrapstacks.com/scrappack/

Here is a closer look at Sweet Heart by Scrapyrus Designs included in this bundle deal:


To see the larger previews of the individual parts just move your mouse over the thumbnails.

And here is a look at what our talented CT created using Sweet Heart:


by Connie
by Connie 
 by Lisa





Tutorial : Word Clouds

Today's tutorial is a reminder of a technique that has been around awhile and maybe you've already tried these.  I pull this out every once in a while to accent a kit when it may not have all the word art concepts I'm looking for and I don't want to scour through ALL my kits to find them!  Word Clouds or Word Clusters are a great way to quickly put lots of descriptors into your layout to help get your point across!

I have this fun picture of my daughter sitting in her toy antique car alongside my husband's 1927 Ford Model T he has been restoring.  The picture is from 2010 and currently he is working on repainting it a maroon color so I'm glad I took this pic while they still had matching cars! =)  It is no secret in my household that while I love seeing my husband have a hobby he enjoys, I am nervous to ride in this bucket of bolts hoping it will get us to where we are going and back home!  It leaks oil, it is smelly and really noisy to ride in.  My husband loves the idea that he is preserving history and often takes it to the car shows or down to his school where he teaches to coordinate with a history teacher on a lesson.  My daughter loves to go for rides to the park in it and I have to admit that if the destination includes Starbucks or even dinner out I'm more likely to set my nerves aside!

When looking for a kit to use with this pic I found Scrapyrus Designs' "Hit the Road" collection.  It has an antique car sticker (ummm...PERFECT!!), an old rusty license plate and metal pieces, the color tones were ideal and even though it is more vacation themed I thought I could re-purpose it a bit!  I love it when kits can be versatile like this!


http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/scrapyrus-Hit-The-Road-Kit.html

I love that Scrapyrus puts lots of word art in her kits, but being a road trip themed kit, not all of them were things I could use for my main focus here.  I wanted to get a lot of adjective words in that summed up our thoughts and feelings about having and restoring this car and a word cloud can definitely do that!



So, how did create the word cloud?  I went to the Wordle website and used their free creator program. You do need to have Java installed on your computer to be able to use this, and they do have links to download it for free if you need it.  Here is how the Wordle site describes this cloud creator:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. 

 Simply copy/paste or type in a series of words you want to use.  There are lots of tricks like repeating the same word more than once to have it appear more prominently on your page.  You can customize several aspects like direction of the words, font, color and case choice.  I just typed in the descriptions I wanted to use and then hit "go".  It randomly created the cloud based on my settings which you can redo as many times as you want until you like the arrangement.  Then I changed the font and decided to customize the colors by using some from my photo and kit papers.



This is how it turned out:


Unfortunately, there isn't a way to make the background transparent and save as a png.  When you read their FAQ's the choices are to print, take a screenshot or snip, or save as a PDF (they explain how).  I used my snipping tool, saved it and brought it into Photoshop.  I chose white as a background and used the Background Eraser Tool.  There are several methods and tutorials on how to remove backgrounds so use the one that is easiest for you. Different techniques product various results and since my layout is more of a heritage feel I chose a Tolerance that left the word edges a bit rustic looking.  I also set the Opacity to 90% to blend it into the paper.

Word clouds could be blended into papers (even more so than mine), you can clip them to elements, tags, journal cards, etc.  They are an easy way to further illustrate feelings or emotions about your theme without having to scour several kits to find just the perfect word!  Now you can make your own AND have it be color coordinated with the kit you are using!

I hope this "old technique" will give you some NEW ideas and if you never knew about Wordle you will have to give it a try.  If you liked this tutorial you can bookmark this page or download the PDF version HERE.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Win "Indian Summer"

Scrapyrus Designs has a brand new kit coming out this Friday, rich and earthy colours, just scrumptious. Here is a little sneak peek:
To stand a chance to win this kit, you need to:
1. Leave a comment on this blog post with your name and email address if you comment anonymously.
2. Comments must be left by noon on Thursday the 23rd of October 2014.
3. You can share this RAK on your own blog or facebook and upon leaving a public link in the comments for each, you would have more opportunities to win.

Good Luck! Winner will be announced when the kit is revealed.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Little Horror Labels in English and French!

Are you one that totally gets into the spirit of Halloween?  Decorations everywhere, inside and out?  Are you planning to host a big party at your house or workplace?  These Little Horror Labels will put the chilling touch into your decor!  Scrapyrus Designs has made these labels in both English and French!  These layered files can easily be customized to coordinate with your theme colors and can then be printed and adhered to old glass bottles or other clever creations to set the "spooky mood".

Catch these labels while they are on a fantastic 50% off sale!!  You may have 2 weeks until Halloween, but this sale won't last until then!

These can be found in the Scrapyrus Designs Store at Scrapbook Graphics:

 
http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/scrapyrus-Little-Horror-Labels-English.html 

http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/scrapyrus-Little-Horror-labels-FR.html 
Happy Haunting!


Saturday, October 11, 2014

October Gallery Pick

Hi there, Léa bringing you a layout that caught my eye in the Scrapbookgraphics gallery.

Congratulations to dvhoward!


I love the fun feel of this layout. The subtle colors are very attractive and the quirky placement of the papers draw the eyes to the photo. I also love how she used the paper clouds and the shadowing technique is perfect! Very eye catching!

http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/scrapyrus-My-Sunshine-Bundle.html

She used My Sunshine available at Scrapbookgraphics.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Flashback Sale: Salem Boolevard Collab

If you missed this amazing collab with Meagan's Creations then you are in LUCK!  Salem Boolevard is on sale during this Flashback Special!  There are so many pieces to this collection so make sure you grab them all on this awesome deal!  It has the kit (including the alpha), borders, word art, labels, wrappers, templates, and if you just want it all then of course there is the bundle!

You'll find all of this and so much more in the Scrapyrus Designs Store.


To see the larger previews of the individual parts just move your mouse over the thumbnails.


Look at the stunning layouts our CT created:


Are you a Newsletter Subscriber?  Then you can look forward to this treat...no tricks!  If you don't want to miss out on another newsletter freebie then be sure to click HERE and sign up!


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

October blog challenge

October is finally here! Today I'm bringing you a new challenge and I hope lots of you will participate. We haven't done this challenge in a while. I'd love to see some monochromatic pages using Scrapyrus Designs' products. I'm not going to give you a specific color though. Pick one color that inspires you and create a layout with your pick as a main color. There can be some touches of neutral though but when you see the layout only one color should stand out.

Here is my layout so you can see what it looks like. It's obviously very yellow!

I used Sweet Bump



Here are some pages created by the Scrapyrus Designs' CT for your inspiration:

Petra used One of a Kind


Carol used Howl At The Moon



So here are the rules:

1. Create a monochromatic layout using only shades of one color. You are allowed a few accents of neutral colors (white, black, cream, gray or brown)
2. Use 100% Scrapyrus Designs Products (freebies are allowed)
3. You are welcome to submit more than 1 layout, each one gets you an extra chance to win.
4. Please upload your layout(s) to a gallery and link us up in the comments before the October 25th.
5. Mr Random will pick a winner to receive a kit of their choice.

I can't wait to see your layouts!

And the winner of the September Blog Challenge is Lis!

Please email scrapyrusdesignsteam at gmail dot com with the kit of your choice. You have one week to claim your prize.