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)

Friend for Life

This LO consists of 5 components - background, frame, picture, quote & date. I tried to make it snazzier (is that a word), but ended up deleting anything I added, so I decided just to leave it simple.

I did edit the photo with a filter plug-in for PSE from Optikverve Labs, its really neat (and free!) and you can get it HERE



Papers from Organic by Kay Miller
action - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
font - CAC futura casual


Now for Part 2 of From a Little Baby. I have a few ideas for some things, so an add-on will definitely come as well. I really appreciate those that cared enough to leave a comment - those are truly inspiring, and make it feel as if the effort is worth while to someone.


Pick up Part 2 HERE

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

Seaside Beauty

Pages of the girls first trip to the Ocean. Of course we took many more pictures, but for me, these just captured the special moments and are my favorites. I love the one of Alena from behind - I wanted her to know it was her. She loved the ocean, pulling to go into it even though it was still quite chilly in May.

I can't believe that I'm scapping so many single pictures, but sometimes one does a better job than many. The rest are all in a photo album to be enjoyed.

This page is also a simple layout - I didn't want anything to compete with the picture.








Papers from Live for the Joy by Kay Miller
Stitching by Natali
Tag Hanger from Deacon's Closet Mini Kit by Flerg's
Actions - inked edges by Atomic Cupcake
Font - jayne print

This was also one of my first ventures into photo editing back in 2005. The picture was so cute, but there were so many people in the background. Luckily, sand, sea & sky are easy to duplicate, but it makes all the difference in the world to see Iva peaceful & alone on the beach vs. sharing it with all these other people. For the LO, I cropped it even tighter than a 4x6 - all I really did was remove all the people and the book & stuff in the foreground.

Your Own Style

This is one of our favorite pictures. It doesn't look like much really, but it captures such a special time when the girls were first moving around - Alena by crawling and Iva by creeping on her tummy. This meant that Alena was always in the lead, but Iva made pretty good time.

I was working on this LO when I decided to check for freebies and this template was right there - I knew it would be perfect for this picture. It took a while to get the background color - I tried green, brown & pink all from the patterned paper, but they distracted from the photo. Finally I just made it the same color as the blanket in the photo and it all just clicked. The hardest part of this one was learning to use the text mask - you can't just move the text around or resize it once you use a mask (or at least I couldn't find that you could) so it took a few trials to get it right.

And now I really must get to work on that paper LO that I've been meaning to work on - but keep letting the computer distract me.



Template - Template 11 by MOriginals
Digital Paper Kit - Live for the Joy by Kay Miller
Overlay - Zoey by Clara Wallace
Overlay - Vintage Christmas by Sunflowers
Fonts - Serrific Grunge, Euphorigenic, jayne print

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

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