Samantha Walker Blog Hop - Love Is In The Air

Yeah! It is Valentine's Week here at Create Well, Create Often and to start the inspiration off is Samantha Walker's Creative Team Blog Hop and giveaway! Samantha Walker will be having a blog hop once a month where her Design Team will be sharing their creations with her brilliant products! If you are coming from the artistically famous Angi Barrs, welcome! If not, you can start the hop here. I am so excited about this because Spellbinders is the sponsor for this month's give away! Read on to see which set and how to win.

Let me just tell you, I am starting to like card making. It is growing on me. But, I have to be honest. Valentine's Day has been haunting me. Since Christmas ended, Pinterest and every online paper crafter's website has been advertising for the holiday. Valentine's Day is a card maker's dream. Card makers probably fall asleep counting red and pink hearts, dreaming of what Valentine they will create the following day.

For me, I have created probably the same amount of cards, just none I would be willing to give away to anyone I know and defiantly not good enough to share with you today. ;) I am a mother with a four year old that has to have a collection of cards for class, Sunday School, family, and teachers. I am getting anxious just typing about it.

So, this year, I have decided to end my misery and create digital Valentines. This is an easy way to create a handmade card. But, it saves time by having it printed at your local printers as a 4x6 or even as a postcard. If you print it as a postcard, you can have your child sign and add a treat to the back.

This first digital card is of my little man... I liked making the photo the focal point of the card and felt like I could still use "reds and pinks" without making it too feminine. I used The Cuckoo 4 U Strawberry Love Digital Paper Pack. 

I also created a clean and more universal card that I can give away. I made a copy of the card so that I can change out the sentiment. It can read, "missing you", "hello", or of course "Happy Valentine's Day".

To create the card in Photoshop -

1. Open a new document 6x4, white background, and 300dpi. 

2. Drag the flowers from the Cuckoo 4 U Strawberry Love Flowers Digital Embellishment Kit to your 6x4 project in Photoshop. 

3. Click on each layer (on the sidebar it will list each flower as a different layer). Move each flower where you would like it to go. 

4. To adjust the size of the flower, click on "Edit" then use the drop down menu to click on "Transform" and then "Free Transform." Or for Adobe Photoshop CS2-5 use Ctrl+T. Make sure before you start changing the size to hold the shift button and you adjust. That way it doesn't distort the image.

This is a great way to start learning how to digital scrapbook. Try out a few 4x6 cards before jumping into making a 12x12 page.

How easy was that? Easy enough that I am going to be sleeping like a baby this week while every other card maker will still be having visions of red and pink hearts dancing in their heads. ;)

Now how about that giveaway?!  A big thanks to Spellbinders for giving away the popular Blossom and Tags Accent Set by Samantha Walker!

To enter, just leave a comment on my blog between February 8th and February 12th. Winner will be announced on Samantha's Facebook page on Monday February 13th. 

For additional entries:

1. Receive an additional entry for commenting on each of the other blogs in the blog hop. 

2. Go here and follow Samantha Walker's blog 

3. Follow her on Facebook

4. Sign up for an e-mail subscription to Samantha's blog and you will automatically receive a link to a free SVG cutting file that you can download and use on your personal electronic cutter. Link will be e-mailed early next week.

To receive the additional entries, and get the link to the free SVG file, mention in your comment on Samantha's blog that you have done so! 

WOW, that is 13 chances to win!

 

To continue the blog hop, go to the talented Jamie Cripps' blog, Bits of Paper. By the way, she IS a cardmaker, and a very good one at that. So prepared to be amazed and inspired by her skills. (PS, I wonder if she dreams of red and pink SVG hearts instead?)

Create Well: Use your digital skills to create your Valentines this year so that you can sit back and smell the roses. ;)