Layout by Thao Cosgrove
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Halftone Words, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: String Fling, and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glitter Brights Super Biggie 4101are also available.

Layout by Paula Wright
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Paper Textures 4902 are also available.

Layout by Amanda Sok
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Dated Biggie, Brush Set: Spirals 2101, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Frosted Glass 6401, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Icicle 6401, Dynamic Brush Set: Fancy Glitter 6401, and Brush Set: Journal Bits are also available.

Layout by Caroline Kaiser
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Sweets and Hearts Biggie, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Warped PS 8201 Mini, ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Corrugated 1, and Lettering Delights Noodge Font are also available.

Layout by Debbie Layden
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Commercial license versions of Design Pack: Mischief Maker and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glitter Brights Super Biggie 4101 are also available.

Layout by Keri Schueller
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set: My Love, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Organica 5201, and Brush Set: Spirals 2102 are also available.

Layout by Trish Yochum
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Layout by Melanie Johnson
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Neon 9201 and Brush Set: Las Vegas are also available.

Layout by Amanda McGee
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Commercial license versions of Lettering Delights Hoopla Font are also available.

If you have praise, comments, or questions for any of our Product Designers or Layout Artists, did you know you can send them a PM (private message) using the message board? It's easy!

If you are a registered user of the message board, just click on the "PM" box at the bottom of any of their posts to send them a message. Or, to check out more of your favorite designer's layouts, visit the Scrap Girls Design Team section of the Layout Gallery.

I began scolding myself in my journal because I caught myself trying to be something I am not.

“I want to be acceptable,” the conversation began.

“Acceptable to whom?” I countered.

“Acceptable to... to...” I thought. “Everybody?”

“That’s silly,” I shot back. “You can’t be acceptable to everyone.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “I can’t control if anyone at all will accept me. There may be times when what I am doing isn’t acceptable to anyone.”

“Remember that famous quote?”

“You can please most of the people some of the time. You can please some of the people all the time. But you can’t please all of the people every time,” I paraphrased.

“Correct. So, tell me... who are you?”

“I’m a short, blond, 51-year-old woman with a husband, four children, and one grandson. I run a digital scrapbooking company....”

Interrupting the flow of the description, I commanded, “Don’t tell me what you are. Tell me who you are. Tell me what your truth is about yourself.”

As soon as the thought came to me, I realized I had stumbled onto something. Who am I? What is my truth?

I began making a list:

• I am spiritual. I love Heavenly Father and Christ. They are my North Star.

• I am focused when I work. Perhaps, too focused. I sometimes become unaware of what is happening around me.

• I am a deep thinker. In fact, I often think so deeply that I get lost in the forest.

• I am always trying to improve myself. I usually fail, but at least I keep trying.

• I am not cool. I don’t care what is fashionable. I like what I like. The only time I feel unsure about what I like is when I start overanalyzing myself and worrying if people will think I’m dorky.

• I am an introvert. I enjoy spending time alone with brief expeditions into sociality, which sometimes tire me physically.

• I am easily bored.

• I stop and start projects too often.

• I am serious. Often, too serious.

• I have a wry sense of humor.

• I am a teacher.

• I am a storyteller.

• I speak in analogies.

• I am a writer.

• I am a musician (although, not as much as I used to be).

As the list continued, I realized that I have more strengths than I give myself credit for. My strengths often counterbalance my weaknesses. I understood that it doesn’t matter if other people see me differently than I see myself.

As I wrote my thoughts in my journal, I saw myself scrawl a phrase that caught my breath. “Accept your truth,” it said.

I read the phrase over and over. “Accept your truth. Accept your truth. Accept your truth.”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s it. If I accept my truth, I won’t worry about being acceptable. This will open me to the freedom to accept others without worrying if they accept me.”

I closed my journal and smiled. Life is good.

- Ro

Muse: To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation. Not intended to solve the world's problems, another person's problems, or to cover topics completely. One does not have to agree with musings to enjoy them, just as one does not have to be the same as someone else to appreciate who they are.

Question: In one of the newsletters there was a picture that was done as a weave. The template file came with instructions on how to add color and texture to paper weaves. I want to use the template on a photo and can't figure out how to do it. Can you help?

Answer 1: What software are you using? If it is PSE, you can use it as a clipping mask. With the photo above the template, use Ctrl+G.

Response: I'm using PSE 7. The template comes as one unit - dark and light gray strands weaved together. I did try the clipping mask, but it just cuts parts of it.

Answer 2: I went to the boutique to look at the templates. It says that they are PNG files. When you look at one pattern, one set of woven pieces, is it one flattened PNG with the gray and black on the same layer? Without having them myself, I am just guessing. It looks like the black weave pieces are underneath the gray ones.

Use the Magic Wand Tool to select the gray. Play with the Tolerance Level, don't have “Contiguous” checked, and you can select all of the light gray at once. Then, when all of the gray is selected, copy that selection to its own layer. Ctrl+J should work for that. Now, you can also do that for the black and make sure that layer is under the new, gray-only layer. But, clip (Ctrl+G) your picture to the layer below. That's the full layer, unless you made one for just the black. Then, clip another copy of the same picture to the gray layer up above. Add the drop shadows to the gray woven layer. (And, to the black layer, too.)

Okay, that's all without me having the templates. Maybe someone will come along who has them. I'd have to go back to the newsletter to see who did the layout and maybe we could ask them.

Answer 3: Just like with anything in PS/PSE, there are many ways to work with items. I've answered questions about this item a few times this week. Here are a couple of ways I've worked with this item:

• Process A: Open the template and a piece of paper. Pull both of these over to a new document with the template on the top layer and being the active layer. Use your Magic Wand Tool and click on some of the “empty” space on the template layer and then go to Select> Similar. This will select all of the empty space on the template layer. With this selected, click on the paper layer and then Delete. This will now cut your paper into the shape of the template. Then, change the Blend Mode of your template layer. (Next to your Opacity drop-down.) Different modes will give you different looks.

• Process B: This way is similar except you're going to bring two papers over with your template. With your template being active, use the Magic Wand Tool and select a color. (I chose black first.) Then, if needed, go to Select> Similar and then Select> Inverse. This will select everything except the black on that layer. Select one of the paper layers, make it active and click Delete. What you should end up with, if it's done right, is your first paper cut into strips where the black on the template is.

  Do the same thing with the other color and then, once again, change the Blend Mode of your template layer and add drop shadows to your paper layer to give dimension.

• Process C: As was stated in the newsletter, what she did was blend the photo into the paper and then add the template over the photo.

The thing you have to keep in mind when working with this is that the template she used in the newsletter had a “loose” weave so you can really see the spaces in between the strips. Some of the templates in the set are very tight weaves, and if you use those, you're going to get a completely different look.

The other thing is that the photo in the newsletter was very simple. If you're going to use a really busy photo, then it's going to look different. All of the steps above are going to give you a good starting point. You just need to play. The templates are a lot of fun.

Answer 4: I have used them many times and have one more tip. You can always turn the PNG files into a grouped PSD file. It makes things easier when you are using the files this way.

Answer 5: I was just about to answer this. I'll try and be a little more specific about what I did for this project in particular. As was pointed out, I did make a copy of my (rather large) photo and blended that copy with my background paper, masking the edges somewhat to make the blend more gradual.

Then, I made two copies of my photo. (I kept the picture the same size and position as the one I blended with my background paper.) I then added a layer mask to each. I hid one copy of it for a later step. Next, I selected the black area of my template by using the Magic Wand Tool (with “Contiguous” unchecked), then Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection (which switches the selection area to everything BUT the black parts), and then clicked the mask icon on my photo layer to make it active. I then filled the selection area (Shift+F5) with black, which “clipped” away the unwanted areas of the photo on that layer.

I then made the second photo layer visible again and with it selected, repeated the steps above for the gray part of the template. (Still keep your fill as black, though. See below for why I like layer masks.)

Now, here's a trick that I didn't know at the time, but would have made the layout “cleaner” had I known it. Whenever you're working with layer masks and styles together, you'll get odd little areas that are shadowed or embossed, even though they “aren't there.” (They are hidden by the layer mask, but the style still shows.) In order to fix this, double-click on the style icon for that layer, and on the front page of the dialogue box, you'll see a bunch of check boxes. Make sure to check the one that says “Layer Mask Hides Effects.” I'm pretty sure that's what it says (I'm not looking at it right now, so the wording might be a bit off.) I know that's an option in Photoshop CS3/4, but I'm not sure about other versions or about Elements. If you don't have that option, it might be best to skip the layer mask thing altogether and just click Delete instead of filling on a layer mask.

The reason I use the layer masks is because it's un-doable. As we all know, Undo is what sets our craft apart from most, but even the history will eventually move beyond what we can Undo. You can always edit a layer mask. Just remember that when you set up the layer mask, make it white. (For ease and consistency.) Then, anything you add that is black - whether by brushing or filling - will remove from that layer (photo/embellishment/etc.). You can always go back later and “paint” over it or fill it with white to erase the change you made. Using the Eraser Tool actually alters that layer permanently. If you decide 25 steps after you change something, that you want it changed back, you would have to delete the layer and drag a fresh copy of that element onto your project.

I hope that this helps. I'm glad one of my projects created a buzz and got people thinking about new techniques!

Question: Sometimes (not always, just in certain cases) when I save to JPG, my style doesn't look like it does as a PSD. Does anyone else experience this and, if so, do you know how to resolve it? Thanks!

Answer 1: This used to happen to me when I flattened a duplicate copy of my PSD rather than use the SAVE AS option, which keeps the styles intact.

Answer 2: I don't lose the style, but sometimes it changes a little. Make sure you save it as a 300 dpi JPG first, and then open that one up and resize it to save for the gallery. This will prevent some styles from getting funny.

Answer 3: Have you tried scaling the style? Bump up the style a little bit in the effects and then flatten the image. The style will be a bit more visible.

Answer 4: Saving as described above is what I do. First, save to PSD and then save a full resolution JPG. Then I close the PSD, open the JPG and resize to 600 x 600 at 72 dpi, being sure to change to “Bicubic sharper.” But, in this case, I lost the style when I went to “Save As” in the first JPG save.

Answer 5: I've had the same problem and I use the fix that was mentioned.

If you have never been to the Scrap Girls Chat Room before or have questions about it, this tutorial, Chat Basics, will provide lots of helpful information.

Crops and Chats

*NEW* Baby Album Crop Tuesday, February 10th - 1:00PM ET Do you need some motivation getting those baby albums done? Children grow so fast; let's get those baby memories scrapped! You can scrap your children, grandchildren or even your own baby album. Join me, Carla (crs), in the chat room on Tuesday, February 10th at 1 pm et to work on those albums! You can start from fresh on a brand new album, or jump in wherever you are in your project. I'll provide an optional challenge each crop for motivation if you want it. This time, I challenge you to scrap the “big news...” finding out about the impending arrival! Come join me! New Member Chat Tuesday, February 10th - 9:00PM ET Join Pat (PBarnes) and Carol Ann (Zaz) for the New Member Chat at 9 PM ET in the Live Chat room lobby. This is a great place to ask questions about getting around the Scrap Girls site or about digital scrapbooking in general - and a great place to make some new friends. All are welcome, new and long time members included. You do need to have Java installed on your computer to access the Live Chat. High Noon Crop Wednesday, February 11th - 12:00Noon ET Join your guest host April Showers for the High Noon Crop every Wednesday at Noon eastern time. These crops are designed to allow you to work on your own photos and themes, simply giving participants a one hour goal, and a fun, new challenge each week! On February 11th, we'll do a 'Things I Love' challenge! Create a layout telling us about your favorite things - stores, treats, tech equipment, books, music, movies, TV shows - whatever! You'll have one hour to create a layout and upload to the special High Noon Crop gallery. You'd be amazed what you can get done in just one hour! Meet new friends and have fun in the chat room! We hope you'll join us! Journaling Chat Wednesday, February 11th - 8:00PM ET Join Shari_PV_Mom and angelaNussbaum for the Journaling chat @ 8pm. Are most of your layouts decorative? Do you have stories to tell, but just not motivated enough to make a layout with journaling? We are going to challenge you to do a layout with your Journaling in mind. Come join us and tell your stories. Sketch Crop Challenge Thursday, February 12th - 9:00PM ET Join me, sprinklz, for the Sketch Challenge and Crop, Thursday, February 12th at 9pm ET in the Scrap Girls Chat Room! Like getting a little jump start on your layouts? Then this challenge is for you! A few hours before the challenge begins, I'll post a sketch for you to use as the starting point for your page. You can be inspired by the basic arrangement, the amount of photos, or copy it literally. All interpretations are welcome and encouraged! Looking forward to seeing you there! We'll be meeting in the “00_Room_1” room of the chat. To join, click on the “Live Chat” link (above right). Once you are in the lobby, click on the “Show Rooms” button (on the upper left), then select “00_Room_1” from the list on the left side. Get Published Chat Friday, February 13th - 7:00PM ET Join Angela (angelaNussbaum), Amy (tysMommy), and Christy (christyVW) for the Get Published Chat at 7 PM EST. Do you want to see your layouts in magazines, but you are not quite sure how? Do you need a little more confidence with your layouts? During the Get Published Chat, we will talk about current calls, give constructive criticism on requested layouts, and we will answer your questions about submitting to magazines. As with most of our chats, there will also be a challenge, to help you further your chances of being published, we will select a Magazine, and challenge you to do a layout with one of their calls! Be sure you come to this informative Monthly chat, you will be glad you did! Scrap Simple Club Sunday, February 15th - 3:00PM ET We know everyone is excited for the new Scrap Simple Club to come out February 15th, and anxiously awaiting the download links on Monday. Come join me, Sherry_Lynn, on Sunday February 15th at 3 PM EST for a SG Scrap Simple Club Chat/Crop! We'll be discussing ideas on different ways to use the current club. As a challenge, let’s create one more layout using January's Scrap Simple Club before the next one arrives. It’s sure to be a blast! Hope to see you there! UFO Crop/Chat Sunday, February 15th - 4:00PM ET Please join Sherry-Lynn and special guest co-hostess KellyChron from our Layout Artist Team in the chatroom. Let's complete or revamp some of those layouts that are sitting in your “Layouts to be completed folder.” Post your layout in the UFO Gallery and meet us in the Lobby at 4 PM Feb. 15th to get some inspirational suggestions from our incredible professionals here at Scrap Girls!

February Events

February Board Game: BINGO! It's that time again! Join us for an exciting game of BINGO on the Message Board Forum in February! Pick 25 words from the list provided in the forum and send them in an e-mail to [email protected] with a subject line that says “BINGO CARD - your SG message board username” by Monday, February 2nd (midnight MST) in order to play in the first round, which will begin Tuesday February 3rd. Each day, members of the Welcoming Committee will call five random words from the Bingo list. Match just 15 of those words to win a BINGO. You must be first to call bingo in the forum to win that round. After a winner is called, the boards can be cleared and a new round will begin the following day. All winners win a $5 gift certificate to the boutique! We like to see lots of winners, so please remember that each person can only win one round during the month. Have fun! If you miss the first round cutoff date, you can still play! Just send in your Bingo card at any time during the month and you'll be eligible to begin playing when the next new round starts. Everyone who sends in a Bingo card will receive a confirmation email that their card has been received. If you do not receive confirmation within 24 hours, please re-send your list of words. Layout Contests: February Layout Contest: Amour, Amor, Amore! The word LOVE is one of the most popular in any language across the globe. For this month's contest, we want you to use the word “Love” on your layouts. Let's see how creative you can get with it by using it in a unique way on your pages. Post your Love layouts in the February Layout Contest Gallery by midnight ET on February 28th, and if yours is selected, you will win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique. January Mid-Month Layout Contest: It's the beginning of a new year, a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. January is a time for resolutions and setting goals. So, for the mid-January Layout Contest, we want to see your layouts showcasing New Beginnings! Post your layouts in the Mid-January Layout Gallery before midnight ET on February 15th and you could win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique! Good Luck!

Check our message board calendar if you have any questions about what is happening at Scrap Girls. All event times are given in Eastern Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-New York' as the location for the Eastern time zone.)

Layout by Amy Flanagan
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Designer Freebie by Marnie Adams coordinates with her Love Birds Collection

Commercial license versions of AMC_Quirky Font, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Lifted Photos 2 Biggie, and ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photo Basics PSE 5001 are also available.

* There is a “free download” button on the details page for each gift. You don't need to put them in your shopping cart unless you are shopping for other items. Also note that if you are slow reading your newsletter, you may find this freebie has already been retired, as the freebies are only available as gifts for about two newsletter cycles.