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Thursday, August 22, 2013

We have moved!

We have moved to http://southernserenitydesigns.com/blog/.  Please update your bookmarks & pardon our dust at the new site.  

Monday, August 19, 2013

GALLERY STAND OUTS August 19, 2013


Hello!  It's Monday, so poki is back with her picks from Southern Serenity Designs gallery at The Digi Chick ... I was able to pick three beauties right away to share with you today.  

First up is a layout  using Southern Serenity Designs by Amber Morrison and Paper Garden Projects collab called FUN IN THE SUN/TOES IN THE SAND , released last Thursday 8/15/2013.  


It's such a fabulous idea to have the classic beach shapes available as both digital templates and digital cutting files ... such great fun for both digital and hybrid projects!   Teachermom_rach did this beautiful layout using the collab.  She combined it with products from several designers including Etc by Danyale (also available at The Digi chick!)  Such great cluster work in this layout! Be sure to stop over at Southern Serenity Designs gallery at TDC and leave a comment for the artist!  (Layout artists names are linked to gallery)



Next up, I found a beautiful layout in the gallery using Amber's template pack called DOUBLE SHOT - a great way to include two focal photos on a layout!


Beatricemi combined the DOUBLE SHOT templates with the new Sweet Digi Scraps kit called SHORE THING (also available at The Digi Chick) to create this beach memory page about collecting sea shells.  What a fun summer activity for the family!   Check out that wave and her clusters too!


Our third layout today features Southern Serenity Designs by Amber Morrison RAINY DAY PARADE which released just last week on 8/15/2013.


Deanna created this sweet little layout with her grandson using RAINY DAY PARADE with a kit from Kimeric Kreations LIFE JOURNEY (also available at The Digi Chick)  You can almost feel the "warmth of his contagious grin!"  


You can find all of these beautiful layouts and many more at the Designer Gallery  for Southern Serenity Designs by Amber Morrison exclusively at The Digi Chick. And once you've been inspired by something beautiful in the gallery, than hop on over to Amber's store and pick up a pack or two of Amber's amazing templates!  You will be glad you did!  

  







Thursday, August 15, 2013

New Releases: Toes in the Sand and Rainy Day Parade

Sharon here today to show you the fabulous new releases Amber has this week.  The first one is a collaboration with Paper Garden Projects called Toes in the Sand.  It's four templates and 23 digital cutting files to make fun summer projects.
The templates can also be purchased separately as well here.  Check out some layouts the creative team made with these:




Gorgeous right?!  Amber has a second release this week called Rainy Day Parade that are very versatile and should be added to your template stash:

And some wonderful CT inspiration:



Remember that these new releases are only 30% off through the weekend, so hurry and get one of theses new releases or better yet, BOTH!

Hope you have a fabulous day!
~Sharon

Monday, August 12, 2013

GALLERY STAND OUTS August 12, 2013


Hi!  poki here ... I've been over looking in the Southern Serenity Designs gallery at The Digi Chick and found some beautiful artwork to share with you today!

Here's one using Amber's ADVENTURE AWAITS template pack (which would coordinate beautifully with any of the kits in The Digi Scrap Parade ... Amber participated in the Parade which began on August 1,  and has an extra template that matches ADVENTURE AWAITS there ... be sure to check it out while you still can!)


Deanna did this fabulous layout with an ADVENTURE AWAITS template  and CAREFREE SPIRIT, a collaboration kit from Wishing Well Creations and Etc by Danyale (also available at The Digi Chick)


Continuing into the Designer Gallery I found a beautiful layout featuring Southern Serenity Designs by Amber Morrison FANCY PANTS 


This absolutely stunning bridal portrait layout was created by Alexis Designs using Amber's FANCY PANTS and Sherwood Studio VIGNETTE and VIGNETTE FAVORITES MINI KIT.


One more for today featuring a template from CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS: HAILEY


alannabanana created this sweet layout using Amber's template and Jumpstart Designs COOL SUMMER EVENINGS


As always, you will find loads of inspiration in the Southern Serenity Designs by Amber Morrison Designer Gallery - she keeps her Creative Team hopping with fresh new templates with which we can play!  When you have been thoroughly inspired by all the beautiful work in the gallery, then go over to Southern Serenity's store and pick up a template pack or two, and join in the fun!













Saturday, August 10, 2013

August Digi Files Contributor

Sharon here today, to tell you a little about what Amber has going on this month...she is one of the contributors in the August Digi Files!   So exciting!!!  Here's a look at the wonderful templates she has in the Digi Files:
I think these are my favorite so far of all of Amber's templates!  These are available with a Digi Files membership and you get her templates as well as 6 other designer kits/templates.  It's an awesome deal and can be found here.

Amber was showcased on The Daily Digi blog here and you can find a 30% coupon there as well to her store.

I will leave you with some inspiration from the Creative Team:




Hope you have a fabulous day!
~Sharon

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Making a template yours

Kari here to tell you about a challenge that was posted in Amber's CT forum, and we're bring it here to you!    How to truly make a template yours.  You can read more about how the team changed it up here.  Amber created this fantabulous template for you to play along!  You can download here.

**A NOTE: There was a mix up with the .page file but it is now in the download! SORRY!! - Amber**


We can't wait to see how you change it up!!  This freebie is only going to be available all month in August but in the future downloads will only be available for 1 week.  However, you have until the end of the month to link us in the comments with how you changed it up.  Everyone who submits a link to a page will be entered into a drawing to win Amber's new release for that week!  The August winner will be announced on September 7, when we share the next challenge!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Making a template your own ... FLIP IT

Hi - poki here with a tip on how to stretch your scrapping budget/getting the most out of your supplies. Back in my college days while taking a THEORY AND COMPOSITION class (I was a Music Ed major) one of our assignments was to compose a series of variations on a theme:  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, much as Mozart did sometime around 1782.  The melodic theme of the song had to be there, but our variations could take us anywhere we wanted.  This was absolutely one of my favorite composition assignments, and I made about 6 or 8 different variations, changing the style, mode, tempo and other elements to complete my collection.

Today's post is going to show variations on Amber's template FLIP IT (which she graciously created just for this project)   


We challenged the members of Amber's Creative Team with creating layouts using "variations" on this template by flipping and rotating it to get  different looks (thereby, getting the most possible usage out of the supplies!)  First off, I want to show you some layouts created with this original template.

Amber created this layout using her ORIGINAL template, with kit by Melissa Bennet SUNSHINE.  You can see that she used an element (Bingo card) in place of a photo in the middle bottom cluster.  That is another technique you can use to "change up" the look of a template!  I like how Amber used the journaling block for wordart and other elements!


Linda created this beautiful layout using the FLIP IT original template with a kit by Karen Diamond PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.  That white space in the journaling block, gives the eye a little "resting space."


Deb (aka Victorian Soup in TDC gallery) combined the ORIGINAL template with Kimeric Kreations HELLO SUNSHINE (available at The Digi Chick).  You can see that she filled the journaling space with a large title wordart.  



But now, I'm ready to FLIP IT!  Let's start with ROTATE RIGHT.  Open your ORIGINAL layered template and just turn it 90 degrees to the right, then work it just like you would the original.  Here's what the template looks like with ROTATE RIGHT applied to it.


Nancy (aka NMarti in the TDC gallery)  accepted the challenge,  rotated the layered template and came up with this beautiful layout.  I like her lovely vertical wordart title in the journaling spot.  The delicate lace edge border makes a beautiful substitute for the scalloped border in the template.  She combined the FLIP IT template with The Digi Chick designers SLAINTE (available at The Digi Chick)


So, let's go back to the ORIGINAL and do a ROTATE LEFT version of the template.  Here's what that one looks like ...  hopefully you can tell that I did some individual rotating on the text so it wasn't backwards in these examples.  Be careful if you use the text that is already there without rotating or your could end up with backwards text in your layout. Most layout  artists probably create their own text box so this will probably not be a problem


Conny (aka ConnyS in the TDC gallery) created this lovely layout using the ROTATE LEFT variation. She replaced the journaling block with her pretty striped background paper, and rotated her title to horizontal.  Conny combined the template with Lauren Grier & SugarPlum Paperie PERFECTLY ORDINARY kit.


poki (aka poki04 at the TDC gallery) also created a variation ROTATE LEFT  combining the FLIP IT template with Etc by Danyale COTTAGE ROMANCE (available at The Digi Chick).  She  turned the text in the journaling block to horizontal, as well as the  title in the top left photo, and a sub-title in the journaling block.  


Next we're going to see an actual FLIP ... FLIP VERTICAL (This layout variation cannot be accomplished by rotating 180 degrees, you need to actually flip it! - there will be a variation later that looks like a 180 degree rotation) 



Jenni (aka Chaos Lounge in TDC gallery) created this beautiful variation with FLIP VERTICAL template and a charity collab kit called GUARDIAN ANGEL (It features her new grandbaby - congratualations!)  She added a simple title in the journaling block, as well as a subtitle on the bottom right photo!  What a sweet  layout!  


poki (aka poki04 in the TDC gallery) also did a layout with the FLIP VERTICAL variation combine with Kimeric Kreations JUST BECAUSE (available at The Digi Chick) .  Notice the horizontal text in the journaling block as well as horizontal title on the bottom right photo ... and the buttons in the template were replaced with butterfly elements from the kit!


Let's follow up that one with FLIP HORIZONTAL - 


Suzan (aka Smurfie in the TDC gallery) took this challenge and created her variation using the FLIP IT template and The Digi Chick Designers JOIE DE VIVRE (available at The Digi Chick) I like how she extended her title, and added an extra photo at the bottom!  Great variations as well as the FLIP HORIZONTAL!


Now on to some two step variations ... for the next one we first did a ROTATE RIGHT and then a FLIP VERTICAL to achieve this look.


Heide (aka HeideC in the TDC gallery) created this beautiful layout using the FLIP IT variation and Jumpstart Designs MY LITTLE CAPTAIN JACK. I like that triple frame she used on the bottom 3 photos, and the element clusters that fill in the  journaling block.


The next variation (another two-step process) is ROTATE LEFT then FLIP VERTICAL 


Christelle (aka christellevandyke in the TDC gallery) made this cute zoo layout using her FLIP IT variation with  MHK Scraps ZOO CREW and Stacy's Scraps Z IS FOR ZOO.  I love that wordart title she made!  And aren't those such amazing photos?


Just one more variation to go for today's article .. (you might be able to get more, but I just stopped looking!!!)  Here is a DOUBLE FLIP - first FLIP VERTICAL then FLIP HORIZONTAL. (This variation can also be accomplished by rotating 180 degrees)


Chrissy (aka ChrissyC in the TDC gallery) created this beautiful layout by combining her FLIP IT variation with Kimeric Kreation ON THE WATERFRONT (available at The Digi Chick).  I like her button scatter, repeating the tan color and creating a line to move the eye from top to bottom on this layout!  


So, from one template we have 12 beautiful and unique looking layouts.  No one would suspect that they were all the same template with variations applied (until you told them in your credits!)   This is a great way to  maximize usage of  your supplies!  And it's fun too!

Be sure to come back tomorrow, so you can join in the fun!

















Saturday, August 3, 2013

Blending Papers

Sharon here today to bring you a digital tip...blending papers.  I love to blend papers on my digital layouts and thought some of you might like to know how.  Here's a layout I made using Amber's Wonton Soup templates and Memory Clips kit Scrap Your Story: August:

I liked the layout, but felt like the background paper needed something more so I decided to take a flower patterned paper and blend it:

I added the flower patterned paper layer right above the background paper:

Now it's time to play around with the blending of the flower patterned paper.  Make sure you are on the paper layer you want to blend (mine was the flower paper) and then go to the blending mode menu which is at the top of the layers panel where the mode is set at normal:

I always try out a few different blending options, like soft light or hard light, but for this layout I chose linear burn:

Then, you can change the opacity to suit your taste.  I chose the linear burn at 25% opacity because I wanted the flower pattern very subtle in the background.
Here's the layout after blending the background paper:

I love how the layout turned out!  What do you think?  Hopefully you've learned something new and will try out this technique on your next layout :)

Hope you have a fabulous day!
~Sharon