Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Forum: Viewing image 2/14 Technique challenge: Pink Chocolates - Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Forum

After a bit of a long hiatus, I found myself in a creative pickle. I was struggling to find my creative voice, and also found my skills annoyingly rusty. To spark my creative juices, I upgraded to PSE 11. This inspired me to sharpen old skills as I discovered the in's and out's of the new program. (BTW--PSE 11 is AWESOME!)

I used a lot of different techniques in this layout. I started with Brandy Murray's ArtDiary paper, and pulled up some pretty background papers to begin working with. I recolored papers to the desired shades from my color palette--my makeup bag. I used clipping masks to attach these papers to various layers of Brandy's layout. I also reoriented the layout, flipping it horizontally.

I used a Christmas photo that I liked, and "fit it" to the face layer. The shape in Brandy's layout wasn't quite right for my photo, so I altered it. I clipped the photo to the face layer, then used a brush to add to the underlying face layer. As I painted, my photo miraculously transformed! Woo-Hoo!

I wanted a more sketched look for the photo, so I played with Sydney Nuckles' Vintage Postcard action. This was listed as a PS only product, but I was able to make it work pretty well in PSE 11. How? Magic maybe? I fiddled around a long time with it, and can't tell you the steps. Suffice it to say that the results were effective and interesting, and merit further investigation--HAVE FUN with it!

After the transformation, I found myself looking at a lovely brown-eyed girl. Cute, but not me. I selected the eye, copied it to a new layer, and recolored it, playing with the transparency until I got to back to my natural blue-green eye color.

For this layout, I was inspired by my makeup palette, so I pulled up JPEGs of my makeup bag. I transformed a JPEG of my eyeshadow into a digital sticker by removing the white using the magic wand. I also skewed the image to make it "lay" flatter on the paper. I used the eye dropped tool to select from the colors to recolor other elements.

I found a clip art image of a lipstick that I liked, and recolored it to match my palette. I also "broke it apart" in order to apply a brushed metal PSE style to the tube.

I tried to create my own font for the word art, but ended up just scanning in hand-written words. I applied a chocolate piping style to the letters to add to the “Pink chocolate” theme.

Another fun touch was designing my own tea cup! I borrowed a cup from Brandy’s Cottage Rose cupboard, and recolored it, and added a nice ivy from Angela Blanchard. Can you find the lucky ladybugs? And yes, I am guilty of leaving lipstick smudges on my morning cuppa—so I added one here courtesy of Shalea Tippett’s Chocolate Kiss brush set.

I added some brush work, using regular and dynamic brushes, adjusting color, size and transparency as needed.

When all was said and done, I had found my creative self looking back at me from the page—Where have you been, ScrapGirlFriend??? No worries! I’ve found you now!





Papers:
ABR_SweetWords_BrownSolid
ASO_WinterWhite_Flakey
BMU_SSPaper_ArtDiary3
JRA_HomeSweetHome_Paper2

Embellishments:
AB:_CountryFlowers_ladybug
ABL_FarmersMarket_Vine
BMU_CottageRose_Cup
BMU_ShabbyBlanc_Handmirror
STI_Brush_ChocKisses
JRA_Emb_DoodleHeart2.png
Lipstick from sweetclipart.com and adapted using PSE11

Tools & Styles:
AMC_SStools_Water
BMU_DynBrush_ArtDiary
Ro_SSTools_Styles_IceSnow
SNU_SSTools_Styles_ChocCandy
SNU_SSActions_VintagePostcard
STI_ChocKiss_BrushesMini_Lips

Other:
Colors inspired by Clinique Pink Chocolate eye shadow
Lyrics by Aretha Franklin, 1967