Celebrations Chipboard Alpha 3

The is the last set of chipboard alphas for Celebrations. It is very hard to type with a cat sitting on your hand, though my entries are generally quite short even when the cat is sitting somewhere else, like the mouse or the keyboard or in front of the monitor.

Alpha

More Peppermints

I used the peppermints from my tutorial to make a tagger-sized alphabet for all those hardy souls who suffer through my graphic experiments in my alpha group. While making the alpha, I realized that I didn't have enough peppermints. So, I made five more peppermints.


I'm also making the tagger-sized alpha available because I thought it turned out kind of cute. I really didn't like it in the scrap size. I guess there are too many flaws in my peppermints.

Alpha

Peppermint Tutorial

I know that there are dozens of peppermint candy tutorials out on the internet, but I don't like any of them because they don't have enough depth for me. So, here is my version of the peppermint.

Supplies Required:

Eye Candy 5 Impact Glass and Extrude Plugins
HGG Peppermint Presets for Glass and Extrude

(Optional)
HGG Peppermint Gradient

Download supplies and 5 peppermints

1. Open up a new image at 400 x 400 with 300 dpi.
2. Flood fill the image with a gradient. I chose to use NGChristmas. It is a Nik gradient. These gradients are from 2001.  I have made my collection available as they can no longer be found at the original site.



3. Apply Twirl to the image. Go to the Effects > Distortion Effects > Twirl. Set the Degrees Number to 720.



4. Set the selection tool to circle, left-click the center of your image and while holding down the left button on the mouse, draw out the selection to the edges of the image. I select with anti-alias checked so that I have smooth edges. Now you have the choice of either inverting the selection and clicking delete or copying the selection and pasting it as a new image. I chose to copy the contents of the selection and paste it as a new image.



5. Make sure that nothing is selected (Ctrl+D). Then, change the canvas size to 450 x 450 and choose the center placement.

6. Apply the Eye Candy 5 Impact Extrude effect (most tutorials do not include this step and you can skip if you don't want depth added to the candy). You can either apply the preset or you can set it manually. The settings are:



Extrude Direction = 316
Extrude Distance = 30.0
Taper = 5
Smoothness = 20
Color of Side Faces = Color from Original
Light Direction = 128
Highlight Brightness = 50
Hightlight Color = White
Shadowing = 15

6. Apply the Eye Candy 5 Impact Glass effect which will also soften up the line between the top and side of the peppermint. You can either apply the preset or set it manually. The settings are:



Bevel
Bevel Width = 40.0
Bevel Smoothness = 30.0
Round Selection Corners = 0
Bevel Placement = Inside Selection
Glass Color = #c0c0c0
Opacity = 0
Tinting = 8
Refraction = 50
Inner Shadow Opacity = 41
Drop Shadow Opacity = 0
Shadow Offset = 12.0
Shadow Glow = 2

Lighting
Direction = 125
Inclination = 60
Highlight Brightness = 75
Highlight Size = 75
Highlight Color = White
Reflection Map = None

Bevel Profile
Factory Profile = Button

And that is it for the swirled peppermint.

If you want to make a more traditional peppermint candy, make the following modifications to the tutorial.

A. In step 2, choose the radial pattern for the gradient. You can use my HGG peppermint gradient.


B. Skip step 3.

C. After applying the Eye Candy 5 Impact Extrude plugin, make a circle selection in the center of the candy.


D. Fill the selection with white.

E. Selections > Modify > Expand > 5


F. Selections > Modify > Feather > 15 (Ctrl+H)

G. Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 5.00

H. Select None (Ctrl+D), then apply the Eye Candy 5 Impact Glass plugin.

The results of this tutorial are yours to do with as you wish.

As this is my contribution to Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies, I'm also offering the five peppermints shown in the preview. You can also see all my freebies for this event through the christmas tag.

Five Peppermints

Celebrations Chipboard Alpha 2

Here is the second set of glitter chipboard alphas to go with Celebrations. I've read about people giving away a freebie every day in December until Christmas, sort of a digital advent calendar. I'm pondering trying this, though it seems like a lot of freebies to make. I don't know if I have the ability.

Alpha

Celebrations Chipboard Alpha 1

Since I made the glitter fills for the fireworks, I also used them to make some chipboard alphas as an add-on to the Celebrations kit. There are four alphas in the zip: yellow, cyan, light green and dark green.

Alpha

If you want this alpha in a smaller size or different format, please leave a comment with your request.

Gold Wire and Harvest Beads

I'm not done making Gold Wire alphas. I am still working on the holidays colors request. Here is one in fall harvest or thanksgiving colors. I hope people in the US can use it for Turkey Day. If you want this alpha in a smaller size or different format, please leave a comment with your request.

Alpha

Celebrations Elements

Here is the second part of the Celebrations Kit with all the elements. This part includes:

1 bow
22 fireworks
8 frames
7 tags
8 balloon alphabets
8 balloons with strings alphabets

The balloon without string is shown full size. The balloon with string is shown at half size. I don't know why the preview has a white background as the png images are all transparent. For lack of a better reason, I will blame Blogger. Each type comes in all 8 Celebration colors for 16 complete alphas.

Elements

Fireworks

Alpha

Celebrations Paper Pack Add-On

I don't know that anyone will ever use these papers, but it sure is fun making them. Here is a paper pack add-on for Celebrations.

Paper

Fireworks Masks

I'm working on part 3 of the Celebrations kit and I needed to make these masks in order to complete the kit. So, I thought I would share them as an add-on to the Celebrations kit.

Masks

Fireworks that I made from these masks are included in the Celebrations Elements part of the kit.

Celebrations

This month's theme at Scrap Kit Challenge is Celebrations. As part of the challenge, each week of the month members work on a different section of the kit. Week 1 is papers. Week 2 is fasteners, notions and photo items. Week 3 is embellishments. Weeks 1 and 2 exceed 10 Mb. As I hate downloading huge files because I always get disconnected in the middle, here is just weeks 1 and 2 of Celebrations.

This section of the kit includes:

17 papers (not all shown in the preview)
14 ribbons
8 bows
8 brads
8 buttons

Kit

The group kit for Home Baked Traditions can now be downloaded at Scrap Kit Challenge. They will only be up for the month of November. After that, they will be gone.