Designer Challenge - Bow Templates - Extended 3/23

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Designer Challenge - Bow Templates - Extended 3/23

Bows are an universal elements so it is good to have a bunch to choose from when creating kits.

For this challenge, I want you to make 10 different bow templates. Your bows can be doodled or painted or you can make your own out of paper, fabric, ribbon or sting and extract them. Here are some ideas for you.

Oh and if you have ideas for fun designer challenges please leave them in the Designer Challenge Ideas thread so Marisa and I can create those challenges for you.

Oops!!! Forgot to notice Designer Challenges for some days..But I will try this one..Good for practicing the Illustrator skill again.. smiley

I'm extracting about a million ribbons right now anyway, so I'll post them when I'm done. It's a whole set of woven raspberry velvet, 3/8 inch wide. They'll be going into the shop, but I'll be sure to post at least a couple of freebies as well--I've got 30 to extract and haven't even shot any folded or short lengths yet, so there'll be plenty of choices!

Wow, Holly that sounds like a lot. Extractions are not my thing. I do them occasionally but I can't work at that many at a time.

Yeah, that's why I'm taking a break right now to put together a preview of the kit of scatters I'll be putting up in the shop soon--these scatter extractions were already done before the blog train came out. I used to loathe extractions when I was trying to do them via erasing or making complex selections with the various selection tools, but they're easier, faster, and cleaner now that I've learned to use the pen tool to draw a clipping mask--simple shapes are 5 minutes' work, and complex curled ribbons take about 15 minutes each.

I've gotten 10 of the ribbons done so far, though, and will get some more done before I sleep tonight. I'll have a non-scrapbooker friend coming over tomorrow or Saturday to hang out, so I'll definitely take a break from Photoshop then and we'll probably just talk or play computer games.

I just got a class from scrapaneers on pen tool. I watched and I'm impressed with it. I just have to start using it.

You didn't need to buy a class unless you wanted video. I posted a free tutorial with screenshots on how to do extractions with the pen tool on my personal blog back in November. Please see if there's anything extra in mine that adds to what your class taught, or if I missed anything basic. It's located here.

As much as trying to do them before was a pain, the shape mask makes them fairly quick and easy. You also don't have to worry about jaggies since it's a vector mask, or stray/missing pixels either since the shape will be solid and only what you define. It's really worth the time to learn, because my overall time to extract something has been cut to a fraction of what it had been taking me, and my completed extractions are miles ahead of any other method I've ever tried.

Holly, that's so interesting!! I will keep looking here when you're done..I also made some normal ribbons but then noticed that I need to make bows, not ribbons!! smiley ..So I am making some again..LOL!!

Holly, I got the class to learn how to use the pen tool to create my own doodle and shapes directly in photoshop. I will definitely check out your tutorial on the extractions using pen tool, it is very new for me to do it that way.

You're basically using the pen tool to draw a shape that you can use as a clipping mask, so it's pretty easy, and it makes really nice extractions.
Doodles for elements are pretty useful, too--just draw paths and stroke them. You can fill them as well--it's not quite as flexible as Illustrator, but it's pretty good for making vector elements that way, too.

I know some of you wanted to participate in this challenge but you were unable to make it by the due date. I decided to extend it for you.

It took me far longer than I wanted to get these done, and they're still not in the shop yet, but they'll be posted soon. I wanted to get some more straight and folded ribbons done to go with these, but those will have to wait until I can get some of the journal card templates released.

Wow, these are great Holly.

Yeah, they took a lot of time tying, shooting, and then extracting them, but they turned out pretty gorgeous. I didn't bother making the shadows perfect yet, though I need to do that before uploading to the shop. They'll be perfect for those super-lush kits with tons of flowers--classic Mother's Day and romantic and Victorian kits. I'm pretty happy with them.

I agree these are perfect for Mothers Day and romantic kits. smiley