NSD, On the Farm and Moving Day!

I'm so excited to announce the opening of my new store at After Five Designs!! And because it's National Scrapbooking Day, my entire store is 35% off!!! The sales prices show up when your item is added to the cart. Check out my store HERE!

I have a brand new kit out that I hope you will love. On the Farm is a bright and fun farm themed kit that is perfect to scrap your favorite farm life and animal theme, outdoor pages and projects! Pick it up this weekend while it's 35% off!

ON THE FARM

ON THE FARM QUICK PAGES Karen Perry
Mary

emmasmom

domad

bettybuh

Benita

trinad

sashinamama

Rach

Mel

LorieM

I picked winners for the sneak peek drawing using Random.org. The results are:
Here are your random numbers:
138 123
Timestamp: 2010-05-01 00:37:51 UTC

Congratulations to Becky & Mari! Please email me at kristin.aagard@gmail.com to claim your prize!

We are leaving for our Disney vacation Saturday morning, so it may take me just a little longer than normal to respond to any emails. I will try to log in at least once a day. Hope you will all understand and forgive my delay!!

I decided that it was way past time for a new fan blinkie. Feel free to grab it! I'd be absolutely thrilled to see you wearing it in the forums!!

For my blog and newsletter readers, I am offering an additional discount. In honor of my move to After Five Designs, use this coupon to take an additional 5% off your total purchase price. This will provide an additional discount to the sale price!

Use coupon code: TAKE5 at checkout to apply the discount.

I have created a sampler alpha that coordinates with the On the Farm kit. Enjoy!!

Download On the Farm Sampler Alpha HERE

Sneak peek Contest

I have a brand new kit coming out on Saturday, May 1. I'll be introducing it at a really great sale price for National Scrapbooking Day. I also have some news to share with you on Saturday. But I promise it is good news. I have been getting some emails and messages, so I want to assure you that I'm not leaving designing. I love it too much to do that!! But I am making a big change, and I am excited to share the details with you!

If you'd like a chance win the sneak peek kit, just leave me a message HERE in the comments on my blog and you'll be entered for a chance to win one of 2 random copies for free! Just make sure to check back on Saturday to see if you won, and to get the full reveal on the new kit. Good luck!!

Spot Healing Brush

I was talking to a friend about repairing photos the other day and we were chatting about the best methods for fixing a flaw. After realizing that she was unfamiliar with the Spot Healing Brush, it made me wonder how many people do not take advantage of this fab Photoshop tool.

The spot healing brush is so incredibly easy to use. It is my go-to tool for quick removal of blemishes and other small flaws on the skin from a photo...not that I ever have any of those of course! :)

The spot healing brush works best on areas that are not near sharp edges, or areas of high contrast. But it usually does the trick for a spot on the skin.

I am not a super great tutorial writer, but I'll give this my best shot!

I am going to play with this photo of my daughter Ashley. She had bright pink hair for a Halloween trip to see the witches at Gardner Village. Very fun and very Ashley!!

I like to start by duplicating the photo layer. That way you don't damage the original image if you make a mistake. The spot healing brush is the tool that looks like a little bandaid. You can also choose it by hitting the "j" key.

I like to keep the brush size as close as possible to the size of the flaw on the photo. For faces, I prefer the softest setting on the brush. You can adjust the softness by choosing the brush from the brush picker as you would a regular brush. I like to right click on the screen to open up the brush picker menu.

To use the tool, simply click on the spot you are fixing with the spot healing brush tool.

If the area you are fixing is not a small spot, hold down the mouse button and paint over the flaw until it is entirely covered.

Tada! The spot is magically healed!

I used the same method to quickly repair any other spots on Ashley's photo.

The result is a much cleaner photo in less than 30 seconds.

I hope that made sense and that you find it to be helpful! Have fun fixing up your pics! :) Now...if only removing a blemish in real life were so easy!!