Day: January 25, 2011
Places to Go: Qian Men (Beijing)
“Qian Men” means “Front Gate” and refers to a tower right in front of the Forbidden City, just south of Tian AnMen Square. It used to be the main gate into the city and once was part of the city wall, when it still existed. Now, it stands isolated – an ancient tower (in fact there are two towers that together formed the “Front Gate”), a distant reminder of Beijing’s former days. Qian Men not only marks the southern boundary of Tian AnMen Square, it also stands for an old Beijing district that has been renovated and restored in recent years, and has become quite a tourist magnet. Famous for its ancient looking houses hosting countless stores, among which there are many international brands and labels, Qian Men is especially beautiful at night, when all the fronts of the buildings are illuminated with all sorts of lights. There are lots of hotels and hostels in the area and the later it gets in the day, the more crowded the streets get with Chinese as well …
Behind the Scenes: Creating a Sticker Effect
I’m so excited to present you one of my favorite tricks on how to turn fonts and elements into a sticker. It’s very easy and I use this technique over and over on my pages. The most common way I use it for is to turn fonts into an alpha (for better visibility on the page), but I use this same technique with brushes, stamps and other elements to get an even more interesting look. I picked two of my older layouts (you can tell by the different page format I used) to show you what I mean. Here’s what I do … I start by choosing the text tool and a font, and write the desired text anywhere on my canvas (placement will come last). I re-size and change the color of everything until it’s exactly as I need it for my page. (On the second image above I actually clipped a paper to my font – the one I used for the big fat title). Now, I pick a paper from the kit …