Anticipation │ A view before Birth │ 2004, 2005

So much for my goal of getting something posted here once a week.

I really had good intentions this year to try and get more done on the digital scrapping front, and my good intentions will continue.

This is a redo of some of the only hybrid pages I did when I first started their baby books and which prompted me to make the leap to digital. I got one set of the pages done and then never got the other scrapped (printed and cut, all it needed was to be put together and it never got done).

So here are my sweet babies during their 38 week journey in my tummy. The sonographer was really sweet about getting us pictures until the very last US when there was just no room left in there for you to wiggle about and for her (Lisa was her name) to do more than get the necessary measurements.

Flergs was one of the first designers I found when I started my digi-scrapping journey and I love her stuff still 3 years later. She is a very talented designer - her flowers are always my favorites.



Kit - DayDreamer by Flergs
Fonts - 2Peas Evergreen & Blackjack
Actions - inked edges & torn by Atomic Cupcake

1/2 of rework of Little Baby to Little Lady

This layout was one of the first ones I did digitally, only I did it in powerpoint intending to do hybrid (years ago for me) so I had to start over in PS to get a printable version. I just love having this much information about the girls and I know they will really treasure it when they have their own children.

There will be a facing page that takes them from 2 years thru 10 years - right up to a little lady.

This is also a great example of how much they have looked alike & different over time.



Background papers from Wild Sorbet by Michelle Coleman
Title Alpha - Bohemian Summer by Michelle Coleman
Stitched flowers from Bad Sewing Machine XIV - Flueriffic by Traci Reed
fonts - Jayne Print, 2 peas Old Type, 2 peas chatter, old typewriter

One Year (and now they are almost 5)

This is one that has been sitting waiting for me. It was one of my old hybrid projects that never got finished and I am determined to get those redone completely digital. It started off as a powerpoint presentation and I think I could have actually printed it from there as a jpeg, but I have learned a bit more about photo editing and think I improved my photos the 2nd go around, the original post is here.




Page idea from a layout years ago on 2 Peas in a Bucket
Paper kit – Sweet Sprinkles by Shabby Princess
Tape – Mellykat
Staple – L. Riordan
Fonts – 2 peas duck duck goose, pea johanna

Sitting Pretty

Whew - it feels like forever since I've scrapped - which isn't true - as I've been scrapping for my MoM club, but it doesn't feel the same because it isn't my kiddos smiling out of the page at me.

This one took a bit longer of course trying to get back in the swing of things - I got stuck trying to add a title and finally decided that maybe it just didn't need one after all.

This photo is just one of those sweet ones that makes me smile every time it comes up on my screen saver - the girls had just learned to sit without toppling over, and they looked so adorable in their little blue jeans. I finally used this kit I bought in April, but of course had to fiddle with it and deconstruct some of the bottom cluster, so some creative erasing and then using parts & pieces for the frame.



Kit - Bleu from the April Lucky Dip by Tracy Ann Digital Art
Font - Jane Austen

Template by Scraps from Sarah Belle Kit - Kayleigh's Kaleidoscope by Flergs	Template - Cookie Decorating #46 at Sweet Shoppe Designs Kit - Haute Spring by Zoe Pearn
Template by Yin Designs Kit - A Walk in the Park by Amy Sumrall Fonts - Kid Print, CK Journaling
Template by Yin Designs Kit - Happily Ever After by Kay Miller & Mary Fran Font - CK Journaling	Template by Yin Designs Paper from Colors of Cancun by My Digital Addiction (Joanna Cinnamon)

All I Dreamed Of

This is a redo from paper to digital - another one of those LOs where I got one paper one scrapped and got all the pieces cut to do the second LO and just never got the second one done.

In addition to my MoM newsletter duties, I've also decided to try and teach some (so far 14 have joined our little group) of our mom's of multiples how to digital scrapbook. So this page is also serving as the first "lesson" of that process. I'm trying to lead the whole process on-line cause it's hard to get together without kids and with computers, but hopefully I'll be able to do some hands on stuff too.

I was finally able to scan in some ribbons, extract them and have them keep their translucence (sp?). Not something I want to do a lot of, but I did want the ribbon to be similar to the ones that I had on the original LO.



Template 06 by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Pattern Papers from Festival by Shabby Princess
Solid Papers from Sugar & Snails Mini by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Glue Blobs from Glue & Glitter Blobs by Flergs
Actions - Inked Edge by Atomic Cupcake


HERE is the folder with the mini kit & tutorial - take what you wish
HERE is the template

I won't be around much the rest of the month - we're close to halfway so it's time to start the newsletter and my internet browser keeps crashing every 5 minutes, so its not a lot of fun to be on-line and its practically impossible to get anything done. If I do have any spare time I'll be working on things for the OK, Just a Few Boys kit.

So Very Cute

This should have been a very quick page, and in fact it was, but along the way I decided to piddle around some more with "creating" and made a bunch of different papers before the very last one that ended up being the background - had to stop then as I finally created what I needed.

More shapes, actions, brushes & paper textures at work here.







Template Sketch 3-18 by Kresta at The Digi-Chick
Kit - Bouncing Baby by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Font - Pea Cammi-pea

Now for another freebie! I had so much fun creating that I thought I'd share it all with you. Didn't make it far in the way of elements, so if you'd like me to try my hand at that, please be sweet and leave me a comment when you download.

Everything is 300 dpi and there are 11 papers and an alpha. Many, many special thanks to Atomic Cupcake, Seishido and Petit Moineaux for their commercial use items.








Pick up the Quick Page HERE
Pick up the Mini Kit HERE

For My Daughters

This is such a far leap from what my LOs normally look like it doesn't seem like it belongs, but it needs to be in their book. From when I first saw the inspiration for this page I knew I had to do one like it, but how do you condense pregnancy & birth into one page?? I tried to imagine what I would really want them to know if I'm not here when they have kids of their own. This might be one of those that gets edited more than once!

The only new technique here is cropping the picture using feathering and applying a blending mode of multiply so that the picture and background merged. I was so happy I had this paper texture, otherwise the whole thing would have just looked so flat to me.

I think I need to add a date though so the girls know how pregnant I was when the pic was taken - FYI very pregnant - just 8 days before they were born.



Page Idea from Pregnancy Facts for My Girls by Joy Bohon @ 2 Peas in a Bucket
Paper Texture by Betty
Fonts - Pea Johanna, 4990810

Redo - Minutes New (still not satisfied)

Once again, I stumbled into a creative road block trying to get the title to work - and I'm redoing the page - arrgh. This was one of the first digital ones I did so it was rough anyway. It took me just a little bit to put the other pieces together and I knew what I wanted the title to say, but just couldn't make it fit on the page. Still not for sure it's really what I want. I like all the individual pieces, but I'm not for sure that they fit together the way I want.

This time I learned about Modify-> Expand & Contract and used it to create the detail on the number and the borders on the paper tags.

	original LO

Floral Paper, photo Mat from Vintage Garden by Flergs
Pink Paper, brown paper & staple from Blog Freebie by L. Riordan
Ribbon from Spring Romantic bonus by Doreen Stoltz
Flower from Sweety Spring by Miss Vivi
Fastner from Fastners by ScrapMatters
String Knot from Knotted Stitches by Katie Hadfield
Kraft paper from Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess
Actions - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - CK Ali's Writing, 2 Peas Hot Chocolate, 2 Peas Glitter Girl, Death

Redo - Love at First Sight

I had a yearning to create something but couldn't find the right photos/kits for a new LO, so I went back and redid one of my traditional LOs. I was prompted by a ScrapMatters blog entry last week to "scraplift yourself" and while this wasn't a total scraplift, many of the original elements are still intact. I bought these vintage garden papers by Flergs (during her birthday sale) and instantly thought that they would be good for these "first moment" photos of the girls and so therefore when inspiration was lacking for something new - it was time to go back to something that didn't sit quite right the first time.

I learned a valuable lesson today - SAVE and save often. I almost had the LO complete and then accidently closed it. Then while I was almost done the 2nd time PSE locked up on me - a first, but then it become a 2nd and 3rd tonight as well. Fortunately I had learned my lesson, but its frustrating when your program doesn't work well.

Not much new here - a new action and I played around with the blending modes so that the quote would be readable but not the focus. I ended up using two blending modes - vivid light & soft light, both set at 50% opacity for the layer.

the redo	the original

Floral Paper, photo Mat & Tear from Vintage Garden by Flergs
Pink Paper & Staple from Blog Freebie by L. Riordan
Ribbon from Spring Romantic bonus by Doreen Stoltz
Actions - sandededge, inkededge, & pristine chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Stephanie Marie SF, Times New Roman, CK Ali's Writing

Who Are You?

Bet you can't tell that this was a 3 nighter LO - yep, that's how long this one took. I found this great LO to scraplift and first tried to create the whole look from scratch. My scalloped edge action from Atomic Cupcake wasn't working right, so I spent a long time trying to find scalloped templates, and even after I bought some they didn't give me the look I wanted - so in the end I bought the Happily Ever After kit and it is quite fun.

So on day two I customized the striped paper to make it coordinate better with the hats, modified the border and the scalloped circle - just to go back to the original in the end - and spents hours trying to create flowers to go on the swirly. The kit came with flowers, but they just weren't tropical enough. I ran actions galore on some flower shapes that came with PSE, and finally created some that were passable, but I still wasn't pleased, they just looked normal, not like the tropical flowers on the hats.

So the search for custom shapes to download started and after much hunting I finally found some, then struggled to get them copied to the right folders. I think I did have it figured out, but didn't know it as the shapes are not in the shape menu but in the Artwork & Effects. I finally ended up using Graffi's Add-o-Matic, and for once it actually worked properly, which is how I discovered that I did have them in the right spot, but wasn't looking for them in the right place once I opened the program. So once I found a flower I liked and cut it apart to be able to create a 3D look, I ran some actions and put it all back together with drop shadows and the final result is more of what I was after.

I also played around with the texturizer and learned that you can create different layers in the filters area - now I'm starting to understand a little more about how the designers play around with the filters, the blending modes & brushes to make some of their papers. But I think the whole following a path that photoshop has would be critical. So for now I'll create a solid color background paper and leave the rest up to the "professionals". I might have to invest in some paper textures from ScrapGirls though. I did find the notepaper texture and discovered that it will take the background color and use that for the notepaper texture which is nice
touch for something different than canvas or linen.

Then for a journaling block - ended up just using a preloaded shape in PSE - it's from the crop shapes, but I'm hoping it looks like paint.









Page Idea from Cherish These Moments by MizAmyLou at the digichick
Background Paper from Tomboy by Angie Briggs
Other Papers & Elements from Happily Ever After by Mary Fran and Kay Miller
Stitches by Natali
Flower Shape by Scrap Stew Sue
Actions - Enamel by Atomic Cupcake
Font - CK Ali's Writing, 2 Peas Hot Chocolate

read some lovely comments from Sue here

Sweet Santa Baby

Ok - these are done now. Quite the hodge podge of kits, but I guess it's a good collaboration of many things that I've collected. In the end I'm quite happy with the results, but with being gone one week without scrapping, I'll have to go back and relearn that burn & dodge technique.








Paper & alpha from douceurenivrante by petitmoineaux
Other Papers (recolored)from Christmas Around the World by Kim B
Stitching by Natali
Note Paper & Tape (recolored)from Flutter by Karen Lewis
Safety Pin from DreadFullyHappy by Digital Crea (a Thursday's Freebie so it changes)
Ribbon (recolored)from Ashley's Polka Dot Christmas by Angel in My Pocket
Alpha (recolored) from Island Girl Choco Chip Alpha by Mabelle (My Scrap Works)
Tutorial - Realistic Stick Pin Placement by Studio Girls
Fonts - Serrific Grunge, Jayne

Leaning Pumkins

On this layout I got to play around with two actions that make pictures concave & convex. You can do it yourself with Filters-Distort-shear. I was able to accidentally do it once and thought - ok, that is easy, and then I could never repeat it. I need to practice, because it is a handy trick to make things look more real, especially with the pulled away stitches.







Template - In Stitches by Tracy Drane
Kit - A Call to Act, a collaboration hosted by the Digichick Community
brad - recolored from No Room for Grey by Retrodiva Designs (was previously a freebie)
tag hanger - from Bonne Annee by Maman Scrap Passion
Stitching - by Natali
Action - Concave & Convex by Panos
Fonta - Euphorgenic, jayne print

2005, 2006 Christmas Card Photo Shoot Pics

Before I started digital scrapping I would have never used glitter even if it was the hottest trend going. Now I can't seem to get enough of it - it is so fun, maybe it's just a girl thing, but I really like it. I found a fabulous collab kit for Winter coming out and even though only 2 of the 12 parts were out there was plenty of inspiration. One background I had to make and in it I learned about adjustment layers and how to recolor a bunch of stuff for a LO. The green one is a QP (quick page) and I just had to plop my pictures behind it. Now to go do a design for this year's photo shoot which I hope to have done soon as it's time to get cards in the mail.










Kit - portion of collab kit Whimiscal Wonderland by Flergs
Chocolate Berry by Flergs
Embellishments - Cork Stars by Flergs
Font - fontdinerdotcom sparkly

My First Christmas

Another LO finished today!! It's getting easier and I'm realizing now some of the mistakes I made on the first digital pages - oh well. I'm sure that I'll have to make some adjustments too, since I'm using PSE6 now as a trial, but bought PSE 5. Just like paper scrapping in that regard. I found 3 of these Christmas papers as freebies, but I liked it so much now that I made this page I decided to buy the kit - hopefully I'll be able to do Christmas for several years with this kit.

And alas, I'd like to work on their 2nd Christmas tonight too - but other duties call.



Template - October by Bastelzauber
Kit - Tis the Season Freebie by Retrodvia (they offer only one freebie at a time, so this link may take to their current freebie, and alas the freebie papers are not in the kit.
Overlay Edge - Edge Pack by Lauren Bavin (couldn't find the product again on her site)
Staple & Bling - from the Design Tool Box by Raspberry Road Designs
font - 2Peas Evergreen

Moments

I had a little time today and I was going to work on getting a few paper LOs done, but I browsed through my inspiration site and I found a quote that fit perfectly with these pictures that I wanted to scrap - so the paper once again will have to wait. Using a template does make things so much easier. The hard part for this one was the mat/photo. The template just had straight edges all around and it just looked a little blah to me. Once I found the edge cropping in PSE I was much happier. Then I added the crumpled paper overlays to everything except the background paper and it all seemed to come together then.

These pictures were taken when we went to The Homestead in Virginia. It was beautiful and they had a walkway that just had perfect light.



Template - #10 by Pixelninechen
Paper Kit - Sweety Spring by Miss Vivi
Overlays - crumpled paper from Template 12 by Jill & Jack and crumpled paper by Cindy Doerksen
Stitching - by Vendula Sediva aka Natali
Staple - by Leah Riordan
Fonts - CAC Shishoni Brush, Calligraph421BT, 2Peas Hot Chocolate

a sweet little baby (baptism)

Woo-hoo, another set of finished pages!! Ok, once again, just on the computer and not actually in the book. Boy, do I hope I like the way these print. This one was actually 75% done in PSE6 - that program is actually getting easier, but I still did some of the text and moved the photos in using Powerpoint - that way I could design two files in PSE, but use them as backgrounds for two different people. I added all the drop shadows (even the ones for the photos) on the quick page. So - do I like digital scrapping?? YES, it is great - especially since I used to spend this much time on the computer working on the design anyway.





Digital Paper Kit - Live for the Joy by Kay Miller
Edge Overlay – Shabby Princess Vintage Floral kit
Alpha - Sweet Serenity Alpha by Shabby Princess
Stitching - by Vendula Sediva aka Natali
Fonts - 2 peas glitter girl
Poem - Carlton Cards (thanks Aunt Betty!)
Layout - Feb 2004 Sketch by Becky Higgins

6 & 7 Minutes New

Another digital LO. I did this first in Powerpoint and wasn't (and still am not) for sure how I was going to print it out. I liked the LO just fine, but since it was digital it just looked flat and that is the one thing I don't like about digital - but the things I love about digital (the speed, the ability to make two similar LOs at once and the ability to reuse things easily) make it hard to not give it a try. I downloaded a trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements and piddled around long enough to figure out how to do a few things - drop shadows being one of them (so easy), and edited this page enough so that now it looks a bit more "real". I'll post one before pic, and then the two final versions - you can see if you can tell a difference.




Paper kit – L. Riordan
Scroll frame – Family Love by Sliva
Edge Overlay – Vintage Floral by Shabby Princess
Frame – Funky Floral kit by L. Riordan
Stitching - by Vendula Sediva aka Natali
Fonts – 2 peas glitter girl, jayne print, 2peas gift
Layout idea – ad for berryberrychic by Karen Lewis

From a Little Baby to a Little Lady

OK - totally original LO design on my part. So far it's just digital, it hasn't made it's way to paper yet. I'm going to write in the values so that it looks sort of the same by the time the girls get 10 years old. I did this one in Powerpoint & Microsoft Picture It.




paper & embellishments - Miss Vivi Sweety Spring digital kit
alpha background - Shabby Princess Festival
Fonts - Kayleigh, Baskerville Old Face, 2Peas Chatter, 2Peas Flea Market

Love at First Sight

This is our first family photo. I had been stuck trying to find the right way to set off this single photo. One of the medical staff took it for us in the OR. This is my first attempt at a 100% digital LO - only I did it in Microsoft Powerpoint, so it's missing some of the definition to make it look layered. I ended up printing it out in pieces and layering it for their book, so it doesn't look quite as flat as it does here.



Fonts - Susie's Hand, 2Peas Evergreen, 2peas Hot Chocolate
Stamp - Swish Stamps by LeWanna Desjardin
Digital Paper Kit - Blog Freebie by Leah Riordan
Chipboard letter - Dani Mogstad
Stitching by Vendula Sediva aka Natali
Layout idea – ad for berryberrychic by Karen Lewis