After much anticipation and excitement I’m finally pleased to announce my brand new class, iScrapit: Mobile scrapbooking for iPad & iPhone, is now open for registration.

In iScrapit, you’ll learn how to create beautiful digital albums using Apple Keynote for iPad or iPhone. Over the course of 3-weeks, I’ll cover everything from adding images and text to animations and transitions. You’ll also learn how to convert your digital kits and templates to sizes that work with your mobile device and how to take your Project Life mobile.

Sign-up now and take advantage of the early registration discount!

Chat with me!

Join me Thursday night, May 17, at 9pm EDT for a live interactive video chat at ReneeTV. I’ll take your iScrapit questions and share a few of my favorite tips for mobile scrapbooking.

See you then!

Hi again everyone! This month I have a fun and easy artsy hybrid project for you. These are a lot of fun to make and share with a special child in your life too.

Want to add a little whimsy to a room? Create these easy layered French Butterflies and create a butterfly release for your studio, a child’s room or anywhere you’d like. After you are totally addicted to these like I am, add a magnet to the back to stick to your fringe, or thread them into a fluttering mobile as I had one friend do.

Here I show mine in my art studio, fluttering off of a canvas art piece my grand-daughter and I made flying towards a window.

We created these in a few hours easily using our printer and some water-soluble inks but watercolors do nicely too. You can print in color if you like and not have to worry about painting them too.

What you will need:

Printer
8.5 x 11 Plain paper to print on
Watercolor Paper cut to 8.5 x 11
Pieces of canvas or fabric scraps
Craft Glue I use Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Scissors
3M Removable Mounting Tabs 1/2” x 1/2” cut in half

Download the files provided here at the end for your butterflies and ephemera papers.

Optional: Your own ephemera like old book pages or vintage newspapers or ads. Watercolors or water-soluble inks or colored markers.

Start by printing the colored or B/W file of the butterflies onto your watercolor paper.

Let them dry before cutting them out. 15 min for colored, 1 day for the B/W set if you plan on coloring with paints or you take the chance of the ink smearing and it will look dirty.

NOTE: If you are going to paint your own colors, it is easier to do this before cutting them out.

I printed off a colored set and a black and white set to color myself and have some white ones to mix it up for my butterfly release.

Warning! Make plenty as when your friends stop by, they will want to “catch” a few for their home too! I had more than twice as many of these before this photo was taken.

Next print the Ledger page and the Vintage Paper page or use any you have on hand already.

Cut out your butterflies

Place your butterfly on your of your fabric or canvas and fussy cut out around leaving about 1/4 or so border. Rough up the canvas edges for a shabby look with your fingers by rubbing them together along the edges. A little moisture on your finger tips makes this a little easier.

Using your butterfly again, do the same with your ephemera paper leaving a slightly larger border than you did before.

Note: You don’t have to be perfect cutting your canvas or paper shapes, just “wing it” and it will look good.

Assembling:

Layer in this order gluing each piece top with just a dab of craft glue under the butterflies body.

Bottom to top: Ephemera paper, canvas or fabric, butterfly. Option: you can use the two different ephemera papers instead of the fabric or canvas if you like, but the canvas does add a nice whimsy touch.

Bend the wings of your butterfly slightly up and off the canvas.

Done! Attach your double-sided 3M tabs and arrange your butterfly release on your wall!

Optional: Attach a small magnet to the back with the craft glue to use on your frig or lamps too for more whimsy touches!

See many more inspirational tutorials, tips and digi art from Cilenia on her Blog Beautiful Mess.

Enjoy a 30% off coupon to her entire shop at Digitals May 9th — 31st!

Coupon Code: RP30May

Expires May 31st 2012 One use per customer please.

 DOWNLOADS

Pretty Butterflies and Ephemera

Can you ever have too many brushes? I say not really. When you see beautiful Photoshop brushes like the ones shown above in Shiny Flower Brushes by Heygrey, it’s hard not to say ‘I want those brushes.’ It really makes you smile when the brushes are free.

I was checking out Brush Lovers earlier today and could not believe the beautiful free Photoshop brushes available there. Besides Shiny Flower Brushes, my other favorites were Rosy Watercolor by Heygrey and Flowers & Fruits Old Postcards by PinkOnHead shown below.

Brush Lovers has an amazing selection of Photoshop brushes and they’re all free. Check them out. While you’re there, take a moment and let them know which are your favorites. You’re gonna love these brushes. Enjoy!

The winner of the Creating Keepsakes subscription giveaway is commenter #1, Julia M in MI who commented:

I am new to the blog, so I hope I am not mentioning something that has been done before. I have not learned how to do extractions. I would like to learn that technique. Thanks for the chance to win!

Congratulations, Julia M in MI! Please send us an email to claim your prize.

Hey RP fans! Deena Boese from Creating Keepsakes magazine back at the table with another Photoshop tutorial! This week’s tip comes from the request of last month’s tutorial reader Sharon Grey. She wrote:

While text paths look complex, they are actually super simple! The secret lies in a little icon in the options bar called “Paths”. I’ll introduce you in a bit! First, a little disclaimer/history lesson.

Photoshop has always had the capability to create text along a path. Photoshop Elements, however, has taken a little longer to jump on board. I was excited to see that the new release of Photoshop Elements 10 provides text path capabilities! Users of PSE 9 and earlier, however, aren’t so lucky. If this is you, be sure to check out the DOWNLOADS section at the end of the post. I’ve created a downloadable text path that will work in PSE!

Now, back to using text paths.

Shaped text adds great interactive movement to a page and engages the reader. It can also serve as a great design element on a page and is perfect for those layouts where journaling space is limited. Here’s a layout where I wanted my photos to remain center stage so I added my journaling in a rectangle text path which highlights, instead of distracts, from my photos.

The Undeniable Bond by Deena Boese, as seen in the February 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

But text paths aren’t just limited to straight edges. You can create paths along circles, ovals, or any custom shape you desire. In this layout, the text path follows an oversized exclamation point.

Mom! by Deena Boese, as seen in the June 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Wanna learn how simple it is to create your own text paths? Read on!

1. In Photoshop, create a new layer and select the ELLIPSE TOOL (U). Make sure the PATHS icon is selected in the options bar.

2. Select the HORIZONTAL TYPE TOOL (T) and choose your font, size and text color. Ensure the alignment is set to LEFT ALIGN TEXT. With your cursor, click at the beginning of your path where you want the text to start.

3. Type your text and adjust the point size and tracking to create the perfect fit. Once completed, you can use the MOVE TOOL (V) to move and rotate your finished text.

And now you know! Once you’ve mastered the basic shapes, try experimenting with the Custom Shape Tool for endless shaped-text possibilities or use the Pen Tool to draw your own designs! I hope you have fun discovering creative ways to use this fun and easy technique in your layouts! For easy reference, I’ve included a PDF handout you can download and add to your “Wanna Learn How” library. And as a bonus gift, I’ve also included this word art graphic you can download for FREE!

As I mentioned before, if you own Photoshop Elements 9.0 or earlier, I’ve included a PSE compatible circle text path template just for you.

As always, we want to hear from you! Have you seen a digital technique that made you say, “Oooh! I wanna learn how to do that!”? Leave a comment to let us know what techniques you want to see here. I have a free one-year subscription to Creating Keepsakes magazine in my hands that will go to one random (and lucky) commenter. So be sure to drop us a line to be entered in the drawing!

Good luck!

 DOWNLOADS

How To Wrap Text Around A Shape
Word Art Graphic
Circle Text Path for PSE

In this tutorial, I teach you how to create a shape with a scalloped border, and then I show you how to save that appearance as a Graphic Style so you can apply it to other shapes in your file. All of this is made possible through using the Appearance Panel and a feature introduced in CS5 that aligns dashed strokes to the corner points in any shape you create. Follow the steps in the video to create a few scalloped borders of your own.

Once you’ve got your scalloped style applied to some shapes, you can scale the shape while leaving the scallops at the same size, by unchecking “Scale Strokes and Effects” in Preferences > General.

Take it further: play around with adding another stroke to your shape or add drop shadows to get the hang of working with the Appearance Panel. To fix the shape in the form of vectors that you can edit more readily with the Shape Builder or Pathfinder, select the shape and expand by choosing Object > Expand.

As an iPad and iPhone user, I’ve been amazed by all the creative uses for these small devices. And I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to attempt Project Life without them.

Tuesday I posted a little about my mobile memory-keeping contribution to the new e-book, “Everyday Storyteller.” Now I’m happy to share this sneak peek into my new class, iScrapit, opening next week.

Don’t miss the early registration discount period. Sign-up now for our e-mail notice list!

Congratulations, Ann! We’ll be in touch with information to claim your certificate.

1. A Tip

A well-placed drop cap can add visual interest to an all-text blog post. You can create your own in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but why do that when designer Jessica Hische provides a beautiful collection of illuminated alphabets at Daily Drop Caps? Jessica even provides the code and instructions to drop into your post. It doesn’t get any easier than that! Check out how I used one below.

2. A Free Kit

appiness is a free massive digi kit. Design House Digital is celebrating International Scrapbook Day all week, and you can pick up this gorgeous collaborative kit, Retrospect, for free! To get it, you need to collect all of the letters in a special phrase. Each participating blog in today’s hop has a secret LETTER for you to collect as you pass through. Get more info at the DHD blog.

3. A Challenge

If you’re doing the Design House Digital layout challenge, my contribution is to add a drop cap to your journaling. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, a simple alpha will do.

4. A Giveaway

Add a comment below and tell me how you’re enjoying the hop so far. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Design House Digital. The giveaway has ended.

Got all that? Good.

I’m sure you’ve figured out that the drop cap was a tip-off. The letter you need to pick up from me  for the fabulous Retrospect kit is…

Thanks for stopping by! Your next stop on the hop is Celeste Knight’s place.

Congratulations, Staci! We’ll contact you with info on how to claim your free book.

Yesterday was so much fun! Thanks everyone for participating and be sure to come to the launch party on Friday.

Because my camera of choice is my ever-ready iPhone, I’ve developed a simple workflow to keep track of daily photos and memories. This preparation significantly speeds up my Project Life page creation. Here’s how the first part works:

TIP!
On your iPhone or iPad, setup an album called “Everyday Photos” and at the end of each day, add the best of that day’s photos from the Camera Roll or Photo Stream to your everyday album. If you’re a prolific shooter, set up an individual album for each month.

To add a new album, go to the Photos app. Tap Edit in the top right corner just above the Camera Roll. Tap Add in the top left corner. Name your new album and click Save. Done!

The rest of my Project Life prep steps are included in the new e-book,  “Everyday Storyteller: 33 Practical Ideas from Real World Scrapbookers,” available this Friday!

In “Everyday Storyteller,” I’ll show you how to record your stories…every day…using either your iPhone or iPad! Collect each day’s photos, journaling, the date, a location map and even a thumbnail of the kits I plan to use. It’s all in “Everyday Storyteller,” available this Friday, May 4th!

Party Over There! I’m personally inviting you and a friend to be my guests at the Everyday Storyteller Launch Party this Friday, May 4, at 8:30pm CDT. All you need to do is register at the Everyday Storyteller site to make sure your name is added to the VIP list. There’ll be over $700 in prizes given away!

Giveaway Over Here! And speaking of giveaways, I have a copy of the book to giveaway to one lucky blog reader. To enter, leave a comment below before 11:59pm CDT tonight answering the question: What’s your favorite part of the memory keeping process? The giveaway has ended.

See you at the party Friday night and thanks for stopping by! Visit Lynnette Penacho at Nettio Designs next for another memory-keeping tip!

More Blogs, More Tips!

1. Cheryl Ashcraft
2. Anna Aspnes
3. Katie Clemons
4. Elise Blaha
5. Paula Gilarde
6. Sara Gleason
7. Michelle Hernandez
8. Debbie Hodge
9. Katrina Kennedy
10. Amy Kingsford
11. Cindy Liebel
12. Crystal Livesay
13. Robyn Meierotto
14. CD Muckosky
15. Nancy Nally
16. Christine Newman
17. Ashli Oliver
18. Amanda Padgett
19. Renee Pearson « YOU ARE HERE
20. Lynnette Penacho
21. Elle Price
22. Heather Prins
23. Traci Reed
24. Lauren Reid
25. Amber Ries
26. Kristin Rutten
27. Betsy Sammarco
28. Jenn Smith-Sloane
29. Jessica Sprague
30. Melissa Stinson
31. Amy Tan
32. Tiffany Tillman
33. Jennifer Wilson