Back to School *contest*

“Let’s Go Back to School”

Join us for a fun challenge filled contest where we go back to school. Each week we will challenge you to use basic scrapbook supplies to create stunning Layouts or Cards.

This will be a 4 week contest; each challenge will be posted Sunday by noon EST in the contest forum. You will have until the following Saturday midnight EST to post your take on the challenge in the contest gallery.

This is a non-elimination contest. The staff at Timeless Daydreams will be judging you on challenge requirements, creativity, and basic design. At the end of the 6 weeks we will tally all of the votes and there will be a winner chosen. The prize will be furnished by the administrators at Timeless Daydreams.

To qualify for this contest you must be a registered member of Timeless Daydreams forum,. 1st challenge will be issued on Sunday September 12th!

All of your creations for this contest may not be shared on any other site until the completion of the contest. You are welcome to post these challenges on your blog as long as you mention TD contest in the post.

Spread the word, we're going back to school! 

See you there,

Leah

Meet your August guest designer ~ Genevieve Garner

You know Genevieve as Vieve on the Timeless Daydreams forum. We are very excited she is designing with our July/August kit this month. Ready to get to know her a better?


What is your favorite technique?
I am a complete sucker for glitter. I pretty much love any technique that can work it in. Lately, I have been using a glitter pen to outline embellishments.

Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration mainly from craft bloggers. I follow over 150 blogs that constantly get me thinking out of my normal realm of scrapbooking.

What is your favorite embellishment?
Chipboard. Hands down.

The time of day you are most creative? Does it vary much?
I do my best work extremely late at night. I often find myself looking at the clock at 2 am just as I am finishing up. Hence, why I do most of my scrapbook on the weekends. That wouldn't fly on a weekday.

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I have been scrapbooking for 13 years. I started at the age of 13. My first scrapbooks are so funny, but I love them because it is part of the history.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists today?
Use your products as you buy them. I have way too many things that I loved and saved for a "special" page, but then ended up just sitting in my storage. If your excited about a product, use it now...because every page is just important as the next.

If you could choose one manufacturer to receive a free years supply of product from, who would you choose?
American Crafts. I love, love, love their clean and bright style.

Do you prefer dinner at home, take out, or eat in a restaurant?
I prefer a good home cooked meal.

Tell us about your favorite childhood memory.
My parents woke us up one morning on a school day, told us we had an hour to pack because we were going to disneyland. What kid wouldn't want to skip school and go to a theme park? It was an awesome surprise.

What is your favorite color and why?
I love Red. Probably because I love the University of Utah who is known for their bright red. Go Utes!

What is your best time-saving tip?
Put things away as you go. I am terrible at this, but when I do it, I definitely have more time.

What is your best organizational tip?
Label everything. This is huge if you share your products with others. But even if you don't, it makes things easy to find and easy to put away.

How do you overcome Scrapper's Block?
I turn to sketches. I usually don't get stuck on what products to use with what photo, it is where to start. Sketches definitely help get me moving.

What’s the last song you downloaded to your ipod – or the song you just can’t get out of your head right now.
Lady Antebellum's CD, every track is amazing!

The words that would be describe my style are ……………………………………….
Clean and Simple

If you were a Scrapbooking product, what would you be?
I would be an adhesive runner. One because I love to run. Two because I like being close to the best things, but I don't like to be out in front and taking over the show. However, I think that I provide a much help as I can and am an essential part of the making of a great group.

If you could only have three tools to scrap with - what would they be?
Paper Trimmer, Tombow Tape Runner, and my Glitter Pen

How does your family and friends view your work?
Everyone is really supportive and kind about my hobby. My husband even gives me suggestions when I get stuck.

What is one thing you wish you could throw away?
I don't like clutter, so if I don't want it anymore I give it away or send it to the trash. But I wouldn't mind fixing up a couple of my scrapbook pages.

Name a food in your house you never run out of.
We always have homemade ranch on hand. It's not healthy, but we use it on just about everything.

If you lost your sight tomorrow how would you express your creativity?
I have always loved pottery and took some classes in high school. I think I would get more involved with that, since a lot of it is feeling the clay.

Name something that makes you smile when you see it.
My husband. I can't get enough of him. Cheesy, I know...but it's the truth.

What is the craziest thing you have ever added to a scrapbook page?
I added some pieces of a broken mirror.

Name one thing on your wish list.
A Xyron Creative Station

Is there anything you've lost and still miss?
I had an awesome black marker that I left at a crop once, and I still find myself reaching for it. I can't find it to buy anywhere. It was a freebie giveaway in an expo goodie bag.

 I loved learning more about you Vieve! Check back soon because Vieve has a great blog post coming up, and you'll see what the Design Team as been creating with the summerlicious July/August kit! Don't forget to check out Vieve's blog, Plaid Polkadots.

Happy Daydreaming,
Leah

Freaky Friday challenges

Each Friday on the Timeless Daydreams forum we've been posting a weekly challenge. We decided to start posting them on the blog as well.  If you participate, please consider signing up on the forum and uploading your work in the gallery. We leave lots of love in there. :)



I've been quiet lately because I'm kinda in my head right now. Some of my friends are having a rough time lately. And as much as we like, we can't always throw the hard times behind us and put on a sunshiney face to show the world each day. Sometimes we need to embrace the hard stuff.

This weeks challenge is to release the stress through your art. Find some inspiration through the song posted. Maybe you too are saddened by friends you know going through a difficult time as well. You can dig deep, or touch on something simple.

I heard this song on playlist.com this morning, and it struck a chord in me, and I knew I had to share it here. (if the pop up player isn't working.. you can go here to hear the song.)

You can tell a story.
Just paint.
Sign your name on a sheet of paper with a frowny face :(
this week it's up to you.

Let go. You'll find this form of scrapping to be very freeing, if only for a short time.





Hope you're able to play along, and have a great weekend!
xoxo
Leah

July August kit HINT

Know what it is??
I'm betting it will knock your socks off..
Make you want to take a walk on the beach...
Maybe even the boardwalk..

Go ahead... click on the image and view it larger ;)
Don't forget, we have past kits in the store looking for happy homes.

xoxo
Leah

June kit layouts

Time just flies nowadays, doesn't it?

 I can hardly believe we're already half way through July.

 We have some beautiful kits left in the store, and their all priced to go.

Check out the fabulous layouts using the June Au Revoir kit.

From Amanda L our June guest designer. Many thanks for a job well done Amanda!

 From Dolores Cancel

From Laura Miller

from Leah Crowe

As you can see, you can get a lot of layouts out of this Au Revoir kit with as many looks as you want to create design wise. Tell your friends, join us on Facebook, and come play with us in the forum!

Stay tuned for more information about our July/August kit.
Want a sneak peek?

Stay cool everyone,

Leah

Meet your June Guest Designer ~ Amanda Laboy

We are thrilled to have Amanda Laboy as our June Guest Design team member. 

Grab yourself a quick drink and settle in to learn more about Amanda.

Hi, my name is Amanda Laboy. I'm an elementary music school teacher by day. I live in Oklahoma with my hubby of 10 years and our son who just turned 8. I've been scrapping for the past 9 years or so. About 20 albums later, I now try to squeeze in scrapping a couple of times a month. My favorite scrappy colors are orange, green and teal. I love everything Fancy Pants, Sassafras Lass, and Cosmo Cricket. I'm excited for this opportunity to scrap with the kits from Timeless Daydreams!!!

We tossed some questions in the air and pitched them over to Amanda, here's what she had to say.

Where do you get your inspiration?  I enjoy looking at other scrappers' blogs and galleries.

What is your favorite embellishment?  Either letter stickers or anything chipboard

How long have you been scrapbooking?  Off and on for about 11 years.....although, I did find some old "scrapbooks" I kept when I was a kid.

If you could choose one manufacturer to receive a free years supply of product from, who would you choose?  Hands down, it would be Fancy Pants!  They fit what I consider my style the best.

Do you prefer dinner at home, take out, or eat in a restaurant?  Most days, I prefer dinner at home.....of course, it doesn't hurt if someone else did the cooking :)

What is your favorite color and why?  I LOVE orange and green the most......but really I love all colors.

How do you overcome Scrapper's Block?  I find a sketch that I like and base a layout off of it.....it also helps if I have some recent photos that I absolutely love.

What’s the last song you downloaded to your ipod – or the song you just can’t get out of your head right now.  For Good from the Wicked soundtrack

The words that would be describe my style are ………………………………………. sometimes shabby, sometimes vintage, sometimes simple and sometimes funky....if that's possible!

If you could only have three tools to scrap with - what would they be?  My Xacto knife, glue dots, and my circle cutters......I actually don't use very many tools when I scrap.

Name a food in your house you never run out of.  Does coffee count as a food? (Most definitely! It's a staple in my house as well.)

If you lost your sight tomorrow how would you express your creativity?  Probably through music and dance.  I enjoy both.

Name something that makes you smile when you see it.  My son and/or husband when they are laughing.

I loved learning more about you Amanda!

Stay tuned for layouts from Amanda and the rest of the Design Team coming soon!

Au Revoir ~ June kit is in the store!

Au Revoir! Presenting Girls Paperie's ON HOLIDAY!
No we are not saying Goodbye, but HELLO to our bright and splendiferously gorgeous June kit.

In the kit you will find product from 7 manufacturers! 

Girls Paperie 
5 Thick Double Sided patterned papers
1/2 yard of 4 Grosgrain patterned ribbons
Pink Paislee
1 Die Cut Scallop paper
American Crafts
Dear Lizzy Puffy Thickers (letter stickers)
Prima
1 pack of Lemon Creme Trellis Roses
Jenni Bowlin
Red Vintage Style Sew on Buttons - 1 package
Red Crepe Paper Ribbon - 1 package
4 Pearl & Rhinestone Pins - Cream
Kaisercraft
1 pack Red Rhinestones - 100 pack
Bazzill
2 Textured patterned papers

Keep your eyes peeled here, on the Timeless Daydreams Gallery, and on the TD Facebook page for work featuring this gorgeous June kit, which is available NOW in the store.

Oh yeah, and there are new goodies in the store, as well as a new Creative Thursdays Challenge on the Timeless Daydreams Forum.We would love to have you stop in and create with us.

Congratulations!

A big congratulations goes out to our new Contest Coordinator!!

You all sent in great applications!
Thank you - you are all great ladies which made it very difficult to pick someone to join our team.
So without further ado....
Please join me in welcoming Jeri aka scrappinhero to our Daydreams family as our Contest Coordinator! Stay tuned for new contests in our Contest section. We hope you'll all join in for fun and of course cool prizes!! Happy Scrapping!!

Cropping layouts in Paint Shop Pro

We were recently asked how we crop our layouts on the TD forum. I work with both Paint Shop Pro X2 and Photoshop. For some reason I prefer PSP for cropping my layouts, and defer to PS for editing photos. You can click the links above, and test the trials for the new versions of these photo editing programs.

Today, I will walk you through how I crop a layout for posting online. I'm sure there are lots of different ways to achieve this, I'm just sharing how I do it.

Try as I might, I never can fully get 100% over top of the layout when taking a photo of it, to get that perfect crop, and without the camera lens distorting my layout.

Below is a photo straight out of the camera.
The bottom portion of the layout if you look closely, appears to be wider and more turned up than the top portion of the layout. If we want to fix this to get a near perfect crop, we have to straighten the layout up a bit.

In PSP (Paint Shop Pro) there is a tool called a straighten tool. You can either straighten the layout horizontally, or you can use Perspective Correction to straighten all the sides. That will get rid of the distortion caused by the camera, and by us not fully taking the picture directly over top of the layout.
It is the 6th tool from the top, we'll be using perspective correction.  (If you hold your mouse over the little arrow, you will get the drop down menu as shown below)

When you select it, you will see this on your image. Click the image to enlarge it.. the tool places itself on your photo. See where the arrows are pointing to?

What we need to do, is zoom in a bit, and align all 4 sides of the tools lines with the 4 sides of our layout.
I zoom in until I can clearly see the edge of my layout against the background. The, you just grab a corner of the perspective correction tool, and drag it to one corner.

 I always start at the top left of my layout, and work clockwise. Keep dragging the little square to the corners of your layout(there are 4 squares for each corner of your layout)... making sure you get as close to the edge of your layout as possible. You can click the photo to view it larger...

Once you've outlined your layout with the perspective correction tool, double click.
You may not be able to actually see the difference, but once you are ready to crop your layout, you should be able to get a clean crop, so none of your background shows behind your layout.

Before we go any further, we need to make sure you have your tool palette options showing on the ribbon above. To make sure your tool options are available, go to View->Palettes->Tool Options. Make sure there is a check mark beside it.

Now, select your crop tool, 5th tool from the top.

Before we crop, we need to tell our crop tool what size to crop to. So on your ribbon above, look for the tool options for your crop tool. (highlighted below)

You want to change the numbers for width and height to 600 x 600 pixels, then check the toolbox to maintain aspect ratio. (this will give you a perfect square as you drag the crop tool around your layout.)

Now, position your crop square at the upper left corner of your layout, then drag the bottom right corner of the crop square to the bottom right corner of your layout.
Everything that is shaded, or darker, will be cut away. Everything inside the lighted area is what will be kept.

When you're ready hit the apply check mark button (the green circle) or double click your mouse.
You should be left with just your layout showing.  Now it's time to resize for uploading. Click on Image->Resize.

Put in your dimensions in the middle section. I usually save as 800x800 or 600x600.

Then save it!
You should have something like this layout, cropped close without your background showing.

If any of you use Paint Shop Pro, I hope this helps you a bit!
Happy Friday!
xoxo,
Leah

May Blissful Sunset DT layouts

I must admit to hoarding my scraps from the Timeless Daydreams kits... their so lush and beautiful, I have a hard time parting with any of the scraps. Speaking of, if you haven't checked out the amazing kit gallery, I'll bring it to you here. The kit is bright, yet subtle and will yield you many beautiful layouts.

(you can click on any photo to view it larger)

From Laurajean, our May guest designer

Dolores Cancel

Leah Crowe

There are only a handful of May kits left, so hurry and get yours!

Meet our May Guest Designer ~ Laura Miller

We are so excited to have Laura as our featured May guest Design Team member! 

Let's learn a little bit more about Laurajean!

Hi, my name is Laura Miller aka Laurajean and I’ve been married to my husband, Bill for 19 years and we have two beautiful children together, Danielle (13) and Kaleb (9). My husband is active duty with the USMC and we are currently living in Jacksonville, NC, where we hope to retire and stay.

I’ve been scrapbooking for several years now and am totally addicted. I’d never really heard of this hobby until I was looking through my neighbor’s album one afternoon and was totally hooked. I didn’t really get “seriously addicted” until I moved to Missouri and started browsing magazines and the stores they had out there. And for me it was all about the pattern paper….love ALL of it!!!

My main reason today for scrapping is to leave a piece of my life behind for my kids and family. My mom doesn’t have many photos of my childhood and the ones she does have, she can’t remember names, dates and places. So for these reasons, I started scrapping everything…the good along with the bad.
I'm very excited to be part of Timeless Daydreams and look forward to designing with the awesome kits that both Dolores and Michele put together!! 

Here are a couple of Laurajeans layouts with the blissful May kit.

I feel like I've known LJ for years. She's always so fun, supportive, not to mention a fantastic inspirational scrapbook artist. We threw some questions LJ's way, and here's what she had to say. :)

 What is your favorite technique? My favorite technique would have to be distressing with my scissors..I just about use them on every layout!!

Where do you get your inspiration? I get inspiration everywhere, my photos, online communities, magazines/catalogs
What is your favorite embellishment? I would have to say flowers...ALL of them!!!

The time of day you are most creative? Does it vary much? I usually scrapbook during the morning/afternoon, while my children are outside playing or at school...I'm not much of a night-time scrapper.

If you could choose one manufacturer to receive a free years supply of product from, who would you choose? Prima would be that Manufacturer for me...I absolutely LOVE their flowers, bling, papers, alphas...you get the point!!

Do you prefer dinner at home, take out, or eat in a restaurant? Duh, at a restaurant...if I don't have to cook, I'm good!!
What is your favorite color and why? Its a toss-up between Yellow & Orange...this colors just make me smile, so bright and fUN!!

What is your best organizational tip? My Clip-It-Up Organizer...I LOVE having most of my stash at my fingertips...works for me!
How do you overcome Scrapper's Block? I usually find a good Challenge or Sketch to work on and that usually curbs it for me and if not...then I just do something else for awhile and come back to it later!!

What’s the last song you downloaded to your ipod – or the song you just can’t get out of your head right now? "Not Myself Tonight" by Christina Aguilera

The words that would be describe my style are: All over the Place...lol

Name a food in your house you never run out of. Cereal, my kids could eat it for all three meals :)

Name something that makes you smile when you see it? My children, they are always doing something that makes me laugh!

What is the craziest thing you have ever added to a scrapbook page? I would have to say a pair of pantyhose for a Guttergirlz Challenge.

Name one thing on your wish list. Distrezz-it-all 

Thanks so much Laurajean! You can keep up with LJ on her blog at:  http://laurajeanmiller.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned and keep checking the May kit gallery to see all the gorgeous ways to use your kit!