... just Laura

for like ever - a digital layout

i've been creating lots of layouts over the last few weeks. but nothing i can share for a while. i actually have a nice little creative break, and don't have any projects that i HAVE to do, for a little over a week. which is nice, because i have some layouts that i've been really wanting to work on. just for fun. i'm hoping i'll have some ready to share late this week or next week. in the meantime, how about a digital layout share.

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i can't remember the last time i created a digital layout. actually, i can tell you. through the beauty of "categories" on typepad (and the beauty that i actually DO check off categories for all my posts ;)), i can tell you the last time i made a digital layout was november 2010. what??? that doesn't seem right, considering what a huge amount of digital products i have. lol!

this was a really quick layout that i created a while back. the only thing that wasn't done was the journaling. that's the hardest part of digital scrapping for me, is actually typing up some journaling. i have no clue why, since it's pretty easy to do. it's just the part i put off. which is why it took me this long to actually finish the layout.

i started with this fun digital template, from robyn meierotto. the great thing about templates like this, is that the design is already done for you. you just drop everything in. photos, papers, cardstock, etc. and you still have the freedom to add extra pieces, or change things around.  

i know i used the cool star die cut paper from robyn's let's go paper kit. i think one of the reasons i used it, other then because it's cool looking, is that i purchased this kit at the same time as the template. it saved me time, so i didn't have to dig around for another cool paper.

i took the title from the a kind word - love part 2 kit, from deena rutter. i knew i only had 2 photos for this layout, and i wanted to add the title in the third photo frame. "for like ever" was really a cute title. and it fit.

i wanted to add a little extra something to the frames in the template, so i dipped into my insta-frames, from audrey neal. i've actualy used these on a paper layout before. just printed them out, and trimmed them up.

after adding in those main pieces, i then lost track of what products i was using, from what kits. i picked a few other pattern papers to add in. pink and yellow to go behind the frames, black for the top and bottom of the page, and blue for the background. i found some buttons from random kits. and finished it off with some journaling strips.

i would never give up paper scrapping. but i also really enjoy playing with digital scrapping too. with a basic knowledge of photoshop and layers, it's really not that hard to learn. i remember saying a few years ago, that i would NEVER digi scrap. i thought it was too intimidating. i'm glad i took the time to play around with it and learn "just enough" to get me doing some pages every now and then.

edited to add: it was just a coincidence that most of the kits i used for this layout came from design house digital. there are a few digital shops that i frequent, for great digital kits. one thing i love about design house digital, is that on tuesdays, they have tuesday dollar deals. 5 brand new kits that are each only $1. so the ones you see above were all purchased for $1 each, when they first came out. a great way to try out digital and see if it's something you might enjoy.

pumpkin patch - a digital layout

it's been a long few days here. the girls were off school for the holiday, soccer practices, a fussy 10 month old that decided he didn't want to nap for an entire day, trying to convince a 2 year old that she needs to eat at some point in the day, and all sorts of other random things have been keeping us busy. i wanted to chill out and do something creative tonight. but was too tired to dig out papers and photos. so i decided on a digital layout.

 

joey manwarren is one of the new additions to the 2011 CK dream team, and i've enjoyed getting to know her and her designs better. she's been doing "template tuesday" on her blog for a while now, where she offers up a free download of a new digital template that she's designed. she also gives some great basic design advice, about why she designed the template the way she did, and why it works. good tips, even if you're scrapping with paper and glue. i saw this week's template tuesday, and really loved the design. so i thought i'd do a quick layout tonight.

 

i used the thankful digital papers, by robyn meierotto, that i picked up from design house digital this morning. i LOVE fall colors and products, even though i never really have any fall photos to scrapbook. i had to go back to 2006, to find this photo of me and the girls at the pumpkin patch. the title is from this kit, and the buttons and stitches are from random kits in my collection. all in all, this layout took me about 30 minutes to create. joey's template is so easy to work with. i added all the pattern papers to the template first. found some buttons. added some stitches. and the title. the part that actually took me the longest was finding the photo. just a simple and quick layout, just for fun. just what i needed tonight :)

snapshots of you - a digital layout

i finally finished up my digital layout of sarah. i started playing around with this last friday night. all i actually had left to finish was the journaling, and adding the tall yellow birdie. no idea why that took me so long to do. but here it is.

i love digital templates. they give you such a great starting point in making your layouts. you simply pull up your papers and photos, and drop them into the different spots in the template. you don't have to worry about figuring out your photo sizes or anything. sure, there's a few tricks to learn to getting your photos in the spots and sized just how you want them. but once you get the hang of it, it's so simple. and there's nothing better than finding a great digital kit, that has all the coordinating papers and embellishments all in one spot. all i did was find 3 photos that i wanted to use.   

and then i pulled up this digital kit that i was dying to use. notions blue & co full digital scrapbooking kit, by jen allyson for design house digital.

and started with this digital template that looked perfect for the design i had in mind. layered template no. 19, by cathy zielske for designer digitals.

then i just played around, until i got the papers and photos how i liked them. the title was done, and it fit my story. so i left that as is, but it is something that you can change. i added a few embellishments. the banner in the upper corner, the notebook paper, the birdies, the stitching, and the staples. easy peasy :)

favorite music - a digital layout

since i havn't made any paper layouts that i can share lately (have made plenty though, for the record), how about a digital layout?

i started this digital layout over a month ago. i had seen the mixed tape digikit by brandy buffington on 2peas, and had to get it. the first thing i thought of using was the old school tape. the kind i used to record all my favorite music on, by holding up the tape player to the radio, and waiting for the songs to come on before hitting the "record" button. lol! kids these days don't know what they were missing. lol!  i then added the journaling pages from the sunshine day digikit by brandy buffington. i had intentions of learning some new digital tricks, to give some elements a more realistic look. like shadowing. but if i wait to find the time for that, this will never be finished. lol!

i thought it would be fun to do a layout about my most listened to songs these days. i'm not going to say these are my most favorite songs ever. but they are the songs that i seem to play the most on my ipod lately. i just went to the playlist on my ipod, that shows my top played songs. nice that it tracks it for me, so i didn't have to think too hard. lol! it's an interesting mix, right? i have such a varied taste. some of these are songs that the girls like, and i just started to like them just as much after hearing them listen to them all the time. although there are some on there, that you might think are more the girls songs. but that are really my favorites, and not their's. think "high school musical" ;) 

love you forever - a layout

i know this is getting a little crazy. sharing another digital page. i promised you that i'm not making some big switch to digital. and i'm totally not. these are just pages that i've been making, while sitting upstairs when the girls go to bed. when i'm not around my supplies, and all i have is my laptop and a comfy chair. trust me, i've been making TONS of paper layouts and projects. i just can't share any of them yet. so bare with me on another digital layout ;)

i used a layered template from cathy zielske to create this layout. it was really simple. just pulled up my photos and plopped them in the template. i changed the color of the stitching and the heart, and added my journaling in the journaling layer. and then i added my digital papers to the template as well.

one of my BFF's, lynn, made a comment to me last night that i had to jot down on my blog. she knew i had assignments to work on. and she knew that i was doing anything BUT working on them this weekend. she said, "you give yourself a window of time to work on assignments and you will find a way to close it shut until you have to squeeze through it". i had to laugh, because she knows me all to well. and she did say it out of love and was laughing about it, since we're totally different in this regard. lol! i'm such a last minute person, and a total procrastinator. but i seem to work the best under pressure. it's just what i do. so today, i did lots of other stuff around the house. tomorrow, i will wake up and kick myself for not working on my projects like i should have. but then i'll get them done. "always on time, but never early". that's my motto :)

forever cousins - a layout

wanted to make a quick layout for the blog, so that you could see something other than my face over the weekend. lol! i have a ton of projects going right now, so i really didn't want to take any more paper and product out. sounds like a good time for a digital layout, right? i actually went hybrid on this one.

so, this is an 8x8 layout, which i then printed out and adhered to a 9x9 piece of white cardstock. the papers, photos, and title are all digital elements. and then the embellishments are all traditional products. real stuff. i started out with the acrylic overlay grid and the pink pattern paper, and no idea where i was going from there. dug around on my external hard drive, and tried out several photo options. finally settled on these 4 gorgeous girls. young women, really. the girls don't have any cousins on my side of the family, only second cousins that are all adults. but they are lucky enough to have two cousins on joe's side of the family. johvanna is on the top left corner, and is joe's middle brother, bobby's, daughter. and sally is on the bottom right corner, and is joe's oldest brother, johnny's, step-daughter.

supplies:
acrylic overlay grid mini paper (by doris castle)
birthday wishes solid papers (by sara batdorf)
just be you papers (by angie briggs)
i heart spring kit (by michelle underwood)
wild love solids (by michelle underwood)
just chillin chipboard embellishments (by making memories)
paper flowers (by making memories)
flair buttons (by american crafts)

and wanted to mention a few things for you to check out, if you haven't seen them yet.

jaime echt from crafter's workshop has a great guest blogger post on the creating keepsakes bog today. has some great ideas about using their templates on your layouts. i have a handful of their templates here, and they are so cool. a great reminder to pull them out as soon as i can, and make something cute with them. you can see it HERE.

have you been to chech out club CK yet? this is the new community site for creating keepsakes, and it's the cutest site. full of fun things to check out and participate in. there's a gallery, a message board, videos, and a ton of other sections. make some time to explore the site and register.

the new design team members were announced on the jillibean soup blog today. i see some familiar names, and some other's that i can't wait to find out more about. i know they're all going to be great additions to an already great team, and i'm so happy to be a part of it. congrats to them all!

if you're not checking the making memories blog every day, you should be. it has been full of inspiration lately, and we've all been working really hard to bring you new ideas every day.

first glasses - digital layout

what is this? another all digital layout? for anyone that is worried about me. no, i'm not making some big switch or leaving my paper. i could never do that. have you seen how much paper i have? lol! but i'm having fun just playing with the digital a bit. all my paper projects are more assignment based and guided. these layouts are just for fun, and i don't have to stress over  them being perfect.

 

i have had this photo laying around for about 2 years now. i've been meaning to scrap it, and how i just recently started wearing glasses for the first time. or should i say, that 2 years ago i started wearing glasses for the first time. lol! more for reading and computer work, but now i seem to require them for a lot of other things. age, i tell you. i kept this layout pretty simple. because this is still all so new to me. the papers and photo part were easy. i'm very good at knowing basic sizes and measurements, and knowing the sizes that i use over and over. so getting the papers to all fit how i wanted, was the easy part.

but you don't want to know how long it took me to do the title. getting those letters the right size, and to fit there. i'm sure i did it the hard way, since that's how i am. i even added a few buttons. originally i thought that would be something i could add after i printed the layout. you know, go back and add some "real" stuff like buttons, ribbon, etc. but i sort of like that it's all one flat piece. i was thinking about adding some real thread to my buttons. or even silver mini brads. and i would like to staple the ends of the brown pattern paper, since that's something that i always do on my layouts (stapling borders and ribbons). but i didn't have a digital staple. lol! so i might just use my real stapler on that.

michelle underwood trendy digikit - green paper, ledger paper, striped paper
michelle underwood i heart spring digikit - buttons, brown paper
karla dudley artist in me digikit - stitches
scrapsimple alphabet templates, old chipboard - title letters

i visited the digi side of the world

i have always been very quick to say that i am NOT or ever will be a digital scrapbooker. i understand so little of photoshop. just enough to edit my photos and print some photo collages. i ignore any tutorials on digital scrapbooking i see. i admire the layouts, sure. but i don't pay attention to how they're done. i have a stack of digital scrapbooking idea books also. about five or six of them. but i just look at the layouts. i've never read all the great instructions and tips that are written inside. 

that being said, i have managed to start a small collection of digital kits and elements. and i never use them. but this weekend, i got around to doing some browsing on the scrapgirls site. they were super generous in sending the CK dream team some gift certificates, and i figured it was time i use mine. i loaded up on paper kits. since i always start with paper when i scrap. figured i would do the same with digital scrapping, once i got around to trying it. luckily, getting new kits all downloaded and organized on my computer got me inspired to try and use them.

and here is what i came up with. my very first all digital layout. i actually started out with the idea to just do the paper and photos digital. and then print it out, and add real "stuff" to it. like embellishments, ribbons, title letters. since that is something that i don't have much of. i have just a tiny handful of digital embellishments, and am not patient enough to learn how to make my own. but in the end, i just used what i did have and and made it work.

i created my layout in the 8x8 inch size. my photo printer only prints 8.5x11, and that way i could print at home. or i could order them from costco, and pick them up for $1.49 each. then i can mat that 8x8, onto a 9x9 sheet of cardstock. since i do scrap the 9x9 size, and since i always love a good matted look around my layouts. and another thought that just came to mind. this could very easily be reprinted for haley's mom and dad, and they could have their own copy.

i certainly have no plans of becoming a digital scrapper. or switching over to "the other side". lol! but this was fun to play around with. i created this and printed it all within an hour. i didn't make a mess, i didn't have to cut paper, i didn't have to dig out title letters, i didn't have to go upstairs to print my journaling and then cut it into strips, i didn't have to take photos of my layout and then find my card reader to upload them to the computer, i didn't have to crop and resize that photo of my layout to share on my blog. i literally sat in my chair and scrapped, just by clicking some buttons. kind of a nice change of pace. but i'll be back with my paper and real "stuff" today :)

supplies:
birthday wishes solids paper mini, by sarah batdorf (turquoise paper)
young at heart paper biggie, by angie briggs (orange circles paper)
typesets hello ness brushes and stamps, by cathy zielske (title)
artist in me, by karla dudley designs (stitches)