Thursday, April 30, 2009

Two from Templates, Plus a Lift

I've been neglecting my blog, but never fear, my I haven't been neglecting my scrapbooking!

I did most of this page a couple of weeks ago, but waited on to finish because I needed to wait on that last photo.



credits:

ScrapMatters' Template Tuesday 04/14/09 by sahlin studio

Parfaitement Imparfait! by Kawouette designs

Black Ice alpha by Danielle Corbitt

font is American Typewriter


In all honesty, I really didn't know whether those seeds were going to sprout or not, but of course Logan always believed ... and so when I saw those little sprouts poking through the dirt, I thought of that verse.

---

Here's another from a template; I did this one yesterday and today. (And yes, these may be the cutest pictures EVER.)



credits:

ScrapMatters' Template Tuesday 04/14/09 by sahlin studio

Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah by Plum Dumpling Designs

heart is from Hearts by Andrea

splatter from The Blues by Pineapple Plantation Designs / Ziggle Scraps

fonts are Cafe Rojo, Pea Yar Yar, and Rebekah's Birthday


---

And one more, which I scraplifted (check out the original layout here):



credits:

A lift of Linz's Caught in the Act

Some papers and ribbons from Welcome Home by Erica Zane (this free mini-kit is available at ScrapMatters by uploading a few layouts to the gallery and introducing yourself in the forums).

The rest of the papers and ribbons from Fairchild Add-on by Britt-ish Designs and My Ribbon Jar by Britt-ish Designs

Button from Fairchild add-on by Britt-ish Designs

Reuse Recycle Flowers by Britt-ish Designs (if you use any -- ANY -- Britt-ish Designs product and e-mail Britt with the "Show-Off" layout, you'll get a free gift every week; this was the gift from a few weeks ago)

Dots from Loverly by Sahlin Studios (from the ScrapMatters Design contest)

Screw, string, tag, and recolored alpha by Little Man by Purple Tulip Studios
(from the ScrapMatters Design contest)

Doodletime by Tracie Stroud

Circles border (recolored) from Playtime by geniaBeanie scraps (again, from the ScrapMatters Design contest)

Tape from Adventures in Reading by Plum Dumpling Designs
(one more from the ScrapMatters Design contest ... yes, many of these links are still active!)

Rubberband by Gunhilde Storeide

Hearts by Andrea

fonts are scrap kids and American Typewriter


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Goofy

It seems that, every week when I share my photos with my family via Picasa, there is one in the batch of Nathan being silly -- sometimes he's already doing something silly and holds the pose while I grab the camera; other times I'll just have the camera out and, after taking pictures of the boys, Nathan makes a crazy face for the camera. My sister-in-law April suggested awhile back that I make a layout of all his goofy faces, and I loved the idea. Now I've finally gotten around to doing it.

And yup, it had to be a two-pager ... I had that many silly pictures. :-)



credits:

Where the Heart Grows by Golden Girls (ScrapMatters)

Word Jumble by Penny's Miscellany (Penny Springmann)

CircleLove Wordart by CPZDesigns (Carol Zeitz)

Stitched heart from Love Life by Sahlin Studios

fonts are smiley monster, The Doorman, and Susie's Hand

Even though this design is fairly simple and I am getting pretty speedy with Photoshop, this still took ages to put together. There's just so many details: placing the pictures and papers, placing the elements, titlework (including creativing the "sticker" effect for the word "goofy"), burning the edges of the papers to grunge them up just a touch, shadow work ... *phew* Not to mention saving this a zillion times over in different sizes so I can upload the .jpgs where they need to go.

But I look at this layout and think -- it was worth it. Every one of these pictures make me smile, and I love looking at them all at once.

And I love my husband. :-)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Sweet Addiction

Have you ever played Tetris for so long that you start seeing places to put certain blocks in, oh, the spaces between words on a page, for instance? It's starting to happen with my digiscrapping -- I'll close my eyes for a moment, and see flashes of layout designs pop before my eyes.

Yeah, so maybe I'm addicted. Starting this blog and diving into the digicommunity (well, ScrapMatters, anyway) has made me more of a compulsive scrapper than ever before. But I figure there are worse hobbies, right? Right. (If I need an intervention, I'll let you know.)

Today I scrapped a very springy page. Quite the contrast to the foot of heavy, wet snow (more?) we got the past two days. This page is very similar in style to the Space Odyssey page (and I may just have to do a few more like this; I really like how they turn out). Also, I tried my hand at burning the edges of the papers, which I'd done last week on a layout (This Is Just You) -- thanks to a tutorial on the ScrapMatters blog today, this layout's "burning" looks quite a bit better to me.



credits:

Spring Has Sprung by Mickey D Designs and Jeni Hopewell (April ScrapMatters Newsletter kit ... this kit had a lot of pink and purple in it, but I managed a boyish layout!)

got-a-date: strips by Britt-ish Designs

staple from the SO SUNny collab

Silly Willy alpha by ScrappyWeiss

MSS November DAK alpha by Sir Scrapalot Designs

fonts are smiley monster and American Typewriter


I stapled the butterfly again, since nobody told me not to. ;-)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Good News and Two Layouts

What to do when the kids are sick? Scrap, of course! And then blog about scrapping!!

First of all, I was cruising around DigiScrapAddicts the other day when I noticed this thread in their April Scrap-Off. Mostly you enter your own layouts into each category (there's about a zillion categories), but there is one category -- People's Choice -- where scrappers can nominate their favorite layouts by others ... and Reeka Jean (a regular over there and at Scrap Orchard) picked my layout Lucky Charms as their favorite! I'm shocked and incredibly flattered because that gallery over there moves fast and there are a lot of really talented scrappers ... and a lot of their standouts just don't scrap in my style. I figured there was no way I would even get a nomination, but now I can't help getting a little starry-eyed about the prize: $20 gift certificate to Misty Cato! Love her stuff. (But yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up.)

A couple days ago (or was it just yesterday?) I scraplifted a layout ... it's been awhile since I did that. I read a tip somewhere that makes scraplifting a cinch: download the image your lifting, then drag it onto your layer and turn the opacity waaay down; then you can place your photos and elements exactly where they need to go. (Did that make sense?)

So. Check out shutch's original here ...

... and then come back and take a look at how I lifted it:



credits:

Love Life by sahlin studio (ScrapMatters Design Contest round 4)

My Ribbon Jar by Britt-ish Designs

Plain 'n Distressed alpha; designs by Sarah

fonts are American Typewriter and Susie's Hand


Since I didn't have to worry a whit about composition, I had time to play with the kit ... the blue doodly flower was originally just stamped on a paper, but I pulled it off with the Magic Wand; then I made my own frame from one of the papers, using the burn edges to grunge it up just a little (thanks for that tip, Amy).

And one more thing -- I love this freebie kit by sahlin studios done for the Design Star contest at ScrapMatters. I used it on my last layout, too, and I decided yesterday that I ought to use the color palette as inspiration for the colors in my bedroom. (Now I just need some bravery ... I have yet to paint anything in this house, or even hang many pictures.)

Okay, one last layout ... and I love this one. I'm channeling some Yin Designs here, I think. ;-) It's kind of empowering to do it without a template.



credits:

Blast Off collab by GingerScraps Designers (WyldWeb Designs, Spinky Dink Scraps, Graham Like the Cracker, Plum Dumpling Designs) ... this was a blog train from a few weeks ago

Date It Tags by Golden Girls

Peel and Stick Alpha by Misty Cato

Ransom Alpha by Bren Boone

Font is Pea Johanna

Monday, April 13, 2009

A Good Layout

As I scrapped this afternoon (in between cuddling my two boys, who are in a more cuddly mood having come down with sudden colds), I pondered this question: What makes a good layout?

I think, as a general rule, I'd answer that it's the composition. I love seeing layouts that have photos arranged well, with elements delicately placed.

Yeah, I'm always underestimating the power of some fantastic pictures.

And so it is in this layout: it's simply my good-looking brother that makes the layout so nice to look at! I didn't feel like I needed a whole lot of elements (count 'em -- I used only sixteen layers this layout -- which is, like, a new record low for me). The photos shine on their own.



credits:

love life by sahlin studio (Scrapmatters designers challenge round 4)

I used the actions Fresh and Colorful / Quick Edge Burn by Pioneer Woman

font is American Typewriter

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Eggs

Dying Easter eggs is one of my favorite Easter traditions. Every year, my mom boiled a dozen eggs, and my brothers and I each got four to decorate how we chose. There was always a football egg, a Sheldon egg (from Garfield and Friends), a world egg, and an egg that was marinated in the dye until it was a deep, rich, metallic color.

This year my kids were very excited to dye eggs -- and we had a lot of fun!

I love how this page turned out. The photos started out pretty good due to some nice natural light. I managed to squeeze all my favorite pictures on, without a template and without blocking (my fallback non-template method).



credits: most everything is from "Not very serious Eastermania" by Aprilmouse and Hanulienka Design, featuring Lencula and Sarahh

dotted swirls: Summer Garden by Mandy Mystiques

doodled borders: One Fine Day by Matahati Designs

"dye": Mostly Doodles alpha by AnnaBV Designs

"Easter": Chubby Alpha by Andrea Dumalski

numbers: Ransom Mini Alpha by Bren Boone Designs

fonts are Century Gothic ("how"), Smargana ("to" and "eggs"), and smiley monster (for everything else!)

Friday, April 10, 2009

Purple!

The new free kit at Peppermint Creative came out today! I love Miss Mint's kits; they are ones I keep coming back to, and they are ones I choose for special projects (Joshua's first birthday card was done using Wild Weekend, and I used Kindergarten Crafts for more than one layout). A thanks to Amy for pointing me to the first free kit of hers I downloaded (was it Painted Season?)

This kit, April Morning, is beautiful ... and overwhelmingly purple! I am very glad I had some great pictures of my niece Kaylee that needed scrapping so I had an excuse to use this kit. (Between this layout and my last one, which featured my other niece Emmy and a few bright pink squares, I am on a streak of girly scrapping! It's kind of fun.) :-)

So here's what I did with the new kit:



credits:

Fun Hunt Template by Cyndi Price (for the Tuesday Template Challenge at ScrapMatters)

almost all the papers and elements are from April Morning by Miss Mint

one purple paper from Oogi Boogi by the Sweet Tart Team at Digital Candy

heart alpha (recolored) by Vicki (A Work in Progress) for Scrap N Art

glitzy paper dot alpha by Britt-ish Designs

ribbons are from My Ribbon Jar by Britt-ish Designs (one recolored)

staple from the SO SUNny collab

fonts are Susie's Hand and Pea Shannon


(What do you think ... is it inhumane to staple the butterfly to my page??)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Scrapping Nirvana

I'm flummoxed. I'm flattered. I'm FAMOUS.

Check this out: this week, my gallery is being scraplifted for the "Grand Theft Layout" challenge at ScrapMatters! This is no random draw-from-the-hat kind of prize; somebody actually likes my layouts (yup, layouts, plural) enough to consider them worth imitating for their own albums ... and encouraging other people to do the same. Ever since I learned I would be featured (which was on Tuesday morning) I've been on cloud nine. Nathan (who excited for me, too) asked if I'd hit Scrapping Nirvana yet, and I admitted that this feels pretty close! :-)

So yeah, the fact that I'm being singled out on one of my favorite scrapping sites is just awesome. If you're a digiscrapper and are looking for an online home, ScrapMatters is it -- there are tons of great challenges, quality designers, and people actually look at and comment on the gallery. (Yes, I'm serious. No more posting your best layout and having to fish for compliments in the forum. People actually make a point to "leave some love" here.)

And I love the focus on scrapping what matters. To most people on that site, that means including journaling and some kind of date and often more than one picture. Looking at some of the "artistic" layouts I find on those "Gallery Standout" blogs are nice, but when it comes down to it, I really couldn't scrap like that. (Also, I find it interesting how many Mormons are on this site and wonder that's why I feel at home there. It's not like anybody puts it in their profile, but they have such challenges as "blessings" challenges -- scrap your many blessings, you know -- and people are including pictures of Primary activities, baptisms, temple weddings, baby blessings, etc.)

So. This afternoon, I decided I had time to squeeze in one of the most fun and fast challenges over at ScrapMatters: the SPEED SCRAP! Joshua watched me work on a good chunk of this layout while he snacked on cheese sandwich crackers (Logan was at a friend's house, which was how I even considered that I could participate). As I worked, Josh kept saying voicing his approval; I'm not sure if it was "whooooa!" or "wooooow!" that he kept saying, but either way I liked having my little cheering session nearby while I worked!

In two hours (and since I was late, I had more like ninety minutes), we were supposed to come up with a layout that met the following criteria (each of these steps was revealed in ten-minute intervals over the first hour):

1. Use something (or complete your entire LO) from one or more of the Design Star Contest kits.

Round 4 links are still active: Click here to go to the gallery – Download links are in the credits section.

You can use kits from round 2 and 3, but most of the links have been disabled.

2. Choose 2 or more photos (you can repeat a single photo if you’d like)

3. Use a minimum of 5 papers in your LO: patterned or solid

4. Add a title using an alpha for all or part of it

5. Add some ribbon (or just one!)

6. Include a fastener of some sort

7. Add some finishing touches like dates, journaling, embellishments, shadows, etc
I came in and they were up step three already. Yikes; FIVE papers? And I hadn't picked out what to use from the downloads (hadn't even unzipped most of the stuff, actually), nor had I picked any photos. Photoshop was giving me problems, too (had to quit out of it a couple of times). I felt at a loss at how to get started, and then (while I was downstairs getting Josh more crackers), I saw the basic design for my layout in my mind. (When I'm scrapping without a template, layout designs often come to me in this way!)

I managed to upload in time (luckily there's that fifteen minute grace period for uploading; I needed it). Here's the finished product:



credits:

Adventures in Reading by Plum Dumpling Designs (ScrapMatters design contest)

Staple Fun #1 and #3 by Gunhilde Storeide

Mostly Doodles alpha by AnnaBV Designs, available at ScrapMatters

fonts are Pea Lindsay Unicase and American Typewriter

And, as a sidenote: ALL of these are a free download!

Yeah, so I was noticing that while the composition style matches with what I typically do, the COLORS are way different! I rarely use anything this bright and don't think I've ever used anything this fluorescent. I think it's fun, though, and am glad Emmy wore her bright pink coat so I could have an excuse to add some pink to my page (a rare treat when scrapping two boys). :-)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Less Is More

Part of me thought, "I should scrap these photos. They tell a story, one about everyday life with my boys."

Part of me thought, "I shouldn't scrap these photos! What am I thinking? You can only see my boys in silhouette! What kinda junk pictures are those to scrapbook??"

And another part of me thought, "oh, forget it -- Beth, it's taken you less time to put this layout together than it did to answer this debate! Anything you can scrap that fast is worth scrapping!!"



credits:

Fonts are Amelie and Lesli. (Yeah, that's my credits for this one; the rest is ALL me!)


Do you ever second-guess yourself on whether your layout looks "finished" enough? I considered playing with this layout, adding some frou-frou of some kind ... and then I decided:

In this case, less is more.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

A Pretty Blue Alpha

I love Holliewood Studios' Art Box Alpha (a freebie on her blog!) ... so much so that I've used in the last two layouts I've done! Here's the layout I did yesterday (in which the alpha seemed to echo the creativity of the puppets my boys were playing with):




credits:

Template 5 by idziBitsy Designs

Boys of Summer by the ScrapOrchard Seedlings

Funky Retro paper pack by ShanScraps Designs

Art Box Alpha by Holliewood Studios

Hand Stamped Brushes by Michelle Coleman

My Ribbon Jar by Britt-ish Designs

---

And here's the layout I did today (this time I was playing off of the "wet" look of the alpha ... and besides; it was blue):



credits:

Rain Rain, A Little Blue, and Bubble Bath by Kristin Aagard

Art Box Alpha by Holliewood Studios

My Ribbon Jar by Britt-ish Designs

Talk is Cheap by Scrap N' Art

PawPaw's Hand by Polka Dot Plum (for the button)

font is McPhatty


I love the cut paper look that seems to be coming into vogue lately (My Lucky Charms, a layout I did a few weeks ago, was from one such "cut paper" template) and this is my first whack at it all by myself. I like the slightly crooked shapes. How funny that we go digital, where we can create things to be exact, and yet we try to make it look imperfect.

And, though I'd had my alpha picked from the beginning, I couldn't decide on a title. "Car Wash" is the familiar phrase that sounded nice to my ears, but I kept hearing my son's little voice in the back of my head: "you mean the van, Mommy!" -- he corrects me every time I say "car" instead of "van"! Thus I toyed with the idea of changing my title to something like "Van Wash" or "Washing the Van" -- but then it came to me to just use Logan's phrase that was ringing in my head as a "subtitle" in the form of a talk bubble (I knew I'd downloaded those for a reason!) I love that it captures even more of Logan's personality this way.

So. A success! This is the kind of thing that, someday, when I'm all caught up on my scrapping and fulfilled all my other hobbies and responsibilities, I would like to make into a template.

Until then, you're stuck with scraplifting it. ;-)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

In Search of Adventure

Hi there! I'm a longtime blogger and can't even call myself a newbie digiscrapper anymore (I started -- well, started in earnest, anyway -- in January 2008), but this is my first blog devoted entirely to digiscrapping.

I want to get more involved in the digital scrapbooking community. Someday that might mean creating my own templates from my layouts, or joining a creative team, or getting published in a digital magazine ... or, sheesh, at least having an up-to-date gallery on any given forum.

But for now, it just means starting this blog and sharing my layouts on it!

This layout (which I did in under an hour -- that's much, much quicker than usual for me!) is perfect for the "adventure" of a new blog!



credits:

Text Path Template by Britt-ish Designs (for an old, old Template Tuesday at the ScrapMatters blog)

High Flying by Misty Cato (I bought this with the DigiFiles 2)