Or Maybe Erase

I am still building pages to use in Jenni's wedding scrapbook.  I have so many beautiful freebies, including a brag book with lovely pages, but only a jpeg file and the wrong shape.  Here it is, Faded Memories from Rasberry Designs:

as you can see, it is rectangular and I need it to be square.  If I make it square as is, I have a gap at the bottom.  I could fill the gap in with another paper and some divider borders, but I have to make it hard on myself.  So I erase that background and have the frame, word art, and tag now in a set to put on a new, square background.  That little bit of errant pixels blend okay into my new background.

so here is my page:

The papers are blends and color changes of some free papers I got online.  I did put another flower I liked better on top of the bow, which I see has lost a loop.  Oops.  I also added a clear heart button and a bow, as well as wrapped a ribbon around the edge of the frame.  See what you can do with a little mouse-work when you have a lovely design to start with?

Cutting Up

Digitally, that is.  I took this lovely cluster I downloaded for free from VerenaDesigns Moms Day collection. (for once I have a record of where I got the freebie.....) I did recolor the flower from red.

This "cluster" would make a beautiful solo element on the page.  I love premade clusters because I cannot seem to put more than three elements together and clusters are simply beyond me.

But.....I can take the basic cluster and have some fun with it.  I have learned to recolor and erase and just this week I saw a tutorial showing me how to cut up clusters and layouts and backgrounds......and do stunning things with them.  So, I cut this cluster frame in half and this is what I ended up with.






Other things I did:  I duplicated the flower and used it in a grouping at the bottom with a generic leaf I have in my computer files. I found something that looked like a cluster of pearls that I managed to change to a color I liked and beveled and shadowed it....needed to fill in a blank area.   I did magical stuff with various papers, using masks, erasers, hue and brightness sliders till I got something that suited me.  Took about two hours.  I inserted two black and white photos of Jenni at her wedding, taken by my magician nephew and wedding photographer, Patrick.  Alas, he is now a corporate photographer and you have to be a family member to talk him into doing a wedding.

So follow my lead and start cutting up your
digital elements and spinning them around the page!

Let's Play with Paper Dolls!

Join me on a paper doll journey.  I found my mom's paper dolls from the 20's and perhaps 30's in an old book.  They were cut out of a magazine, which was the way they were presented to the public.  I believe these are Dolly Dimples, or perhaps similar.

I scanned the dolls and their clothing into my computer and will present each doll to you during the next weeks and dress them.  Please feel free to right click and copy them for your enjoyment.  Perhaps you have a daughter or a granddaughter who would enjoy them.  If you need to make sure the dress and doll are same size and they don't copy off the blog correctly, send me a note and I will send you an original file.  I am a novice when  it comes to offering freebie downloads.

Here is Dolly #1, a dress, and the doll in a dress!  I manipulated everything in PSE  Not sure this dress is designed for this doll, but will figure it out as I go along.  Look for Doll #2 soon.