Monday, December 12, 2011

How Do You Do That? Chevron Tool Kit & Christmas Cards

Wow...we have received SUCH a great response to the Chevron Tool Kit! Thanks, everyone! Along with the great response, we've got some questions, too...so I thought I'd give some tips & tricks on HOW to use the Chevron patterns...a little DIY if you will! *wink*


So...this kit is seriously everything you need to create Chevron looks...papers, cards, over photos, blogs, tags, you name it...hence...it's a TOOL KIT.
Now...it comes with tags, brushes, patterns, textures & papers. ALL can be used 'as is' OR can be resized, recolored & reused...again & again.
PLUS: there's a FREE Gift with this purchase until Christmas.

I printed mine out...framed it & hung it up...makes me very happy.

Ok..so, back to the Chevron Tool Kit...I wanted to share some ideas:
No. 1: Re-color.
The colored pattern is my fave color palette as of now. (even has the 2012 Pantone Color of the Year in it: Tangerine Tango...& close to the color Persimmon found in my Spooky Junque collection. deelish color!) But...if you DON"T like this color, or even want to change it...looky here:
With just a few clicks of your mouse...you can recolor & change it all up! Here, I just went into my Photoshop Creative Suite 5 (PSCS5) & went to: 
IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>HUE/SATURATION 
& fiddled with the sliders under the Hue, Saturation & Lightness to create this effect.
You can do this in ANY of your colored elements to get a totally NEW look.
You can even copy down these numbers exactly to get this same look. OR just play around until YOU get the color YOU like!

*note: I've had a lot of questions about re-coloring with the Paint Bucket.  Here's my take.  IF you choose this method, you risk the fact that your image will get messy. pixelated. & not look that great in some cases. Because....when you take your Paint Bucket & pour color into a portion of your design that has a lot of edge on it...it will 'bleed' or pixelate. When you use the 'hue/saturation' method, you aren't fiddling with the pixels themselves...only the color. make sense?

No. 2: Color Overlays.
The Tool Kit comes with a bunch of patterns & textures that will create immediate papers or backgrounds. But, you will notice...they all come in black. (with the background missing...so it  looks like little grey & white squares...don't worry...it just means you can drag & drop it onto anything)
So...this is what it looks like:
(don't you love this Chevron texture? it's got text on it...LOVE)
Ok...so, with the black texture, IF I used the Paint Bucket method, I'd be pouring color in for EVER...so...I want to be able to color the entire file. 
1. Click on the Chevron layer.

2.  go to:
LAYER>LAYER STYLE> COLOR OVERLAY
A color box will pop up & you can get really specific with your color. Here, I've actually typed in the RGB color of the Pantone 2012 color: Tangerine Tango.
Now, I've got the paper pattern & color I want...exactly! Isn't that fab. a. lish.??? LOVE it!

No. 3: Use Brushes to create a DIY Christmas Card Adress Wrap
So, I've got all of my Christmas Cards out in the mail....it was such a fun process...I really enjoyed it this year.  I used the Chevron brush to create a pattern on my Address Wrap....(along with the Junque Labels) & printed them off on sticker paper...cut them out & added them on my envies. 

LOVE how it turned out! But...it was super easy to create that Chevron background with my pattern brush.
I simply loaded the Chevron Brushes, then selected its own layer, stamped on it & went to my Opacity & lowered it to about 7% so it was a subtle background pattern.

aaaand...speaking of Christmas Cards...I wanted to share these with you...Suzanne Tonga is a fab Rhonna Designs customer, creator extraordinaire...& she sent me these images of her amazing Hybrid Christmas cards...
She created the top part with Christmas Junque kits, printed them out & then embellished the rest of her cards..amazing, huh? LOVE this, Suzanne...thanks so much for sharing your talents with us!

Ok...come back tomorrow for our Creative Team Tuesday....lovin' what they've created!
xox





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