Challenge #140 - all things bright and geometric!

Will you look at this eye-catching page! Jael's style is packed full of brights and beautifuls, with bold shapes and lots going on, and the current tip-top trend of geometrics.

For this challenge, we want to see geometric shapes and bright colours. Simple eh?

Link us up to your entry in the Challenge Entries page at the top of this blog, and be in with a chance of winning a prize in the random draw at the end of the game. Make sure you link back to the Scrap Whispers blog. Drop in again during the week for some more inspiration from the DT!

Weekly update

The game has started!

Each first player should have received their LOs from the DT by now. If you haven't, please either e-mail your team leader or leave a comment here.

If you are waiting for your turn, and fancy something to tickle your creativity, come back tomorrow for a new challenge featuring a LO from our guest designer Jael.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Colour Popping Technique

With all this talk of changing colour's on photos for our challenge this week - I thought I would share a quick tutorial with you today!  Colour Popping is a technique whereby you have a black and white image but with a little splash of colour somewhere in the photo. It is great of you want to highlight something specifically.

I use Corel PaintShop Pro for my photo editing but the technique is similar on all editing software packages. 

Take this photo:

I love that bright American Flag design on the guitar but hate the fact there are a few shadows in the photo. Lets highlight the colour just on the guitar......

Firstly we need to make the image black and white.  To do this select "Layers" then "New Adjustment Layer" and then "Hue/Saturation/Lightness" .  We are basically going to drain the photo of all colour.

Drag your "Saturation" down to -100 and then press OK.

This leaves you with a black and white photograph.

Select your paint brush and be sure to choose an appropriately sized brush.

Set your foreground and background colours to black and white.

Then simply run the paintbrush over the area you want to bring colour back to. This may take a little bit of time depending on the size of your brush and the size of the area involved. Keep going until you are done.

And there we have your final amended photograph with a pop of colour! 

Give it a go for yourself and see what you can do with your photos. It gives them a whole new feeling and if you are layering photos on a page can make it more interesting too!

If you want to take part in our challenge please leave us a link to your creations (see the tab at the top of this page) so we can see what you have been up to! :)

Rosey's challenge #139 - colour enhancing

Congratulations to all the winners of the International Scrap-booking Day event! Don't forget to let Georgina have your postal address as soon as possible, so that we can get your prizes out to you.

And now back to our weekly challenges! How are you getting on with your colour enhancing or monochrome LOs? Has everybody thought about what they're going to do?

If you're stuck for inspiration, here is a LO that I made a while ago that actually incorporates black and white, sepia and enhanced colour. I rather liked the effect that changing the colour gives to photos of inanimate objects.

The LO was about how I felt when my husband was working away for months at a time. That empty armchair signified a lonely time, but thankfully now he has a more settled job with less travelling.

OK, now it's over to you! Every creation that you link us up to will go into a random draw for a grand prize at the end of the game. You don't have to be a player to enter the challenges.

NSBD Winners!

Hi everyone

We are happy to announce the following winners were picked at random by our linky for our International Scrapbook Day FairyTale challenges!  If you see your name listed please email Georgina with your address and she will get your prizes out!

Sleeping Beauty:   Natascha
Princess and the Pea:   Karin 
Cinderella: Amanda Jane
Thumbelina: Alexis H 
Jack and The Beanstalk: Jenn K
Little Red Riding Hood: Susi 
Goldilocks and the three bears: Kathy
Snow White: Sherri L
Beauty and the Beast:  Alexis H
Rumplestiltskin: Amanda C 
Elves and the Shoemaker: Natascha 
Frog Prince: Stephanie Joy 
Rapunzel: Amanda C

Challenge #139 - enhanced/monochrome

Hi everyone, and welcome to the new game!

The teams and dates have been announced (see the Game Schedule (May) page at the top of this blog) and you should be receiving e-mails from your team leaders any time now, asking for your availability to play. If you don't hear from us, please leave us a comment or e-mail.

Here is the first challenge of this game to keep you busy while the dates are being arranged.

I hope you have all read yesterday's interview with the lovely Jael, our new guest designer. Isn't it fascinating to find out about how other creative people work? And out of all the interesting insights into her crafting life, one thing that jumped out at me was her choice of photo. As you will find out as her inspirational LOs appear, Jael is gifted at enhancing her photos and that gave me an idea.

Your challenge for this week is to scrap a photo that you have changed the colouring on, but we don't want you to go all black-and-white or sepia for this one because that would be far too easy. You could highlight a particular colour or colours, or go all Andy Warhol on us and change it completely!

If you don't have access to software or cameras that will do this, don't worry! Pick a colour and scrap a monochrome page with your usual photo(s) instead. Monochrome means different shades of one colour, and you can include black and white as well.

When you have finished your creation, you have until the end of the game to link us up to it using Inlinkz in the Challenge Entries page at the top of this blog, so that we can leave you comments and enter you into the prize draw. Please include a link to, and a mention of Scrap Whispers in your blog post or gallery item so that other people can join in the fun too. Come back during the week and see what the DT has produced to inspire you!

Guest Designer for May/June game - Jael Calvillo

Welcome to the May/June game of Scrap Whispers!

And a big welcome to our lovely Guest Designer for this game - Jael Calvillo. Jael is a regular on ScrapJazz, where she goes by the username of Luvscrappin. You can see her glowing gallery here.

Your blog?
No don't have one, what ever free time I have, I like to used it to scrap or be online looking for inspiration.

Tell us a little about yourself?  
I have been married for 25 years to my wonderful husband and we have 4 beautiful children.  Soon my oldest son will get marry and I will be gaining another daughter.  Can't wait to scrap their wedding and then my grand babies-oh that can't come soon enough lol.

How long have you been scrapping and how did you get started?  
I don't really remember when I started scrapping, I do remember my youngest son was still an infant, so maybe around 14 years or so.  My sister was the one that got me hooked on this expensive hobby and I have not looked back.

How would you describe your style? 
Don't really know what my style is, most of us never really know.  I have been told that I am fun & colorful, queen of layering, of color & of flowers lol.  I am no queen well only to my husband cuz he says so lol.

What do you prefer making: 12 x 12, other sizes, mini albums, home décor, all these? 
I am not into making albums or home decor, not have I haven't done any, just not my thing.  I usually only do layouts and some cards occasionally.  I have scrapped all size, right now I am loving the 8x8.  The only problem is finding small embellies.

Which techniques seem to work best on your pages (eg. stitching, misting, fussy-cutting, glitter)?
Right now I am loving layering, misting, using doilies, arrows & stamping.

Do you like trying new techniques or do you tend to stick to your own style? 
I do like experimenting with different techniques, it might take me a while to work up my courage.  I remember being afraid to try heat embossing.  Well it was a piece of cake, which reminds me I need to do it more often.

What styles do you like to look at in other people's work?  
I love to look at everyone work, you can always find something to inspire you.

What are your main subjects? 
My children, my husband, my family & their kids.

What is the one craft item you could not live without, and why? 
Right now it's the enamel dots by MME, love those things.  I think all my latest layouts have them.

What was the last scrappy gift that you were given? Have you used it yet? 
My husband gave me this spinning rack by Harbor Freight.  Of course I loaded that baby right up.

Tell us one random thing that we didn't know about you! 
It's kind of embarrassing, but I collect matchbox/hot wheels cars & fat pens!!


Thank you! Jael has given us a secret LO to get our game going, and her colourful, dramatic pages will be the inspiration for our weekly challenges. Come back tomorrow for the first challenge of the game!