Color Me Sweet Challenge {and Some Photo Tips}

Hi everyone I am over at the Sweet Stamp Shop blog today with another Color Me Sweet Color Challenge and some photo tips. This color challenge is all about the BRIGHTS. Perfect for these hot August days. 

Here are the colors:

Lemon, Lime, and Pink Berry

Color Challenge

Here are the rules:

1. You must use the color palette only (neutrals are ok…ex- black, white, cream, etc)
2. You must use Sweet Stamp Shop
3. You must upload to Sweet Stamp Shop Flickr to be entered into the challenge (you can tag "color me sweet" on the photo) (Don't have a Flickr? It is fast and easy to sign up and great way to show off your work)
4. You must have LOTS of fun and spread the word

 Are you a journal-er?? I am, I write a lot especially when I am having a not so good day, it really helps me sort everything all out and put it all into perspective. So when I was perusing pinterest one day I came across this quote and thought this is PERFECT for my blank journal that has been waiting to be decorated. What better to be on it than a BRIGHT PINK elephant just blowing bubbles and not giving a care in the world...

Here is how I made the journal:

I found some letters in my stash and adhered to my journal with some strong liquid glue (just to ensure that they wont pop off down the road) and then painted over the whole entire journal with green acrylic paint. I let it dry and then used my Hero Arts paint dauber in pastel yellow and lightly brushed over the green. I used my waterbrush to gently blend it in a little bit. I then dabbed just a bit to the bottom of all the letters and went back over with my water brush and blended the paint up just a little bit to create an ombre effect. After letting it all dry I randomly stamped in Hero Arts Neon Pink and in my yellow paint dauber various size stars all over. Then I stamped pink bubbles going up in various sizes fading to small and used my glue pen and went over all of the bubbles and sprinkled pink glitter to make them pop a bit more and add some texture. I then inked a piece of paper about the size of the elephant I was going to stamp with the Neon Pink and then stamped my elephant with the  yellow dauber over top of the pink. After drying I used my glue pen to trace over the elephant and added some clear glitter for sparkle. Cause he is just that kind of elephant!

Here is a card I just had to make using the color challenge and the On Cherry Street Magical Kit!

Have you seen the NEW On Cherry Street Kits from Sweet Stamp Shop?? They are adorable and SOOO much fun for cardmakers and Pocket Style Scrapbookers. Here is a fun card using the color challenge above. I couldn't help but put a gold frame around prince charming tho. Everything is from the kit except the gold frame and white card base. I used embossing powder on the wood star to

Here are the stamps and kit I used for both my Journal and my card!

Photo Tip: So I have been asked about blurring the backgrounds of your pics using your cellphone and how to achieve that look. I have a couple apps that I use to get the look. I haven't found one app yet that will "do it all" for me and I find that I hop around between apps. 

Apps to get: 

• I purchased Big Lens for $.99 This is a GREAT app for blurring because you can choose what you want to be blurred and what you want to be in focus. I use the lasso, which you draw all around the project and then it fills the center in. Whatever appears in red is what will be in focus and the rest will be the blurred section. If you happen to go to far off the "edge" you can use the eraser and simply erase. The drawback to this app (and hopefully will be changed in the future) is you cannot crop pictures. You can either load a photo from your gallery or you can take a photo and edit and crop later.
• Once I have finished in Big Lens, I then open it up in Pixlr Express+ and you use the focal option to enhance my project even more. You can choose between linear and circular, this will really depend on the project you are working on and which to choose.You can also finish editing in this app or choose some of the others I mentioned HERE.
  
  
  
  
  
  So, below are some examples of some different edits.
  
  
  Here is the original. You can see it needs a little work. It needs to be cropped, the background needs to be blurred and it could be brightened up just a tad.
  
  
  
  Here are the two different edits I did the first using the two apps above and the second is after I uploaded it to my computer I used Pic Monkey just to brighten it a bit more. I prefer the editing features they offer for that over the ones in the two apps. Doing all three steps took about 5 min max. It is quick and uploading all the photos from my phone took longer than actually editing the picture.

For using both of these apps there is no set guidelines when it comes to blurring the background in my picture. I don't have a specific setting/strength that I put each one on. Every picture is its own and will require you to play around with the apps. You never know maybe you find you only need one and are happy with the results. You just gotta have fun with it and experiment around and play. 

Here are the sets I used. You can find all of these in the Sweet Stamp Shop.

Elephant Hearts

Fishy

Magical

Royal Wish

Thanks for stopping in 

xoxo 

Danni