{crafty} happy little triangles

It's triangle week over on the Glitz blog and I couldn't be more excited! The triangle trend is by far my favorite when it comes to geometric shapes, I find them so much more versatile and fun than hexagons and arrows.

I know I have said it many times before, but Finnley is by far my favorite Glitz collection and I hadn't had the chance to play with it much. When we got the assignment to create something based on triangles I knew I had to break out this collection! A little while ago I put together a digital template with stacked triangles (which you can download for free here) and I began to use that for my layout but decided I wanted it to take on a different shape. I had this sketch pinned from ScrapFriends and started building a new template from that. I also used the sketchy circle from the Finnley digital stamps to add some background interest as well as paint splatter brushes which are easy to find on the web for free! I repeated the circle elements throughout the page to help balance the angular lines of the triangles.. And there you have it!

I have made my new template available for download as well! Which you can find here. I am pretty new to the template world so hopefully these are easy to use. I left the shadow layers in the template but feel free to delete them and use your own shadow styles. 

Thanks for looking!

{crafty} Wild & Free Blog Hop

It has been one heck of a week filled with back to school night, the first field trip of the school year, custom shop orders and countless errands. Thank goodness it's Friday! Blog hopping with the rest of the Glitz Design digital team showcasing the Wild & Free collection is a great way to end the week! 

This is such a fun and whimsical collection! I used the Giant Roller Doodle X's digital stamp to create a background then clipped the Dream Catcher B-side paper to it to create the gradient color. I added a little more background stamping and misting, minimal paper layers and a small embellishment cluster to keep it light and airy.

Glitz Design will be giving away a Wild & Free digital collection pack to one lucky winner who comments in the hop! Each blog you comment on gains you an entry so be sure to hop along through the rest of the team!  

Amanda De Jong - http://somethingsorta.blogspot.com/
Amanda Resende - http://amandaresendescraps.blogspot.com.br/
Barbara Sokee - http://sokeeb.wordpress.com/
Donna Espiritu - http://www.scrappydonna.blogspot.com/
Emma Poon - http://amazinglyscrapped.wordpress.com/
Fauve Van Maanen - http://www.fauvevanmaanen.blogspot.com/
Jocelyn Olson - http://redballooncards.blogspot.com/
Kym Tsukamoto - http://busybostyn.blogspot.com/
Laura O'Donnell - http://itsallrosie.blogspot.com/
Maria Lacuesta - http://analogpaper.blogspot.com/
Mary Martinez - http://www.marnels.blogspot.com/
Miki Krueger - http://thecountryteacher.wordpress.com/
Smitha Katti - www.smilingcolors.com
Tiffany Wheeler - http://iffycreates.blogspot.com/
Glitz Design Blog - http://glitzitnow.com/blog/

{crafty} OBW Cashmere Dame

Did you know Wednesday's are One  Buck Wednesday over at JessicaSprague.com? Today you can snag Glitz Design Cashmere paper pack for $1 and the Elements 1 pack is half off!

When we were assigned to create something with this collection I was a little nervous. I don't do well with themed kits and looking at the collection it is overall very feminine and frilly. Me and flowers don't typically get along! The first thing I noticed in this kit however was the "today will be awesome" die cut and I thought it would be perfect for Little Man's first day of school. I also knew I wanted to use several of the speech bubbles as a main repeating element on my page. I love the retro almost superhero comic look I ended up with using the starburst, which I removed the rhinestones form, and bubbles.

Be sure to check out the Glitz blog today for more inspiration using this kit!

I also completely neglected to post last week's layout for OBW! This was my page using Yours Truly, which was another fun kit to work with! I love a good woodgrain background and this whitewashed paper is one of my faves!

Thanks for looking!

{crafty} Exciting News of the Digital Variety

Glitz Design is one of my current fave manufacturers. I mean, have you seen the new Finnley collection!? It is down right cute and my number one must have right now!

So you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to be on their brand new digital design team! I believe I was grinning from ear to ear all day when I found out. Digital scrapbooking is a fairly new love of mine and I cannot wait to dive in to it head on with these amazing collections to work with!

Head on over to the Glitz blog to meet more of the talented Glitz Design Digital team and be sure to check back there tomorrow for the rest of the introductions!

{crafty} Toolbox digital layouts

I signed up for Studio Calico's Toolbox class this month, and I am so glad I did! The first week we went digital with Shanna Noel; using digital elements ranging from papers to brushes to templates for both digital and hybrid pages. I have dabbled a bit in hybrid pages before but I have learned some great new techniques and how to use product in new and different ways.

My first page is a simple digital layout using a chevron template, made by Catherine Davis, that was provided in the class.

My second layout is a hybrid page using several different brushes available from the class and previous Studio Calico releases. I stamped all the circles in black and then went back and randomly clipped color and digital papers. Once those were completed I stamped several other brushes in white over the top of a few of the circles and added the brush strokes and title. I printed my base page out twice so I could cut out a few circles and pop them up on the page for dimension and then added other embellishments, mainly keeping with the circle theme. 

My last page is another all digital page, although I am tempted to add some bits and pieces once I have it printed. I created a template of multiple sizes and layers of triangles and then went back and added my papers and photo using clipping masks just as I did with the last two layouts. I chose a few patterned papers for this layout but did not care for the color. With a quick fill layer of color I was able to customize my digital paper to suit my layout. There are several ways to adjust color for this but my preferred method when I want a tone on tone pattern is to create a new layer, use the bucket tool to fill it with your choice of color and then change the blending mode from Normal to Color. It's that easy! 

Next week in the class starts the mixed media portion with Celine Navarro and I could not be more excited! I hope I have as much time to play as I did with the digital portion this week. 

Thanks for looking!