Category Archives: Scrapbooking

Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

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PAWPeterRabbitFlowersHere comes Peter Cottontail … Hopping down the bunny trail … Hippity, Hoppity, Easter’s on its way ...
I love everything Easter, from the celebration of the resurrection to the joyous return of daylight savings time with all of its radiant days of summer.
In Photoshop, I placed a digital image of Peter Cottontail in the middle of my pansies, which look glorious in April. I thought you might like a copy of Mr. Cottontail for your scrapping and journal projects. Click on the image(s) to save a copy (.png) of the front and back sides of the toy.PAWPeterRabbitMattel1200This wind-up toy from 1953, played “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” and was produced by Mattel.

This is what Mr. Cottontail looked like leaving Farmer McGregor’s garden …
PAWPeterRabbitMattelBack1200
Happy Easter!
PAWeaster-egg1

Boho Chic

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PAWPreviewI am designing a new collection of papers and embellishments that I am calling Boho Chic.

My design sense is whimsical, with a touch of froufrou. My Boho Chic collection was born out of a love for the art of antiques. When I read that a Bohemian design style reflects decades of globetrotting and a lifetime of creative scavenging, I realized that Bohemian aptly describes my treasured collection of stuff, spanning the ages; from around the globe.

Recently, my daughter look around my favorite room and gasped, “You like Shabby Chic!” I couldn’t tell whether she was pleased or horrified, but I was delighted that the word “chic” described anything I did and thus the birth of my style, Boho Chic, the best of both worlds – Bohemian and Chic.

Styling with Monograms – or, What’s in a Name?

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I heard a style watch for fall forecasting the comeback of monograms. Wanting to be trendy, I decided to design one for my scrap pages and journal notations.
I opened Illustrator and quickly realized the importance of having a good font library, which I sadly lack.
Wanting to show some progress quickly, I decided to finish a doodle I had made on my iPad for the letter “C.” I used the Adobe Ideas App to sketch it, then opened the sketch in Illustrator and added detail.

Next, I attempted a preppy style with three initials constrained in a circle, but had mild success. Also, I set my initials in JFRingmaster and warped the text in Illustrator.

For a frilly version of a monogram, I used the Illustrator Glyphs in the type menu for that look of aristocracy.
In striving for a monogram I could love, it sharpened my eye for typefaces and gave me a greater respect for those geniuses who design them. My latest typeface love is Koorkin by Terrance Weinzierl at font.com. I’m crazy about it.

Finally, years ago my hubby had a calligraphy artist pen my name. I scanned the art and outlined it in Illustrator.

Lipsmack Brush Tutorial

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My generous husband gifted me with a Jessica Sprague Digital Design course for my birthday. The course was filled with tutorials and information by Jessica Sprague and Carina Gardner. The class goal was to complete a themed scrapbook kit of papers and elements for digital design projects.

At last, three-months after the course began I uploaded my finished design kit. I feel like Michael Phelps when he touched the side of the pool at the London 2012 Games to win his 18th Gold Medal.

The course was challenging, but well worth the mental calisthenics it took. I would recommend any course by Jessica Sprague and Carina Gardner.

I titled my kit for the class Zany as it’s filled with wild colors, buttons, brushes, and elements. I had a zany time as well completing the course. It covered a gamut of digital design know-how from Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials to paper design, journal entries, typefaces, brushes, buttons, stickers, tags, copyrights, marketing, etc. Here’s a preview of my kit, which includes 16 Papers, 20 Elements, and 2 Brushes.

The Lipsmack brush is one of the brushes in my kit. I thought you might enjoy making your own Lipsmack image brush in Photoshop.

Lipsmack Brush Tutorial

  • Smear on some bright lipstick and kiss a piece of paper.
  • Scan the Lipsmack into your computer as a jpeg.
  • Next, create a black and white copy of the Lipsmack. (Optional: I cleaned up the image and removed the white background from the scan so that I had a transparent background for a .png file.)
  • Select the Elliptical or Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag to create a selection around the Lipsmack.
  • With the Lipsmack selected, go to Edit>Define Brush Preset>Name your brush>Click OK. A visual image of the Lipsmack brush will appear at the bottom off your brushes palette. Deselect your Lipsmack image.
  • Now the brush is in your brushes palette whenever you want to seal something with a kiss!

Before you close your image, save the Lipsmack as a .png file, so you have a handy copy of the Lipsmack with a transparent background in your image folder, ready to put a personal stamp on your projects.

Duck Pond

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Swim Yellow Duck Logo Swim Yellow Duck popped into mind as an online identity years ago when I sold antiques. The name stuck after selling antiques on eBay some four years. Hence I named my blog Duck Pond because that’s where ducks hang out.

My blog is about the art of life. I’ve begun to incorporate the photos of my antiques into my digital design work. I feel fortunate to have a zillion antiques setting on my shelves and packed in boxes as willing subjects for inspiration.

And for further artistic inspiration, I need only to open my back door. Our wooded yard is a favorite hangout for juncos, crows, humming birds, blue jays, blue birds, grosbeaks, cardinals, titmouse, shrieks, mocking birds, chickadees, woodpeckers, wrens, robins, song sparrows (they love our lilac bush), house sparrows hanging out in the martin house … and squirrels who love to lounge on my deck railing and nibble on the vines in my pots.

For the most part, photos on my blog will be the work of my husband, Darrell Wiskur. Darrell is a designer, photographer, and a wildlife illustrator and photographer.

My monogram, PAW, is the logo for my digital designs and prints, Paw Prints and Papers.

PAW Print and Paper Logo for Digital Design Products