Silly Chickie

This was a quickie, I finally had a chance after the girls went to bed to look at the DigiChick challenges and found a LO in the scraplift challenge that would be great for the single Easter picture I got back in 2007 - the girls were not cooperative that year. I'm also using more of my goodies that I won with the April TDC challenge.

The only 'nifty' thing I did was weave the ribbon around the edge, and that is just creative erasing. And another proud moment - it's all from the same kit!



Page Idea from Dreams by Skye at The DigiChick
Kit - Hey Chickie by Karen Lewis
Font - Jungle Juice

Easy as 1-2-3

This one has been festering for a while. I really wanted to record how easy it was to train the girls - getting them to give up their little potties (which we finally did last week after 10 months) was WAY harder than having them be potty trained at 26 months. So while I'm moving this out of my "in progress" file, I don't know that it s done because I didn't journal very much. These pictures might find their way back again when I finally find the right inspiration for what should be two 4x6 horizontals & 1 4x6 vertical photo - and lots of journaling.

And even I had to look more than once to make sure I didn't scrap the same girl twice - they look SO much alike in these photos.



Page Idea from Potty Training by Sari at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Paper & Label by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Bird from Passarinhos by Dani Siqueira
Funky Flowers by Flergs
Date Stamp by Yin Designs
Stitching by Natali
Fonts: DJB Chris, Soopafresh

Love Your Smile

It's not often that I use only one kit for an entire LO - fortunately it worked out in this case. That's three LOs I've gotten out of this kit, so I'd say it was worth the cost. I did this LO for this week's scraplift challenge at the digichick.

Thought I'd share a few tips in case you hadn't run across them elsewhere yet. For the date text that is on the curve of the curve I used a text template since PSE doesn't do text on paths. But then I also changed the blending mode for the text to overlay which made it blend into the background paper - changing the opacity would have given similar results I'm sure. Blending modes are a neat thing to try if you haven't already.

For the labels I used the Embossing Tape font, but it's flat looking, so I used the emboss filter. I haven't figured out how to get it to be any color besides gray when I do this so I have to recolor the text when I'm done, but I like how it looks.

For the word smile, I found a new font - Soopafresh at dafont, typed in the text, simplified the layer and then covered it in a paper from the kit. Since it was also dotty like the white paper and I had the text exactly where I wanted it before I clipped the paper, the dots from the black & white papers match up exactly - I thought that was a cool effect. Then I added a drop shadow and a simple outer bevel to give it dimension.








Page Idea from Sweet Child of Mine by Kalli at the digichick
Kit Happily Ever After by Mary Fran
fonts - Problem Secretary, Embossing Tape, Soopafresh

Now for the conclusion of From a Little Baby. I won't make you wait any longer to get the final pieces, they are all here - Part 4, the Template and the Add-On. The Add-On includes some word art & an alpha. I've set the template up to be super flexible, so I hope it helps you track your child's growth. The size labels are available in 3 different fonts, and if you do a 2 page LO it will go from birth to 10 years.

Thanks for the comments - I can't wait to see some LOs!







Pick up Part 4 of From a Little Baby HERE (other 3 parts are available in previous posts)
Pick up the Add-On to From a Little Baby HERE
Pick up the From a Little Baby Template HERE

The number of downloads has dropped by about a 100 with each part, so there should only be about a handful that get these last two pieces. Interestingly to me, part 1 keeps getting more downloads each day, but not the others hmmmm???

Packing up the Pappis

WOW - is that red or what? When I first got supplies (paper ones back then) to start the girls baby books I only bought pink & green papers, now their books are full of color.

A few firsts for me on this LO - I've never used a B&W photo. Others do it all the time and it looks awesome, but when I try I just feel like the photo gets lost. This time it was the perfect solution since the photo wasn't that great and the focus needed to be on the pacifiers anyway. Doing the spot color was pretty easy - I just created a copy of the photo, changed it to B&W, and then erased the B&W photo so the pacifiers could show through in color.

Picking a font for this LO was hard for me - it had to be something that could withstand the bold red background, but not bring the focus away from the picture. I ended up using impact and then playing with the size after simplifying the layer. Then I ran the sponged canvas action on it and then embossed it to make it more 3D.

Made more custom shadows using the liquify tool, I'm getting pretty speedy with those and I just really like the unique results. I struggled trying to decide whether I needed to add a fastner of some sort to hold down the notepaper or picture, and tried a few things that didn't feel right, so in the end I left them off.



Notepaper from breathe easy freebie by KSharonK Designs
Grunge Overlay from Grungy Overlays by Misschifis Scraps
action - sponged canvas by Atomic Cupcake
fonts - cac futura casual, impact

And now for what I'm sure some folks have been waiting for - the next part of From a Little Baby. My computer time has been limited this week as we moved the twins into big beds, and I have to guard against them escaping before they fall asleep. Thanks for the comments - I hope you like this next part. About 100 more folks downloaded part 1 than part 2, so they either didn't like the kit or they missed the 2nd part - it's still available in the previous blog entry.


Pick up Part 3 HERE

Stayin' Cool at the Pool

This LO was inspired by the weekly scraplift challenge at The Digi-chick. Somehow have a deadline makes me more creative.

Challenges are aptly named it seems, in addition to getting me to create another LO, they also challenge me to learn new things - this week I was able to use the Distort-> Polar Coordinates to turn straight ric-rac into circular ric-rac, the trick is to make sure your object is 200% taller as somehow it shrinks when it turns into a circle. I haven't been able to really make it work with text yet. I'm also really pleased with the gel action that makes it look like there is water sploshes on the paper - at least I hope it looks that way to everyone else.








Page idea from I Love U by Jennilyn at The Digi-Chick
Kit Happily Ever After by Mary Fran
Stitching by Natali
Flowers from Funky Flowers by Flergs
Ribbons from Straight Set by Natalie Braxton
Split Splat Brush by Stephanie Shimerdia (obsidian dawn)
Graph Overlay from Basics Overlays by Pton Designs
Grunge Overlay from Grungy Overlays by Misschifis Scraps
Actions - gel by Atomic Cupcake
fonts - CAC Norm Heavy, Retro Rock Poster, CK Ali's Writing

Bubbles

I suddenly seem to have a fascination with using black as the background paper. I guess it really sets off the bright colors in the photos.

I was browing galleries today looking for inspiration as I want to get some LOs done this month - what I really need to do is 3 Easters and 2 Birthdays, but instead I find something that looks neat and I know I have a photo to do something similiar and off I jaunt down a different road.

Today I used a gradient for the first time to create the two colors on the black paper using an overlay. A few custom shadows for the ribbons and then I "cut" the strips for the journaling.



Page idea from Bubbles by jak8396 at yourfavoritepair
Polka Dot Paper from JUMP by Digitreats
Overly from Dirty Overlay by Sugarplum Paperie
Ribbons from Set Straight by Natalie Braxton
Circle Stitching by Natali
Straight & Zizzag Stitches from Basic Stitches by Britt-ish Designs
Date from Date Bits 2 by Misty Cato
Actions - inked edge, pristine chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
font - the blue cabin

I couldn't help myself and made just a few more things for the Spring Denim kit, so here's a few more papers, flowers and cardboard borders to add to the collection. You can click on the image for a larger view.



I've disabled comments in 4shared. If you've really liked the kit and use it somewhere I'd really appreciate a comment back here someday and a link to your LO so I can leave some luv and see my kit used in another way.
You can pickup the Add-On HERE

And to Pam F who asked for suggestions on how to get started designing.
I use PSE5 so I think anything is possible - I won't ever be able to do what those with a doodle pad and PSCS3 are able to create, but I'm constantly amazed at what PSE5 is capable of doing. For me, purchasing actions from Atomic Cupcake has enabled me to create things that would take me an eternity (or longer) to figure out and those little touches add so much to elements. After that, it's just about slowly accumulating commercial use resources to modify and find things that inspire you. I am not planning on ever selling my creations - I don't want a job, I just want to enjoy my hobby and be able to make things for others to enjoy as well.

Hands Down

whoo-hoo - I got a LO completed during 1 nap!!!! I don't think I've ever done that. This LO really isn't that complicated, but I think I have more people to credit than I have items on the page :-).

This page will always be special as these are my girls little handprints at 31 months. I love it when they do this type of project at Mother's Day Out. I certainly haven't figured out how they do it and not get prints smeared everywhere - years of experience I guess.









Black paper from Vintage Oreo by Summertime Designs
Shape Template from Decorative Templates 04 by Keley Lopes
Sequins from Kimmy by Raspberry Road Designs
Staples from Dreams Do Come True by Brit-ish Designs
Paper Overlay Notebook from Basics-Overlays by Pton Designs
Paper Texture from Commercial Use Grunge by Pineapple Plantation Designs
Layer Style from Brown Bagging It by Misty Cato
Scotch Tape by Mellykat
Font - Pea Sarahloo, Pea Reese

You Sparkle

55 Layers - FIFTY-FIVE layers - that's too many layers right? This page was inspired by the scraplift challenge over at The Digi-Chick - and it has SO many layers. It's always amazing to me to see these LOs that look so casually tossed together with all these elements and then I try to scraplift it and it's this HUGE task. Just the little details, like putting a french knot on the gem flowers - 3 more layers. Custom shadows, just so the picture & the scalloped accent aren't perfectly flat - 2 more layers. Soft Light blending mode for the photos to make them pop - yet more layers. End result - worth it.

So I didn't try a lot of new stuff with this LO - I did practice using the eraser, and having it limit what is erased by selecting the borders of one shape and then deleting something on another layer (used for the YOU in the title) - I was trying to layer stuff back in December and knew there had to be a way to restrict what you deleted, and then saw a tutorial that did something similar, and today I fiddles around long enough to figure it out - and of course - easy once you know what you're doing. Very clever - you just have to watch how your shadows come out - I ended up having to simplify some layers so I could delete shadows that were in the wrong spot because I couldn't really "weave" the letters like they needed to be in the layers.








Page Idea from That Face is Too Cute by cindys732003 at The Digi-Chick
Kit - Dreams Do Come True by Britt-ish Designs
Flower Gems from Sunshine Sweets by Britt-ish Designs
Straight Stitching from Basic Stitches by Britt-ish Designs
Cardboard from douceurenivrante by Petit Moineaux
Flower shape from Sunshine Sweets by Amanda Kay
Paper Texture by Heather Bostian
Circle Stitching by Natali
Sequin Knots by Scrapgirly
Tied String from Knotted Stitches by Katie Hadfield
Glitter Sparkles from Funky Stars by Flerg's
Layer Styles - Glitter by Flerg's
Layer Styles - Brown Bagging It by Misty Cato
Actions - med bottom tear, frosted glass, gemstone by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - pea reese, 2 peas tattered lace

Now this doesn't haven't anything to do with my current LO, but I realized that my Bouncing Baby (I'm an engineer so names don't come easy - this was named after the bouncy seat that was in the picture) was slightly "girly", so I wanted all my twin mommy friends with Boy/Girl twins and everyone else that has one or more of each to be able to create complementary pages in their books.


Pick up the Add-On HERE

Please be kind and leave some love or constructive criticism. Enjoy!

Beautiful

Plunking a photo down in the middle of the page still seems a little odd to me, but it works for this LO. Once again, I tried at least 20 different things for this one. I loved this picture when I took it - the girls were outside running around and the evening colors with their dresses just seemed to pop.

I'm learning how to use more of the built in stuff in PSE - that and with Atomic Cupcake's actions are making me attempt a bunch of different stuff before I'm satisfied. On this one I used stroke (for the letters), dodge (to make the corner fold) & soft light blending mode on the photo. I have loved the Emma kit since I found it back in Nov, but mostly I just used little embellishments I've collected along the way. I guess eventually I'll have to get the scanner going to make some of my own.








Page Idea from Do You Love Me by Kate Nakajima at the digichick
Striped Paper from Emma by Amy W
Photo Frame by Manu
Swirls by Fryske
Stitches by Jasmin-Olya
Staple from Serenity by KSharonK
Date Brushes by Misty Cato Designs
Actions - inked edge & velvet by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Highland Perk, 2 Peas Evergreen

Bloom

I'm quite happy with this LO. I found this template a few days ago and it just seemed perfect for this theme. It was actually harder than I thought to find 5 different picture of the girls from this day, but it's nice to only have one of them together and lots of individual ones - its rare that I have that in photos.

I played around with some blending modes on this one with the title and I really like how that turned out - I ended up using soft light at 100%. I even used the eraser tool today for the 1st time to erase part of the letter B - it's supposed to look like it was there before the paper was sanded. I darkened the background paper just a tad using color variations instead of Hue/Saturation and got just the right color. The color of the glitter is supposed to bring out the color of the vinca.








Template from Template Challenge 2 by Fryske
Paper & stitching from Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess
Actions - glitter by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Jane Austen, Social Animal

Christmas 2007 Things of Note

Aaaah - this page took so much effort - so hard to tell when looking at the finished product. These pictures were taken in November and I started a LO back then because I liked them so much, but I wanted to use both pictures, but the colors don't really work together, but changing them to B&W would have lost the mood I think. So I tried to create different backgrounds, browns, pinks, greens - and nothing seemed to work because the other picture is just so, well, brown. So I've worked on a few different days over the past months and would just close it back up when I couldn't figure something out. My husband looked at me like I had gone insane when I told him I was coming back up to work on a LO that was really giving me a hard time (like how in the world could that be that difficult).

Then I struggled with a LO for two pictures that I wanted to be relatively the same size - no embellishment seemed to go with trains - certainly not flowers and it wasn't really too Christmasy so snowflakes didn't seem right either.

Fortunately, on yesterday's freebie blog there was a challenge from Little Dreamer Designs - a color challenge focusing on white - and so viola, the background sorta came to be - but all white didn't work either, so lots of experimentation with different overlays and actions and nothing seemed right. Then I remembered seeing this corner detail on one of Flerg's page - I don't know if was a template or her own design, but with a little trial & error I was able to duplicate it and I think it turned out cute and added just enough color - even though there is no way that you could fold the corner back and have those notebook edges in real life, its still a nice effect.

Then what about borders for pictures - the vintage look is in right now and did you know that these picture frames are right there in PSE5 for you to just add!? I find something new everyday now in this program. I also was able to lighten the bottom picture by adding the "screen" blend mode. Still not for sure what it does, but it made the picture look better.

The journaling was fun - the girls just loved Frosty this year - I really think because they learned first that he sang instead of Santa Claus. So it was nice to have a place to record some of the neat things they thought about Christmas this year.



Paper from Dear Santa by Karen Lewis
Notebook paper (used as a template for corner) from Express Yourself by Ronna Penner
Stitching by Natali
Actions - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
Font - Minya nouvelle

Toothy Grin

This tooth chart is something I've been kicking around for a LONG time (about two years) and I finally got the motivation to get it done due to Megan (aka Flerg's) who lives down under and does beautiful design work. She is holding a contest to find CT (creative team) members. I think CT members get to use the designers products free of charge to create LOs that should inspire others to purchase items from the designer. Now, I don't have enough free time to be on her CT, even if she were to select me, but I love using her stuff just the same.

I recently got a few actions from Atomic Cupcake. An action is like a microsoft macro, it just records a series of steps to make it easier on the next person. The actions they have created are just amazing. I can finally have inked edges again because of them. So the edges of the frame & tag are inked, the teeth have a frosted glass effect (which I think makes them look more 3D), the edges of the transparent paper are torn, and the background for the teeth started off using her cutout action (like making it into a sticker), but then I changed the paper.

And then I used a distort filter (liquify) to push in the ribbon so it would appear it was going through the eyelet. The tutorial has a few more steps that I didn't use in this LO, but I'll give it another whirl soon. I used the old paper photo filter on the pictures - they were too bright to go with the muted LO.

So - a lot of things came together to get this LO done, but it's great to have another "traditional" babybook page off the list of pages to do.









Kit (paper & alpha) from Strawberry Delight Mini by Flerg's
Tag, Staple & Eyelet from Decon's Closet Sampler by Flerg's
Brown Glitter Style from Chocolate Berry by Flerg's
Actions - tear, inked edge, cutout & frosted glass by Atomic Cupcake
Font - kid print
Tutorial - how to thread an eyelet by Scrap Your Art Out!

My 3rd Christmas

These pages don't feel like my finest moments, but I always need to ramp up with my scrapping and I've been off for three weeks now. Lots of holiday memories to scrap - but I don't want to overdo it since we don't have lots of pictures of the previous Christmases.

I used a template, but had to change it a bit. It had some really neat elements that I kept - like the folder tie & the ribbon stitching - but I had to work at it to make them mine. The template was really neat, but it was all gray scale, so it was designed to be just recolored, but once again the bright colors of the girls dresses didn't really lend themselves to simple recoloring. I had to take the folder tie completely apart (thread, button, eyelet) and I had to add the gold eyelets to the ribbon tie, otherwise they would have been just brown too. In the end it was worth the effort, but sometimes I just wish I knew how to design a ribbon - but I think that might be a while off.








Template - Template 66 by Lottchen
Kit - Tis the Season by Retrodiva
Action - Chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
Font - 2Peas Flea Market

2007 Christmas Card Photo Shoot

ok - not a speck of pink or green in sight - not even a variation like red. Making something feel like Christmas when you're all wearing black is hard (you look good, but it's not seasonal). Lots more adjustment layers and recoloring here - the original paper was purple - now that I've learned how to adjust hue/saturation the possibilities seem endless.







Kit - portion of collab kit Whimiscal Wonderland by Flergs
Embellishments - Cork Stars by Flergs
Glitter Style - glitter freebie by Flergs
Font - fontdinerdotcom sparkly

See these LO on Flerg's blog here

Joy (at Christmas time)

ooh - scrapbooking again pictures that are less than a week old (and I still have paper LOs that need my attention). Not for sure that this page is finished. The white space on the left feels good - but I don't have a title so that feels odd. Guess I'll let it simmer a bit and see if I come back to it.






Well I came back to it. I spent quite a few hours learning how to load actions, brushes & layers into PSE, but I finally figured it out and I know I'll use them alot in the future too.







Template - Template 15 by MOriginals
Kit - Dear Santa by Karen Lewis
Actions - Pristine Chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
font - jayne print, 2 peas Flea Market Block Regular

Thanksgiving 2007

We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with friends (all from A-B). We had our first taste of fried turkey, and Julianna looked out for all the little girls so it was a relaxing afternoon with lots of yummy food (and desserts). I tried a new sweet potato recipe that was quite scrumptous (and almost healthy).







template - 6 Pic Double by Heidi Lentz
Kits - Harvest Spice & Shabby Fall by Shabby Princess
Overlays - by Clara Wallace and Jill&Jack
Fonts - grumble, 2 Peas Hot Chocolate

Splash in Puddles

I am making headway with PSE - I managed to do these LOs in about 2 hrs - so much faster than with paper. I've been wanting to scrap these pictures with this poem and I finally found the right combination of stuff - and I taught myself a few new things tonight as well - so bonus for me.

The girls had just gotten their new Crocs and they couldn't wait to wear them. They were the perfect shoes for a rainy day and the girls loved splashing through the puddles.



Template - Paper Squares by the DSP Team
Kit - Emma by Amy W. Designs
Push Pin - from the Design Tool Box by Raspberry Road Designs
Overlays - Vintage Floral by Shabby Princess, Crumpled Paper texture by Jill&Jack
Fonts - Jayne Print, Euphoroigenic

The most Precious Gift

This was not what I was going to work on tonight. But I glanced through today's freebies and found this awesome template, and I had a couple of photos that went perfectly, so I thought I'd give it a try. Several hours later, I have a LO that I'm pretty happy with. Spent the the most time on the frame for the heart - applying different effects, trying to make one from buttons (spent alot of time searching for how to make buttons or find black buttons) only to have the solution hit me at the last minute (a piece of paper from the same kit) - and then it was only 5 minutes 'til I was done.



Template - B-day bonus 4 by Kim B
Digital Paper Kit - Urban Kiwi by Shabby Princess
Staple - Blog Freebie by L. Riordan
Fonts - Luna Bar, Portia

a tweak on Halloween 2007

So I wasn't totally happy with the first LO I did, and while I have other ideas in my head for pages that need to be done, inspiration struck and so I did this page again. When I went back through the photos, the one of them from the back with the bright orange pumpkins just really needed to be included. I think the 2nd result is better - yeah for digital scrapping!



Original LO


Overlays - Shabby Mommy Sanded Overlay by Shabby Princess & Zoey Overlay by Clara Wallace
Paper kit - Halloween Night Add on by Peggy France
Stitching - by Vendula Sediva aka Natali
Font – 2 peas ditzy

Fairy Tale

TWO layouts in one day - a record. Of course this is only one page, with one picture - so it should have only taken an hour - plus I used a template to boot. So a little modification for the photos (it had two), some Word Art, and a simple manipulation of the scrolls and bingo a finished layout.



Template - Template #24 by Netty's Scraps
Digital Kit - All Organic by Kay Miller
Fonts - The King and Queen, 2 peas Hot chocolate, Swiss