Freebie and a "Name This" Contest

Did you get your coupon code for the Freebie I had in the Sept 19th Newsletter?  

This is the way I personally scrap a lot of the time, but never thought to create for my shop until a few of my Mates hit me on the head (a few times). LOL  I create these in my "Play Time" for layouts of my own or clients and now I want to offer the to you also!  Simplified of course as they take me many many layers to create. 

Tell me what you think of them? I love feedback!

I really don't even know what to call these yet! LOL  It's a frame, it's a transfer or Rub-On look AND it's a photo mask fused all into one great embellishment as a 2 layered PSD and also with the two layers broke out in PNG form for our non-Photoshop users.  Use them together or separately as artsy masks and overlays.  

SO, I'm going to ask you for help!  

What do you think I should call these?  If I use your idea, I will give you the first set of them FREE!

I will admit, I'm looking for something unique as a name, but also descriptive. :)

So leave me a comment here with your ideas to WIN!  No limit on the number of ideas or comments.  

In my layout here, I used a solid colored cardstock paper and a couple elements from my Follow Your Art 09 Growth.  I changed the layer blending mode of the frame to Overlay to it softly blended into the background paper so it looked like it was Transferred or Rubbed On like I would do in real life art.  Then I clipped my photo of my beautiful Kara to the photo mask layer.

I took the original photo again,flipped horizontally, extracted her out easily using my magic wand Quick Selection Tool and masked out the background.  Doing this allowed me to zoom in and clean up any edges.  I prefer using masks instead of erasing in case I make a mistake.  

Then I changed the large extracted photo to a blending mode Luminosity and lowered it's Opacity to blend a soft image of her also into the background paper.  By Repeating the photo I've really shown off what I love most about this layout… my Kara.  

I will do my journaling with some more photos for the opposite page of this in my book. :)  The title work was perfect for this moment.  She was getting ready and practicing for her Dance recital watching herself in reflection of the TV screen and she thought no one was watching. :)  I created the title with 2 fonts and played with the type character settings and plucked the color from the flower element to make the whole page come together. I think this entire layout took me 15 minutes using my new frame/mask transfer embelly. :)  

Credits:  Follow Your Art 09 Growth Fonts: Justice and Delicious Cake by Jellyka

Sneak Peek Inspiration and Chance to Win a Class

I have a few announcements to make.  That's what happens when you have too many things going on all in one week! lol

First I have a new product up today in the shop and on sale too.

These are my fav brushes I reach for when I am creating layouts and designing papers.  I will be teaching how to make these in my upcoming Digital Designer Studio class but may give a little peek into the process of how to color these artsy in my upcoming Building Color Confidence class that starts Sept 17th.  

Did you see you can win a seat for that class on the SAS Blog Friday by taking on our Color Challenge?  You have until Sunday to enter!  And join me for a LIVE CHAT at ReneeTV Wednesday Sept 12th at 9PM EDT. 

And speaking of the Color Challenge… us SAS Designers loved these so much we decided to use them for this month's Color Play 2 kits being released late Tuesday.  Want a little peek?!  Of course you do! lol

I made a few layouts over the weekend.  YEAH ME!  It's rare I have the time lately to do some layouts, so I was a very very happy camper. :)

First I made a very traditional layout of my Miss Bailey learning she had a built in musical instrument… her vocal cords! lol  Gotta luv it!

 And then I decided to do an artsy layout when a friend asked me what the difference is between my Traditional and Artsy layouts, at least according to me! lol  To me, it's the blending and my scribbles in this one.  I LOVE both styles and now have to choose when one to put into my books.  Hmmm maybe one into Miss Bailey's book and one into my own book. 

Then I couldn't stop playing with my kits so I made two more.  These photos are from when Kara was puppy sitting for the animal shelter one weekend.  Bailey and her got quite attached to those puppies, but happy to report, they all found good homes thanks to volunteers like my Kara.

Here in these I made the left page more of a traditional layout style, and then the right page is more artsy.  With the common background paper, they still go very well together.

I also used a Sewn Flower from FYA Imagine 

and artsy loop from my Beautiful Mess 4 kit that I recolored white.

And watch for later this week where I hope to have a a couple little videos of these pages and my process how I created them!  I hope to have ready for you tomorrow.

I also have some of my traditional kits on sale at Digitals this week for 35% off.  These most likely will be retired this year so don't miss out on the sale!

Till tomorrow! Hugs!

Daily Download as Featured Artist at Digitals

Hi there everyone!  Happy Spring! Now you will see why I've been SO busy! We just finished Week 1 of our Building Color Confidence and the students are rocking the house with all kinds of awesome color inspirations.  Can't wait to see what they do with week 2 Lessons!  You can still register and catching up will be easy and I'm always available for you if you have questions. _______ The Art Studio is finally moved back up to the loft! I promise to share photos as soon as everything is organized and put in it's place.  Whew! That was a job. Can't wait to start playing again, been a few weeks.  _______ Starting today through April 13th, I am the Featured Designer at Digitals. Free Daily Download of my "Shades of Blue" Page Kit for next 14 days in my Shop here.   WIN my new Explore Kit Don't forget to SHARE THE LOVE! And for all who do share and mention @cilenia on Twitter or share and tag me on Facebook, I will be giving away TWO (2) of my newest Bundle FYA Explore! Deadline is April 5th and then I will randomly draw the winners and announce on my Blog.  If you already bought the kit, then I will send you a gift certificate to use as you wish.  I have a few mini add-ons for Shades of Blue too.  It's themed with a spring fresh and clean look and style like I usually end up doing this time of year but a little artsy flair added of course.  Some absolutely beautiful layouts from my team below and in my Gallery! Wow, these girls ROCKED this!  I will also be releasing my April Follow Your Art Kit called Explore on Monday.  Sneak Peak in the side menu! Layout Inspirations Layouts from my Team for my latest Shades of Blue Kits See all the Layouts in My Gallery at Digitals Connect with Me   Where else to find me Selling my Original Art at my Etsy Shop Blogging Here I sell my Digital Art at Digitals Teaching at RP.com For Charity Art Aid Follow your art by follwing your heart and buying our sampler for funding Art Room Aid Projects for only $2. Thank you for your contribution to these very worthy causes!  Learn and Grow Using Digi Elements for Hybrid Blog Inspiration Sneak Peak Explore Layout from one of my awesome team members Judy! Shades of Blue Previews Page Kit Embellishements Add-On Quick Pages Add-On Interested in joining our awesome Team?  Does our art excite you?   Do you like to play with Art? Do you like to share your creations on several sites?   Are you socially active?   We are always in search of awesome new team members and we have extra perks more than most teams out there. We share all of our knowledge in a private group and teach design principles too privately. We are a fun, supportive group with some really awesome members! We are looking for: Creative Layout Designers Creative Writers to help our blog writer Sherry and/or create digi or hybrid mini tutorials too. Marketing Members - Social Butterflies wanted for FB and Twitter and answer ISO threads. Team is for all three Designers, Aria, Angie Young and myself. Send me an email to cileniac@yahoo.com letting us know what you'd be interested in doing with us and I will send you the info on how to apply.   This will not be an open call, but if you know someone who would compliment our art well, feel free to forward the information. No current digital designers will be accepted at this time please.

Contest - New Art - FYA Charity Sampler

Want to WIN a seat in my Building Colors Confidence class?!?  Tweet for a Seat!  Three seats to be given away.The contest begins today, Mar 22 and ends at midnight Sunday, Mar 25. Renee will announce the winner on Monday, Mar 26.

Entering is easy:

1. Follow @reneenews on Twitter
2. Then tweet: "Just entered to win a seat in Color Confidence with Cilenia Curtis. Follow @reneenews and retweet #colorconfidence http://bit.ly/xU5pQ4"

I also have some new art released this week and is on Sale through Saturday!

These are available as a Bundle and also separately.

You can also find all the FYA coordinating kits here. 

And the Follow Your Art artists have put together a mini Sampler of our Serenity Collab for Art Aid Charity.

100% of the profits will be donated to Blick's Art Aid Program to help our educators supply their classrooms with art supplies.




















This is a very worthy cause to share the art with your heart.  So many school cutbacks have happened and teachers are buying their own class art supplies.  Won't you help too!  It's easy, just purchase this mini kit to donate.  It's a small amount to enrich the lives of our children with art!

Chance to win an iPad3 from AppSumo

Someone has to win right?!?  Why not one of us?! LOL

http://www.appsumo.com/~mAxma/

Ends April 6th!

Win a class at RP! Ends Feb 20th!

To participate in our iShot That Twitter Contest. All you have to do is: 
1. Go to our contest page at http://tinyurl.com/7urwto7 and answer the question, “What’s your #1 iPhone photo subject?” 
2. Follow @reneenews and tweet about our contest. The contest ends this Sunday. Winners will be announced on Monday, Feb 20th.

Think you need a bulky, pricey DSLR to get great photos? Think again.

The most popular “camera” released in the last few years is the Apple iPhone. Learn to take advantage of iPhone’s built-in photo functions, plus the very best free and low-cost apps available for editing, organizing, and sharing your work. Create memorable portraits of family and friends. Capture your world with street photography. Transform everyday snapshots into eye-catching images. With iShot That!, iPhone’s photo power is at your fingertips.

I'm SO there! :D

I'm the new Featured Designer at Digitals and have Freebies!

Did you see the Digitals Newsletter Yesterday morning?!  I'm the new Featured Designer! Whoo Hoo!

You can find out more about me too from an interview there with the wonderful Miss Stacey, founder of Digitals, did with me.  I see I did a little typo there for what's on my wish list… and just in case Santa is looking, that's a Long ARM Quilt machine, not an Art Quilting machine! LOL Maybe Santa will win the lotto to get for me, cause that baby is not cheap! lol one can dream can't she? ;)

And a Double Celebration is in order because my last week's Tutorial was the Featured Blog Post over at The Hive too! Thank you fellow Hive artisans! So happy you enjoyed! I felt very honored.

Join the celebration with me for the next 15 days and get your Free Daily Download and shop till you drop with my entire shop 30% off including all new releases!

Each day you will get 2 Pcs to my latest kit Art Journal Project!  I invite you to get them all and show me some of your art journaling too! Link me up in your comments or show it off in my Designer's Gallery.

And to help you celebrate with me I'm giving away $25 in coupons good for a year on Dec 5th!
 At the end of my Designer spotlight I will pick FIVE winners from all comments on my blog, between today and Dec 4th, and each will win a $5 coupon from yours truly, ME!

Want some extra chances to win?!
Link us up in the comments with your LOs, help share the love by sharing the link to here on your blog or FB, or share the link on my FB page, or re-tweet me on Twitter with this announcement and then come back here and comment again to tell me you did for your extra chances to win!

To start us off, here's my art journal page I created that inspired the creation of this kit. I have been really trying to focus my intentions this past week and if you know me, I usually put them in some form of art to help me remember and focus on them.  I also used some pieces from my Beautiful Mess 1 kit.

Learning to Master Myself

And check out this page one of my CTs Beth made using this kit and Aria's Add-On she created to coordinate with my kit to celebrate with me too!

Living in the Moment

This is Aria's, (one of FAV artistic digi playmates, aka Lynne), awesome mini add-on kit!  I just LOVE these "Art Fusions"! I am SO using these to make another page!  Perfect for layering, using blending modes on to really add some artistic flair to a layout!  Lynne is just so awesome at this and did you know almost everything she creates is created from her own photography?!  Wow, I need photography lessons from her! She's really really good!

Off to get Aria's beautiful Art Fusions and do some playing! I did some Goal Visualizations in my notebook yesterday that I want to put into an art journal page as affirmations to help me manifest my dreams into reality.  These are PERFECT for my own personal "Notes to Self"! :)  How Lynne has this ESP in knowing exactly what I need is beyond me!  Oh wait…. it could be that we art play on Skype all the time! lol  She's been holding out on me… because this was such a wonderfully beautiful surprise to find.  Thank you Lynne! Luv you!

 

Biggest hugs to all of you and can't wait to see what you create! Maybe you want to create some art journaling too with some positive affirmations or a scrap page.  Remember to share for your chance to win!  

Birthday Party & Oct Art Journal Challenge

Happy 7th Birthday Digitals! Come and celebrate with Digitals!
My ENTIRE Shop will be on sale all week for 30% off plus some little specials tucked in here and there too.

Plus, starting this month, I will be leading the Art Journal Challenge at Digitals on even months so be sure and stop by there and play with us.  You can get a free mini Kit to get you started and when you complete it, I will send out a coordinating Bonus Kit for playing along.  Both kits are created in the same colors and theme of the Birthday bash, so by the time the week is done, you will have huge MEGA Kit! WhooHoo!

Here's our flyer for the Birthday Bash and please feel free to link up your friends and post this on your blog or facebook too!

Here's some things going on!

 October 1-7 and as always, it's your participation that makes it wonderful! Our theme this year is "Point and Shoot" and will focus on photography. 

STOREWIDE SALE:We are having a store wide sale of 30% or more off everything!* We have over 10,000 products in a myriad of styles by your favorite designers so everyone will be able to find things to fit your needs. 
*Excludes advertising and gift certificates. 

BLOG TRAIN
Visit these designers' blogs every day Oct. 1-7 for a new freebie. Collect all 7 from each designer. The freebies change at midnight Eastern time each night. Be sure to thank them and shop in their stores!
Alessandra Designs http://www.alessandradesigns.blogspot.com/
Amanda Thorderson http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com/
DeDe Smith http://www.designzbydede.com
Diana Burton http://www.dbdesigns-scrapnmore.com/blog
Elka Romero http://elkaromero.com/
Kathryn Estry http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com/
Kristmess http://kristmessdesigns.blogspot.com/
MC-Designs http://memoriecreations.blogspot.com/
Maddy Fernandez http://oilnwine.blogspot.com
Nini's Notions http://ninisnews.blogspot.com/
Pati Araujo http://patiartedesign.blogspot.com/
Paula Yagisawa http://designsbydreamerpaula.blogspot.com/
Silvia Romeo http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com/

CELEBRATION CROP
Hosted by DeDe Smith on Saturday, October 1st at 1-3pm EST in our chat room. DeDe will have a free mini kit for all who attend, lots of fun conversation, and a dozen prizes to give away so don't miss it!

PHOTO TREASURE HUNT
Join Hostess Amanda Thorderson in our Birthday Bash forum each day Oct. 1-7 for a fun photography-related challenge. Everyone who posts their completed challenge will receive a free mini kit each day! People who complete all 7 challenges will be entered into a drawing to win one of three prizes!

FACEBOOK FREEBIES
Each day, one of our designers will offer an exclusive freebie on her Facebook page. While you are there, we hope that you will Like their page. The freebie on Oct. 1 will be on the Digitals Facebook page and we will link there to the pages for the following days. 

DAILY DOWNLOAD CARDS
Designer Glenda Ketcham has a free greeting card for you to download each day of our celebration in the store under the Free Downloads category. Be sure to come by every day of the week so you don't miss any!

CHALLENGES
For each challenge you complete, you earn one mini-kit. There are 12 challenges that start in October, plus a bonus set you can download for free in the storeand another on our Facebook page (Oct. 1 post). You can also earn 7 more pieces of the kit by participating in our Photo Treasure Hunt! Sign up to do the challenges here in the forum and get started on those fabulous pages!

 

See our Birthday Bash forum for all the up to the minute details!

And don't forget to get your October Digitals Newsletter too!  Lots of goodies in there this month! 

October (Birthday Edition)