Chilly Willy Fun

We only got one great picture of the girls while we were out at Copper Mountain this winter. It was SO cold - it never even made it to freezing (32°) the whole week we were there. But the girls enjoyed their brief outings anyway and can't wait to trying skiing in 2009 - that should make for some great photo ops.

This page stays pretty true to purple & silver because I was inspired to scrap it this weekend because of the color challenge over at The Digi-Chick.

No new tricks or creations here - just a lot of color manipulation - I haven't accumulated much in this color scheme.



Glitter Border & Ribbon (recolored) from Strawberry Delight Mini by Flergs
Star & embellishments from Funky Stars by Flergs
Swirl (recolored) from Funky Swirls & Overlays by Flergs
Date brush from Dated by Fei-fei's Stuff
Background paper & folder tab by Scraps from Sarah Belle
Fonts - Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly, Arial

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!

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

Spring is made for Strings

Tried some new things and learned alot with this LO. It seems a little squareish, but with 4 photos the current trends aren't as easily followed.

My biggest accomplishment on this LO was making custom shadows for all the photos, so that they don't just look flat with a shadow, but actually have some movement. I found a short tutorial from Christine Smith and it used the Filter->Distort->Liquify tool which I had used before, so applying it to this was pretty easy and I love the results - it does add a bunch of layers to the project though.

I'm getting the hang out of making papers now and used several commercial paper textures. I was hoping to make all of the papers, but in the end I searched through my stash and found something that I could alter (the circly dot one) - the pink was originally orange and I used a photo filter to make the whole thing bluer than it was.

I made my own staple and grommet for this page - many thanks to Atomic Cupcake! The journaling strips I also made and then used the Modify->Contract to add the small white border.

The string which kinda makes the whole LO is part of what I got with my "prize" for winning the color challenge over at The Digi-Chick a few weeks ago. I think their challenges are great, even though I don't get to do them that often.








Commercial Use Paper Textures by petit moineaux
Patterned paper from Run by Digitreats
Polka Dot Paper from Dreams do Come True by Britt-ish Designs
Stitching from In Stitches:Basics by Britt-ish Designs
String from My True Valentine by Dani Alencar
Tag from Whimsical Wonderland by Flergs
Staple & Grommet by Scraps from Sarah Belle(that's ME!)
Actions - old painted metal by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - 2 Peas Evergreen, Luna Bar

I've also decided to offer a freebie now & then, so here's the first one. The file is large because it includes the custom shadows I created.

You can pick the freebie up HERE. Enjoy!

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

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

Valentine 2007

Once again, I struggled with this picture. I remember having to bribe them with going to the playground last year to get them to sit on the step (this year the bribe would have to be lots of chocolate). Their sweaters were just SO red and most of the Valentine's stuff I found was pink - so with a bit of recoloring and after a trial with a template that just didn't work I went searching for inspiration and found a page to "lift".

Played around with blending again - applied a soft light blend to the photo to give it a bit more pop. Glue seems to be popping up on LOs these days so I was able to recreate that - its just a tiny detail on the date tag, but now I should be able to repeat that again. I made quite a few of my own elements - see all the actions I ran. I'm figuring out more about brushes and while I didn't use any in the end I think I know now how some papers are created. Still lots to learn there though and I really don't have to be a designer anyway.



From this blog post forward I will just be pointing you to the designer - it was taking a bit of time to dig down to the exact item and I don't know that anyone is using the links anyway.

Page Idea from Warning by nikkiARNGwife at the digichick
Background paper from Love Always by Franzika
Frame from Serenity by KSharonKDesigns
Notepaper from Pink by KSharonKDesigns
Rubberband by Amanda Kay
Staple from Funky Stars by Flerg's
Actions - inked edge, epoxy, sanded edge, ink & tear, rub on by Atomic Cupcake
Font - Social Animal, Minion Pro, Sleep Talk

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

Birthday Invite for Friend

I've tossed around the idea of going into the card making business, but I don't think it would be as enjoyable as just doing it as a gift for my friends. So here is my latest little gift - a sweet birthday invite for some very sweet little twins.





Paper from Chocolate Berry by Flerg's
Ribbon Frame from Emma by Amy W
Ribbon from Dear Santa by Karen Lewis
Actions - inked edge, painted metal by Atomic Cupcake

Peek-A-Boo

I guess one shouldn't really admit when they've done something that looks so simple that they actually make it quite difficult - but that's exactly what I did. As I was once again struggling with this LO I was reading through some other blogs and there was someone applying for a CT who said it normally took her 1/2 to 2 hrs per LO - I'm probably still at 4-6 hrs and that's with digital - it took me so much longer with paper that its a good thing I switched.

I knew I wanted to do the flim strips and once again there they were just sitting in there in PSE. I really wanted the text on the strip to stand out as the title, but it's hard since it's so tiny - but I'm sure it will look bigger printed out 12x12. Then what to do with the background - there was already so much blue in the photos and pink once again just wasn't right - so what's the solution - WHITE - at least I learned that the other day. I found the funky circle paper and tried a bunch of different things with that, piddled around with some glitter, all kinds of things before settling on the 3 simple circles and the rectangle of blue - looks like it should have taken all of 10 minutes to do this LO - not two nights.



Paper from Kaylabugs by Raspberry Road Designs
Action - inked edge by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts - Imprint MT Shadow, Suzie's Hand

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.

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!

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

Santa Baby - not quite done

These LOs are not done, but I needed to take a break from them and for some reason I find that posting them here gives me fresh perspective. Looking at these LOs it seems as if they should have been so easy, but I've been at it 3 hours now and I still don't have a title or journaling (can't think of a title at all). I was having a dickens of a time finding paper I liked and tried to recolor a bunch of stuff, but the red in the sweater was hard to match. Ended up taking stuff from a bunch of different kits and recoloring some. Learned how to burn & dodge (necessary for really making the safety pin look like it went through the paper). I found some tutorials for that I'll share in case someone else is looking. I spent a little bit figuring it out and you can't even hardly see it, but maybe it will look right on the printed page.








Links for credits to be added later

Paper from douceurenivrantebypetitmoineaux, Kim B's Christmas Around the World,
Stitching by Natali
Safety Pin from DreadFullyHappy
Ribbon from Ashley's Polka Dot Christmas
Tutorial - Realistic Stick Pin Placement by Studio Girls

Birth Annoucement for a Friend

Sorry the DigiFree website brought you here March 3, 2008. It must have picked up the word freebie in the comments. Please feel free to look around, but the only freebie here is on the 2nd blog post for collecting family geneology. TFL.

I just love helping friends design cards to send. I just think it is so wonderful to recieve a totally custom card - and today's printing industry it making it so much easier.







Paper - Jolly Hollydays from LivEDesigns
Ribbon - Happy Birthday from Digital Design Divas
Fonts - Papyrus, Baskerville, Nupital