Hey all, Polly Jewelle here! I am back to bring you another TLP member spotlight! This month I asked the other Polly’s here at the pad to help pick our member to spotlight. We chose Natasha who is an active member both in the forum and the gallery. Lets sit back and take some time to get to know more about Natasha.
Jewelle: What is your IRL name and your user name?Name & User Name
Natasha: Natasha, bcnatty
Jewelle: Where do you call home?
Natasha: Beautiful Northern British Columbia!! Prince George, to be more precise.
J: Digital or Hybrid? Both?
N: Digital, I just don’t have the time to go hybrid.
J: How long have you been scrapping?
N: I have been scrapping for about 15 years – I started off paper scrapping, but then moved into a small 2 bedroom apartment while I was doing my Masters of Physical Therapy. With 3 kids under the age of 5, I just couldn’t keep all of my supplies out. So I packed them up and found digital scrapping!!! I haven’t look back since!!
J: What is the starting point for your pages – photos, the story, products?
N: I would have to say it’s the story, for the most part. There is just so much that I want to remember, and not enough brain space to keep it!!
J: How would you describe your style?
N: You could probably describe my style as pretty clean. I do, on occasion, fill a page up, but I always gravitate back towards clean and simple. Although, this year I am bound and determined to finish Project Life!!
J: Any must-have items or techniques on all of your pages?
N: I love using little sprinkles and flowers to add a little extra to my layout. But I would have to say that the must-have technique that I use on all my pages is doing my own shadows. I just like being able to make photos and papers curl off the page the way I want them to look.
J: Do you have a favorite tip or trick you can share with us?
N: Wow…you want me to tell you my shadowing secret?!?! Ok, here goes, I’ll tell you how I shadow my photos/papers – but only because I love the Pad!! I work with PSCS5 – so hopefully it can translate to other photo editing systems.
- Select the photo you want to create a shadow for and CRTL click it (essentially get the little marching ants around your object.
- Then create a new layer under that photo.
- Making sure that your new layer is selected, use your paint tool to fill in that layer – I usually use black, but you can use a dark grey or brown as well.Iit should be in the shape of your photo you want to shadow. It should also be under your photo – if it isn’t just simply drag that shadow layer under your photo.
- Apply a Gaussian Blur filter to that black shape – I usually set mine to about a 30 pixel radius
- I then deselect the photo – to get rid of the marching ants (I use CTRL D)
- Making sure that the black shadow layer is selected, I then use the Warp tool (usually found in your Editing tab under Transform). You should end up with a grid with squares and circles at the edges placed over that shadow (it will look like it’s on top of your photo)
- Now comes the fun part – click and hold on one of the corners and drag it. You will see the black shadow starting to come out from behind the photo. You can drag and warp to your heart’s content!!! And it doesn’t just have to be the corners – essentially you will play with this until you are happy with your shadow effect.
- Now you can leave it like that…but the edges this way are just too hard for me – so I go back to my Gaussian Blur filter and apply a 10-15 pixel radius. This will blur the edges a bit more and make it look a little more realistic.
- You can now go back and warp it again, if you don’t quite like how the shadow looks
And you’re done…now you know all my secrets!! Haha
J: Do you listen to music while you scrap? What kind?
N: Well, since the kids are out of school, I’m usually listening to some mind numbing kid’s show on tv. But when I am alone I like listening to some lite singer-songwriter music, acoustic music or country – I love the playlists on Songza!!!
J: What’s your favorite snack (if any) while you scrap?
N: I don’t really snack while I scrap…I’m too messy and I find that I just get it all over the keyboard
J: What time of day do you feel most creative?
N: I do most of my scrapping in the morning or late at night. That’s mainly due to the fact that I work from 1-6:30pm
J: Share with us your favorite 3 layouts that you’ve created.
N: Wow…this was super hard!!! While I was looking back through my pages I couldn’t make up my mind because all of them tell a story – and I love everyone of them. But since I had to choose…
This is my latest fave layout. I just love the story behind it…my relatives, that I haven’t seen in 2 years, came up to spend a week with me. It was an amazing week, and I was so glad and proud to show them my hometown. This picture just captured a perfect moment that I never want to forget.
This layout is one of my all time faves!! It was for a challenge on our passion in life – and mine will always be my family. Everything just came together perfectly for me with this layout – the colours, the picture, the shadowing…everytime I look at it I just smile.
This one is all about the story behind the picture. It was the first time that I brought my new boyfriend over to the house…I was really apprehensive about him coming over because I have 3 kids from my first marriage, and I would always worry about how they would react to someone new in my life. My youngest daughter crawled right up beside Erin and asked him if he could help her read…and he didn’t even hesitate. I almost cried…and it’s something that I never want to forget.
Be sure and pop over to Natasha’s TLP gallery to see more of her amazing work! Do you want to be spotlighted on the TLP blog? Keep posting your layouts in the gallery and you may be next!
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