2010 Me and My Girls

I don't know that I've ever gotten a page scrapped the day after taking a photo, but I'm determined to get more pages done and more than that I'm determined to get myself in more photos with the girls...even if I don't look the way I wish I did.

On this day the girls decided they would lay down on top of me on the couch, which in itself is not that big of a deal, but they will be 5 soon and its not something that will be part of our lives much longer.

I'm usually not one for converting to B&W, or clustering items, it doesn't come naturally to me, but I really like Natali's designs and got this kit and was determined to use it.



Kit - Ordinary by Natali Design (DigiShopTalk March Gold Kit)
Fonts - CK Ali's Writing and Times New Roman

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

Happy Birthday Sweet Girls

Seems like its been forever since I've scrapped. It's been a busy past two weeks between the girls birthday followed by a trip back to Missouri to visit all our family. Good news is that I my scrapping juices came back quickly - the first 5 minutes or so I got a little scared because I was actually having to think about PSE commands.

I finally made my own scalloped mats - I just made a circle brush and drew the outside and then filled it with a rectangle - a littler easier than I thought it might be. Then I made the template, so it was easy then to find some papers that coordinated with the picture and then just clip away. I fiddled around some with the elements - didn't have anything that just "went" so I had to do some creating and modifying there. The paper kit I used was a Christmas one and I made the black papers using an overlay and brush. Right after I finished the template I thought, I'll be able to do this with just a few things, but now that I've finished the credits I realize that it didn't end up very simple.

I have two bits of "news" that I need to share. Originally this blog was just for me, but I have a few loyal readers now and hopefully they will be excited for me too.

I try to participate in at least one challenge each week at the digichick. In April, anytime you completed a challenge your name was entered in a drawing where the prize was a $10 gift card from 19 digichick designers - and I won!!! I found right before we left on vacation so hopefully tonight I'll be able to go shopping and get lots of fantastic stuff. So head over to the digichick challenges - they really do provide lots of inspiration. My favorites are the color challenge and scraplift challenge.

The other tidbit is that I'm going to be part of a design team at Benevolent Boutique designing kits for charity. The first kits are scheduled to be released in June, benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation. There are going to be two kits - one each for boys & girls, with toddlers in mind since June is National Potty Training Awareness Month (who knew?).



Page Idea from You are so Handsome by ZaCola3 at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Kit - Silly Seasons by Zoe Pearn
Sequins from Sugar in Heaven by Jeann Gaidecki
Brush from Paper Damage by Adobe
Overlay from Grungy Overlay by Misschifis Scraps
Glitter Styles from Chocolate Berry by Flergs
Stitching by Circle Stitching by Natali
Button ties from Lots of Button Ties by Designs by Shannon
Buttons - scanned in & edited by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Actions - Pristine Chipboard by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Tangerine, Pea Kate

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.

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!

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

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

Berrylicious

I don't know that I really did these pictures justice, I couldn't get one to show the juice running down the girl's faces, but I like the LO anyway. It is a scraplift from a page that Megan Farrow (aka Flerg's) did. I piddled around with a bunch of different stuff, but most exciting is that I finally used a brush and actually created the "bling" myself with the help of Flerg's glitter styles. Now that I've figured that little bit of magic out I'll have to see what else I can do with it. Also, another big thanks to Atomic Cupcake, her actions are just amazing and so cool (how about those glass frames!?).



Papers, ribbon & flowers from Strawberry Cake by Amanda Kay
Background paper from Deacon's Closet by Flerg's
Alpha - Glitz Alphas by Vicki Stegall
Layer Styles - Glitter by Flerg's
Stitching by Natali
Actions - inked edge, colored glass by Atomic Cupcake
Font - 2Peas Flea Market

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.

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

Born with a Little Diva Inside

Another day where the photos to scrap were totally dependent on the freebies I found today. The Diva kit was just perfect for this pictures of the girls and their sunglasses which were not necessary to scrap, but were too cute not too. This is the true benefit of digital, I'm able to do scrap so many other moments that might have been just left behind because it just took too much time. My goal now is to do two LOs a week - one for fun and one that really belongs in a baby book.







Template - Clustered by Tracy Drane
Kit - Diva by Daniela Peuss
Stitching - by Natali
Overlays - Vintage Floral Overlay by Shabby Princess
Fonts - Tall Paul, Euphorigenic

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 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

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

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