New Wonderland Kit from Digi Designs by Nicole

Check out the newest digital kit available in the store. This kit is only $3.50 and includes: 15 total 12x12 papers, 4 solid, 11 patterned. 2 papers are distressed and torn. 52 embellishments that include: beads, wire for beads, paperclips, staples, pins, brackets, silver buckles, buttons, clip, paper tress, ribbon, ricrac and star buttons with button string. Also included are 26 alphabets with numbers and punctuation. Click on the picture to be taken to where you can order this great kit.




















There is also a nice set of four free InstaScrap pages that match this kit.

Click on the picture to be taken to where you can download this freebie.

Let Me Count the Ways...

... that Kindred Creations can inspire you.

1. The Gallery - There are so many ways to explore the gallery. If you want to see the best of the best check out the Top 100 layouts of 2007 . Use the search function if you are looking for something specific, for example I entered digital and came up with 1029 layouts. There is even a section dedicated to sketches.

2. The Store - Whether you are a paper or a digi scrapper there is something to appeal to you in the KC Store. Our digital designers have created over 65 kits in a variety of styles for you to download. On the paper side the store now has KC exclusive chipboard and flowers. And don't forget to check out the Clearance and Last Chance Clearance sections, there are some great bargains to be had.

3. The Forum - This is what attracted me to KC originally. The members have changed over the last few years, but it still is the most welcoming forum I visit. I love that we have paper scrappers, digi scrappers, hybrid scrappers and card makers and everyone is supportive of each other. My favourite sections are Scrapbooking Chat, KC Cafe and DT Challenges.

What ways does Kindred Creations inspire you?

Get those Christmas Pictures into Layouts!

Need ideas for your Christmas pictures? Visit this link for some great layout ideas in our gallery.

Looking to get a few layouts done fast? Try our free Love and Joy InstaScraps from Digi Designs by Nicole. Click on the picture to be taken to where you can download it. Be sure to check out the kit that goes with it as well.
























You can also participate in our challenges in the forum. When you participate in the Design Team Challenges, you get inspiration and a chance to have your layout displayed on the front page.

All Boy InstaScraps Freebie

Enjoy this fun freebie from Kindred Creations Click on the picture to be taken to where you can download the kit. Be sure to check out the full kit here.

Template Challenge #1

We are starting something new at Kindred Creations: template challenges.

Everyone who participates in this template challenge will get a FREE mini kit called 'Holidays Wish' from me. Take a look at this cute mini kit you'll get for participating!


And this is the template you are to use. Pretty simple huh!


Here is my layout I created using the template. I just added a few additional embellishment touches, and viola, I was done.

If you want to participate too, and for more information, go here. I can't wait to see your layouts! Hurry though, deadline is January 3rd!

Reflection InstaScrap Freebie

If you are looking for a way to make a few quick pages, InstaScraps are the answer. All you have to do is add your photos and some journaling!

Click on the picture to be taken to where you can download it.

Perfect Pieces Digital Freebie

Just showcasing another one of Kindred Creations wonderful freebies. Click on the image to be taken to where you can download it. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out the other freebies in the store and forum.

November DT picks

Hi ladies, it's that time again to showcase our favourite LOs from the Design Team challenges for the month of November. Once again we had some awesome layouts, so here they are.

A little Christmas present

I was using the last kit I created to make gifts tags to use for my Christmas gifts and I thought I would share them with my friends here at Kindred Creations. If you're not my friend yet, it is really easy to sign up and become a member here at Kindred Creations.

I created them in 2 formats, the first is a printable for those who want to keep things simple or are less digital savvy. Please click on the preview to take you to the download location.

The second set is made up of individual jpg files for you to resize/alter and print as you would like. Please click on the preview to take you to the download location.


If you really enjoy the tags the complementary 'Christmas Memories' kit is available to purchase in the store for only $2. There are also many more freebies available both in the store and on the forum.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

Basic Grey All About Me Kits 2009

Kindred Creations has the opportunity to participate in a year long program with BasicGrey. At least 12 people would need to participate. Every month each participant would get a kit to create All About Me pages.

Each kit is $18 and you get patterned papers and cardstock from their absolutely newest lines, as well as the embellishments that go with them. The kit also comes with a 2 page sketch and photo step-by-step instructions on how to do the layout (the kit makes more than 1 2 page spread though). At the end of the year all 12 participants would recieve a 13th kit for free!

When you sign up you agree to pay for all twelve kits. You will recieve a recurring bill each month in your email from Kindred Creations for the kit cost + shipping.

Each 2 page spread has a theme:
My Favorite Things
Betcha Didn't Know
This I Believe
A Life Changing Moment
Reveal the Real You
My Circle of Friends
When I was a Kid
I Am Unique
Who Inspires Me
A Letter to Myself + the surprise 13th bonus kit.

I've seen the beautiful papers and embellishments, they are gorgeous! What else would you expect from BasicGrey. Unfortunately they will only let me show you the sample layout for the first month.

Interested? Sign up here

12 Days of Christmas

Thank you to all the ladies who participated in our '12 Days of Christmas' crop. I had an awesome time. My scrap space was a disaster from all the scrapping I managed to do! For those of you who missed it I thought I would give you a peak of some of the projects that were done at the crop. If you want to try some of these projects yourself you can head to the Cropping Lounge ... don't forget to share your beautiful creations with us in the cropping lounge and in the post where you found the idea.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me 1 pinwheel garland.
On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me 2 ways to do a gift card holder.
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me 3 Fresh Fonts.
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 4 items to create a Tic Tac deck.
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 napkin rings.
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 6 globe ornaments.
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me 7 elements for a LO.
On the eight day of Christmas my true love gave to me 8 glittery snow scene cards.
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 9 Christmas Titles.
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 10 inches of white space on a LO.
On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me 11 ways to wrap a candy bar.
On the twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 months of calendar pages.

Get Huge Discounts on Supplies!

Auction going on today in the forum. If you are looking for a great deal check it out. All items for auction will have a cap so you won't pay more than the wholesale price (50% off) even if you are the last bidder!

Thanksgiving and Fall Inspiration

I love Thanksgiving decor and fall colors. So I thought I would share some wonderful ideas I've seen for Thanksgiving table settings, placecards and Layouts. Aren't they beautiful? I hope this gives you some ideas and motivation.

October DT picks

We had another great round of DT challenges, and we want to thank all of you for participating! However only one LO from each challenge can be chosen for a Design Team pick. You ladies make it tough on us, and even more so when we choose the overall winner. Once again it was a close race!

Remember the only way your LO can make it to this slideshow is to participate in the monthly DT challenges. Good luck to this months participants.

If you love hand-stitching on your layouts, here's a storage solution.

I created a little matchbook to store some of my sewing needles with my scrapping supplies. I did have them stored in a little box, but the lid wasn't too secure so that they might spill easily and it was rather difficult to remove them without accidentally poking myself.



So here's some directions on how I made mine:
Take a 2"x10" strip of cardstock weight patterned paper, and fold it at 1", 5 1/2" and at 5 3/4". Fold this into a matchbook shape. Next, take a 2"x4 1/2" strip of thin boxboard, and glue it to the inside back of the matchbook for added support. Next take a 2"x4 1/2" piece of cardstock and fold it at 1 1/2" and at 2 1/4". Pierced the fold lines at even intervals with a small/thin needle. Tuck the longer end (to the fold line) into the small flap of the matchbook. Fold the large flap under the smaller one; staple the small flap closed, making sure you don't catch the top flap. Decorate as desired, and then insert the needles through the pierced holes.

Have fun sewing on your layouts.

Lose Weight Without Dieting

How many times have you read that??? A kazillion? Well, in this post, I will attempt to show you how to shave off a few unwanted pounds with the magic of photo editing!

Meet Mr. Fat Bear. That's his name, I didn't give it to him... we call him Fat Bear for short..

Here is a quick, down and dirty way to slim him down...

duplicate your layer

deselect your original layer so it is now hidden, then with your selection tool move the sides in - just a bit... not too much or your image will looked "squished". Just enough to shave off a bit of bulge!

Here is another way... great for arms and profile shots...

Hey Mr. Fat Bear... how's it going?

With your lasso tool, select area for slimming

Go to your filter gallery and find "liquify"

Once there, your view changes, just to the area you have selected. Size your brush in accordance to your photo size. Here my brush size is 64 pixels. Move your brush in an upward - inward motion.

Now for my finished product, I slimmed his hind end too a bit. I did find that I had to "clean up" my background a bit, because his fur left me some "messies"...

Meet the new and improved Mr. Fat Bear!

With a bit of patience and a bit of time you can master this technique... on people its easier... no fur to deal with!

One of KC's latest freebies

Just wanted to share one of KC's freebies. Click on the picture to download it. We also have freebies in our forum and other freebies in the store, you don't want to miss.

Spetember DT picks

I'm sure you're all anxiously waiting to see the September DT picks, so here they are:

Remember the only way your LO will make it to the blog is by participating in the DT challenges, so head on over to the forum and see what kind of exciting challenges we have for you this month.

A Digital Freebie

Here is a freebie for all of you. If you click on the image it will take you to the download page. I hope you enjoy it!



If you enjoyed this freebie there are even more of them in the Freebies board on the forum as well as the Kindred Creations Store. Don't forget to check them out!

Colour

One of the first things I decide on when I am designing a layout or a digital kit is a colour palette. For a layout I usually pick 3 or 4 colours and for a kit I pick 5. My favourite resource for coming up with colour palettes is the Adobe Kuler site. You can see the thousands of palettes that have already been created, change an existing palette to suit your colour scheme or create a completely new palette. Once you have decided on your palette, you can download it as a .ase file to use in Photoshop and other editing programs.

Here is a palette I put together for Halloween.


And here is how I used those colours in a layout.


Now go visit the Kuler site, create a palette of your own and then use it as inspiration for a new layout. Don't forget to post it in the Kindred Creations gallery for us to look at!

Text In A Circle

I've seen these instructions posted in numerous places, so thought it would be good to share here as well. It's awesome to see it done on a page!!

In Microsoft word (2000 and up):Open a new document.

1. From the top tool bar choose ‘Insert' --‘Picture’-- ‘Word Art’ OR click on the WordArt icon from the bottom tool bar (the tilted blue A)
2. Click on the sample that looks like an arch (in my program, it is the third on the top); click okay.
3. Type in the text you want. You can change font and size here. *indent one space at the beginning of your type. Click ‘okay’
4. This will display it in your document…click on the image so the box forms around it. Your WordArt tool bar should be visible now.
5. On the tool bar there is an “abc” icon…when the cursor is over it, it should read “WordArt shape”
6. When you click on this, you can see several different shapes…click on the one that looks like the letter O…once you do this, your text will look a little bit squashed…just resize it like you would any other image. To make a perfect circle-- right click on your image--choose Format WordArt--Size--and change the width and height so they are the same. * You can make your circle the exact size of your punch, circle etc. by measuring them before hand and inserting those measurements.

( I wanna thank Skrapnfreak for posting these for me to copy over here! )

Re-use it!

I have seen some ingenius ways to use common household items on a scrapbook page and they really help me get inspired, so I thought I would share a few.

Pop Tops
These fun items can be used a number of ways.
*To make what looks like a belt with some ribbon and the soda pop top as the "buckle"
*As a clasp on a mini-album. You bend the pop top so that the wider circle goes over the side and then glue the other side to the front of the album. Use ribbon to tie it shut. Or use two pop tops put the second one on the back page of the mini album and use a small peice of ribbon to tie them shut.

Clock Handles
I've seen these all over the place. People use them like arrows. They look great on heritage layouts.

Saran Wrap
If you wad it up and dip it on a stamp pad it makes a great texture background. I use this all the time when I have a color that I want to use in a stamp pad, but I don't have paper that will match. It takes about 3 minutes to cover a whole 12x12 page.

Here is a layout where I used saran wrap to make the background texture:


Beads
These are another great thing to use, and there are lots of kinds of beads you can get that won't make your page too lumpy. Here is one way I have used beads.

August DT picks

Here are the August Design Team picks! Congratulations ladies, this was once again an EXTREMELY close vote!

Fall Photography

I love fall! I love when the leaves start changing colors. Aren't they pretty? My favorite part of fall is going up in the mountains and taking pictures of the fall scenery.

Ever wonder how they get those bright and beautiful fall pictures done? Well, it's pretty easy.

Bright sunlight on a fall day is best, especially to make the colors "pop". If you are doing landscape photos make sure you are using a smaller aperture (f16 or above) to create a huge depth of field. Make sure you aren't taking pictures in haze or overcast skies too. Haze acts like a filter and stops the light from entering the lens.

Next time you are out, try it. Have fun playing!

Hobble Creek Canyon, Utah

Hobble Creek Canyon, Utah

Cropping Style

Crop or not to crop your photos...

I crop most of my photos some of the I crop a lot more than others. I do this to give added interest to my pages. I really try to ensure that my photos, and not all of the peripherals, are the most memorable part of my page. And some times to achieve this I have to crop!

Here is a cute photo of my husbands cousin with her daughter... isn't she the cutest? Straight out of the camera it's nice, but I want more umph!

In this version, I added a bit of contrast and cropped just a bit. Enough crop to get rid of the other "partial person" in the shot and the contrast was enough to pop her eye color

This is where most people stop the crop. Having your subjects fill the frame...

nice huh???

But let's take it a step further...

I ran an action to soften mom's pores, because this close of a crop you can really see them but you also get an awesome shot of this kids eyes, with out losing mom's kiss!

So next time you are sitting with bunches of photos to scrap try cropping a bit more than you'd normally do... you may really like the results!

Here is a tip for paper scrappers: If you are working with actual photos, as opposed to pixels, try using strips of paper to cover areas of your photos , as a way to "try on" a crop.

Happy Scrapping!

Waking up your photos

I am, by nature, an early riser. I am usually roused by the sun peeking through the shades... which has been a great help in my photography... the natural light from either a sunrise or sunset really lends its self well to a beautiful finished photo.

My neighbor's tree starts to come to life in the morning sun...

a child's toy gains interest

even human subjects benefit from the rays of a sunrise

so give this a try... either catch a romantic sunset or set your alarm to catch a glorious sunrise, and don't forget to have your camera handy to get some amazing natural light!

Inspiration all around

If you're like me you find scrapbook inspiration all around you. A great quote, design, product, technique or sketch may come to mind no matter where I am, or what I'm doing. Sometimes I have a pen and paper handy, other times unfortunately I have nothing handy and I might lose the idea. I have ideas scrawled on every imaginable piece of paper, especially shopping receipts in my purse, or a paper towel from the barn. My desk pad calendar is full of little notes to remember, ideas, doodles/scribbles, and calculations! I really should organize some of them into a proper notebook organized into categories. I have sketches from a number of years ago that I fully intend to scrap; they may not end up exactly the same as I may have imagined them at their inception, my scrapping style has grown and changed, as well as my scrapping stash.

Recently however I've added another quick method of capturing the source of my inspiration... my cell phone camera! I always thought it was a pretty useless feature since the image really isn't big enough to capture anything considering it is only 480x640 pixels, not much bigger than an index print. However I've been finding that it makes a great note pad! If an image doesn't do the trick you could always draft a text message to yourself. This spring I found a beach bag that had great design, texture, and stitching that would relate well to some patterned paper I had, and create the basis of a layout. I grabbed a pen and receipt and doodled away, but now I would just grab my camera and snap a quick picture to jog my memory when I get home. Sometimes I run into a great quote, I could snap a quick picture much faster than I could copy it down. No longer do you need to rip that magazine page out of the magazine at the doctors office (doesn't it bug you when people have done that to part of an article you really wanted to read!)

However you record your inspiration, I just want to encourage you to keep looking around you, you will find inspiration for your next layout!

July DT Picks

Here are July's DT picks. There were some incredible layouts, it was a tough decision