Time to Clean out the Cobwebs! Retiring products on sale!

It’s that time of year again when I clean out the cobwebs in my home and in my shop!  And this year I’ve placed a LOT on sale… have to pay for Miss Kara’s Graduation and they want all the monies by next month!  Yikes! LOL My lord, you’d think they were doing a wedding with all the costs of everything and all they offer you! ROFL  But she’s the last of my babies and she has worked SO hard to get here, so she’s worth it! 

Most of my older art here at Digitals has been slashed to 40-50% off the regular prices and placed in the Retirement Category. Not sure how long I will leave them up, so hurry over there and check them out.

Hugs and Happy Shopping! Cilenia

 Find them all here!

New Release and a Sale by Cilenia

As most know I LOVE to play with Colors!  I have a new monthly series called Color Play and you can buy it buy the pieces or by the Bundle for a 35% discount!

And if you didn’t know I TEACH Building Color Confidence at ReneePearson’s site and it starts today but you can still sign up and join us.

So now for my New Art!

 And of course you have to have a little inspiration too!  All created by me.

This first one I even have a little Video how I created on my blog HERE if you’re interested too! Start to finish. Or you could just buy the PSD and PNG Template and Quick Page I created instead. Click on the Layout for the Template in the shop.

Back to School Sale with Cilenia

That was a long summer! Well, still summer here where I live, but the kids are back to school!  Luv them, but love my quiet time too.  So in celebration, I have put all my School Days Kits on sale!  35% off thru Sept 15th!

And a couple inspirational layouts for you too

I also have two new products today on sale also.

Quick Pages the Easy Way with Photoshop

Just want the Quick page and not have to do the work?

I put this one and a 2nd one in my shop at Digitals today for a great price of only $1.50 each.

Learning my Way Around the New CS6

And if all that is not enough for you and you prefer videos, I did a detailed search in google.  Here’s your EASY BUTTON for that to find all good things CS6!

Cilenia

How to recolor multiple colors on a single element tutorial

ok, I have given in to the world of video sharing! lol  I was just going to make a post with the how to do this, but thought, “Why not just record it as I do it?”  So I did.  I hope I did this right as I have never used YouTube before, so cross your fingers!

PSE can do this also. The only difference is you go to “Enhance” in the top menu and then to “Adjust Color” and then to “Replace Color”. Then work everything else the same way.

In case the video doesn’t embed correctly, here is a Link to it on my blog. And here is the YouTube link too.  Still learning how all this video stuff works so bear with me. lol

And as I said, don’t ever be afraid to ask me something if you don’t know it.

Oh, and the kit that I was making that this was from?  It’s called Lovely in Lilac and was inspired by Digitals Monthly challenges which I’m a part of and run the Art Journaling Challenge.  I like it so much, that I decided to make a whole kit instead of just a mini kit for the bonus.

This was just an impromptu whim of mine.  Promise, I will learn how to make these better quality as I learn the ins and outs of YouTube.

Have an awesome day!

Announcing Featured Designer: Cilenia Curtis

1. Do you keep a wishlist? If so, what is your MOST WANTED item at the moment?

New storage system for my Studio!  ok, still hoping for that Long Arm Quilting Machine.

2. What is your designing routine, i.e. do you get a snack, put on music, get organized and then work on a kit until its finished or do you pop in and out as time allows?

I am always designing!  You’d laugh at my notebooks and sketchbooks with ideas sketched out and colors splashed on pages for inspiration, and even usually carry one of them and a camera. Never know when the muse will strike. I love to sit and design in the wee hours of the morning when the house is quiet and wake around 3am.  I usually design a kit in one sitting because when I am inspired it just flows.

3. When you scrap, do you use your own products?

For the most part I do, it’s how most of my kits are born.  I will do personal scrapping or visual art journaling and just keep adding to for a kit. I’m also attracted to other artsy types of designers so I do have quit a stash from several to the tune of over 300 GB and that was after cleaning out very old art.

4. What is your all-time favorite product OR what is your best selling product(s)?

My favorite products would be difficult as each is when I create them.  My biggest selling products are tied with each selling the same amount:  MultiPhoto Templates 1-6 Bundle, Beautiful Mess 6 and Beautiful Mess 2 

5. What are your reasons or motivations for digital scrapbooking?

I love the versatility of digital in being able to move, delete, add as I wish along with sizing photos, blending and getting artsy.  I am a Life Journaler more than a scrapbooker, I not only scrap life experiences, but use it as my creative outlet also for journaling personal feelings  through art.  It’s a healing process and a celebration of life to me.

6. What is the best food you ever ate? Describe.

Oh it’s this cream cheese stuffed shrimp for a little Irish Tavern back east.  It’s to die for!  It just melts in your mouth and has all these fresh garlic and herbs in it.

7. Where is your “happy place?”

In my Art Studio for the most part.  I also love to be out in nature either riding my motorcycle or hiking the canyons and mountains nearby

8. If you won the lottery, how would you spend the winnings?

if I won enough, I’d build a few log cabins on a mountain side for me and my children with plenty of land to garden and have a small farm of animals and work on being more self sustaining. I raised my children like that and we miss it. Nothing is more satisfying to me than reaping what you sow and being close with nature doing it.

9. If you could meet anyone, dead or alive, who would you chose and what would you want to talk about?

Leonardo DaVinci hands down!  We’d talk about his art, his inventions and all his wondrous thoughts about life.

10. What else should we know about you?

I march to the beat of a different drummer than most I guess.  I love to teach and share what I know about computer graphics and art, and I love to create art with children.  I have recently started teaching at ReneePearson.com and selling my original artwork in my Etsy shop.

Nothing inspires me more than getting messy with kids or hearing the excitement someone has when they learn something new. Some of my hobbies include medicinal herbs and gardening, studying ancient religions and civilizations, art quilting, mixed media projects, and riding with the boys to get a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning 200 miles away.

Embellishing Ideas for your Pages for Visual Design and Focus

Thought since we are focusing on clustering and embellishments this month, we might want to take a look at how these relate to the whole design of a layout too for some basic design principals.

Creating a frame of elements around your photo.

By adding elements clustered at the corner like Aria did here, you are grounding your photo.  Using like colors or repeating elements found in the paper, you are grounding your photo to the background also visually.  Notice how all of these used this technique of creating a cluster of elements to frame and ground their photos.

By clustering your elements AND photo to a corner of the page, you are also creating what we call “white space”.  This “space” is a place for the eyes to rest while looking at a page but it also draws your eyes to photo on the photo itself.

Aidan by Aria

First Grady by Joyce de Jonge

Make a Wish by Jean Ann

You can do this also by filing the whole page like Angie did here.

She is still framing and clustering using embellishments, but by desaturating her photo, it will naturally draw the eye there first and the photo actually becomes the neutral “space”.  Everything added here is being used to “frame” this photo by matting and clustering around it.

She also played a with her title and journaling to create it within this space and this is again, drawing the eyes inward to where she wanted to draw the focus to.

Stand by Angie

In turn you can also try a more linear look and using repetition of photos or elements to ground your embellishments and/or photos to a page.

See how Judy used clustering of elements, note pieces and photo frames here in a vertical orientation.  By doing this, she is drawing the eye inward but grounding them at the same time.

Close to You by judyinsd

Another example of this is from two of my own pages.

Here is this first one we see the linear line creatd by the photos on the left with all the clustered elements and papers tucked under and around them.  The blended photo into the background becomes the resting space but the eyes still want to be led to the main photo and is drawn down to the journaling.

Sharing Curiosity by Cilenia

Again, linear clustering on the left, but now the page has more movement and is being drawn outward into the photos sitting in the “white space” and the bottom right corner with it’s brushwork and element is visually framing it all together.

What do You Want by Cilenia

Now look at another way Beth combined these design principles of using clusters to frame out your photo, clustering your photos and leaving some white space, and using repetition of elements also to frame the photos, and repeating the elements in the corners of the page too, for a whole other type of effect but still visually pleasing.

Make your own Music by mystampin

These are just some of the unique ways you use clustering and embellishments to draw focus and give some visual grounding to your layouts.

While doing your layouts and clustering, keep in mind the types of elements and the layering and don’t forget to adjust your shadows for the different depths created by the layering of embellishments and papers too.  That is what usually will make or break your layout from looking good to looking awesome!

Till next time,

Cilenia

Follow Your Art Kits and Coupon from Cilenia Curtis

Tutorial – Using digi art to print on fabric for home decor

Printing on Fabrics

Here is a new tutorial on using digital brushes and stamps to print on fabric for home decor prints. Click on the preview to download the full tutorial in pdf format.

If you try out this tutorial, be sure and post it our the gallery. We would love to see your art!