... just Laura

Digital Project Share: 2020 / 2021 Shows

Hey everyone! I'm back to share a new project that I whipped up a few weeks ago. I actually started this several months ago. Right before the 2020/2021 TV season kicked off actually. I thought it would be a great time to document my favorite shows from last season, to add to the album that I set up last year. Quick recap of this fun little project. 

This will be my fifth year documenting all of the shows I watch regularly. When I shared my 2019/2020 pages last year, I also shared links to my previous years pages as well. You can see that post HERE.

I also shared all of the details on how I approach this yearly project on THIS POST, where I shared my 2017/2018 pages. 

I keep an on-going list (jotted down in a notebook I keep in the family room) for all of the shows I watch during any given season. Every now and then I would pull it out and add any additional shows that came out (or started back up) to that list. Keeping this on-going list throughout the year really helps for this type of project, so you're not wasting time, trying to remember what you've watched - or leaving any good shows off the list ;) A lot of these shows run at different times of the year, or only run for half of a season, which is why I double check my lists from time to time. 

I approach this project the exact same way each year. Digital pages, using collage templates and a few digital patterned papers and digital stamps, which I print out on my photo printer. For this year's pages, I decided to use the Simply White 6x8 Life Pages templates by Tracy Larsen.

I used the 3x8" Everyday Layered Photo Template kit by In A Creative Bubble for the two 3x8" collages as well, tweaking them a little to create larger areas for my two photos. 

The digital patterned papers that I used are from random kits that I've had forever. I actually ended up using several of the same patterned papers that I used for the past several year's pages, just because they matched so well. I'm totally fine with using the same papers, since while I do own a TON of digital kits, I'm not familiar enough with those kits to know where to find additional paper choices.

To add the days of the week to each spread, I used the Messy Days Of The Week Boxes digital stamp kit by Ali Edwards (I can't find the kit on her site, as it's an older one, and may not be available anymore).

I used the Stories Of Life 3x8" template kit by Ali Edwards (can't seem to find a link for that one right now either) for the 3x8" collage to hold all of my Chicago shows - I wanted to put them all together on a little insert, just like I did last year. I ended up backing this collage with a 3x8" piece of digital patterned paper that I printed out to coordinate with the spread.

I always download images for each show in a variety of sizes and orientations - square, vertical, horizontal, etc. I love having lots of options, since I never know what orientation I will need, depending on what template I pick out for each day.

Once I had all of my collages finished, I printed them out on photo paper, trimmed them, and slipped them into my album. This might seem like a silly little album to some (and proof that I watch way too much TV), but I just love it :)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Even Better Here With You

 

Hey everyone! I'm back with another puppy themed project that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. We have only had our new little puppy for a few months now, but the camera roll on my phone is filled with photos of him.

 

 

I wanted to pick out a few of my favorite photos to create a photo collage, to use as part of a travelers notebook sized spread. I picked out a template from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Wander kit, and got to work adding my photos. 

 

 

I then had the idea to add a few digital stamps to one or two of the openings on the template, using the new Blocks of Togetherness digital stamp kit. Digital stamps are great, since you can size the stamps to fit your exact needs.

 

 

I don't have many pet themed scrapbook products, but I remembered Kerri's older A Dog's Life cut file kit (no longer available), and I knew I could use the PNG files digitally to add "embellishments" to my page. 

 

 

I had full intentions of having a full page photo collage on one side of the spread, and a title/journaling combo on the opposite page. But once I got going, I decided to use the same collage template for both sides of the spread.

 

 

I rotated the template 180 degrees to create the second collage, kept filling up the template openings with a mix of photos, digital patterned papers, digital stamped phrases/words, PNG images for the embellishments, and my journaling. 

 

 

When I was happy with my collages, I printed them both out onto photo paper and trimmed them down. I added a single enamel heart to my otherwise all-digital spread. 

 

Digital Project Share: 2019 / 2020 Shows

Hey everyone! I'm back to share a new project that I whipped up this week. Anyone else missing their favorite TV shows? I know I am! Since I don't have a single show on these days, I thought it would be a great time to document my favorite shows from last season, to add to the album that I set up last year. Quick recap of this fun little project. 

This will be my fourth year documenting all of the shows I watch regularly. When I shared my 2018/2019 pages last year, I also shared links to my previous years pages as well. You can see that post HERE.

I also shared all of the details on how I approach this yearly project on THIS POST, where I shared my 2017/2018 pages. 

I had already written a list of my on-going shows for the 2019/2020 season earlier this year, and every now and then I would pull it out and add any additional shows that came out (or started back up) to that list. Keeping this on-going list throughout the year really helps for this type of project, so you're not wasting time, trying to remember what you've watched - or leaving any good shows off the list ;)

I should also add that not all of these shows are on at the same time. While Thursday has something like 22 shows, I wasn't actually recording/watching 22 shows every Thursday. A lot of these shows run at different times of the year, or only run for half of a season. 

I knew that I would approach this project the exact same way that I did for the last two years. Digital pages, using collage templates and a few digital patterned papers and digital stamps, which I would print out on my photo printer. 

For my 2017/2018 pages, I had used template kits from Cathy Zielske - specifically her Six By Eights No. 06 kit, since the templates had the days of the week, which fit this project perfectly. I loved the format I used when I broke down my shows by what days they were on. Even though I used these same days-of-the-week templates two years ago, I decided I was totally fine using them again for this year's pages.

So my plan was to use the template with the day of the week on the left side of the spread, and then to use a second template for the right side of the spread, picking from Cathy's Six By Eight kits. I also ended up adding in a few Simply White 6x8 Life Pages templates by Tracy Larsen.

I used the 3x8" Everyday Layered Photo Template kit by In A Creative Bubble for the two 3x8" collages, tweaking them a little to create larger areas for my two photos. I could have chosen a different template for the second "Tuesday" page that would have held all these extra four photos. But since FBI and FBI: Most Wanted - as well as black*ish and mixed*ish - go together, and are on the same night, I thought it would be fun to add in the little insert, keeping them together.

I also used a few digital stamps from In A Creative Bubble, specifically her Watch & Listen digital stamp set. The digital patterned papers that I used are from random kits that I've had forever. I actually ended up using several of the same patterned papers that I used for not only my 2017/2018 pages, but my 2018/2019 pages as well, just because they matched so well. I'm totally fine with using the same papers, since while I do own a TON of digital kits, I'm not familiar enough with those kits to know where to find additional paper choices.

I used the 3x8" Snapshots Layered Photo Templates kit by In A Creative Bubble for the 3x8" collage to hold all of my Chicago shows - I wanted to put them all together on a little insert, just like I did last year. 

Thursday is by far the night with the most shows. It seems to be this way every single year. Lol. I ended up doing two full spreads to hold all of the shows. 

The collage on the right is one from Tracy Larsen, and it's one that I quickly realized works SOOOOO well for this project. I always download images for each show in a variety of sizes and orientations - square, vertical, horizontal, etc. But this collage would have worked perfectly for all of the pages, if I had wanted to keep things even simpler. Maybe I'll keep that in mind for next year ;)

Once I had all of my collages finished, I printed them out on photo paper, trimmed them, and slipped them into my album. This might seem like a silly little album to some (and proof that I watch way too much TV), but I just love it :)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Bryce Canyon

 

Hey everyone. I have a new digital layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio using her new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set. When Kerri first shared this new stamp set with me, my first thought was that I didn't have a need for it.

 

 

But then I thought about all of the camping my family did when I was a kid, and I knew that I could put this set to use with some old photos. 

 

 

I had my mom dig up some photos specific to Utah's National Parks, as we visited National Parks across the states for years, and she sent me these photos from a stop at Bryce Canyon. These photos were from 1983, so they're not the best quality to begin with - and then she scanned them to send to me. I knew they wouldn't print the best, so I decided to go with a digital layout. In my experience, I find that old photos tend to look a smidge better printed when they're worked into collage templates. 

 

 

I settled on an 8.5x11" two page spread, starting with a template from Kerri's Storyboard #4 kit for the right page. For the left page, I used a template from the Half Pints: Wander kit. While the Half Pint templates are 6x8" in size, I was able to easily crop one into an 8.5x11" size. I added my photos into the two templates, tweaking one of the photo openings on the first page to make it longer as I didn't want to crop too much out of the photo. 

 

 

I used the new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set to add my title along the top of the first page, as well as the arches, which I changed the color on to make it match the arches in my photos.

 

 

I used the Block Party digital stamp set to add the year, 1983, to the bottom of the first page, and used the PNG file from the Summer Vibes kit to add "summer" next to the year. Lastly, I used the And So The Adventure Begins kit to add a filler card to the center opening of the collage on the second page. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: One More Cuddle

 

Hey everyone! I've got a new 6x8" spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio. As soon as I saw Kerri's new Hey Kiddo stamp set, I knew that it would be perfect for so many photos and stories that I still have to document. Late last year, I closed up my home daycare business after 17 years. While my daycare kiddos have moved on and are spending their days with new daycare providers and new friends, I still have some stories that I want to get down from my time with them. 

 

But first up, I decided to get some current feelings down on a page, about how much I miss them. In all honesty, I don't miss the job itself. But I most definitely miss those cute little humans! I used the digital Hey Kiddo stamp set to create a 6x8" spread digitally in Photoshop and then printed it out to add into my album. 

 

 

I used an enlarged 6x8" photo for the left side of the spread, picking out one of my favorite photos that sums up the cuddles that I miss from all of those kiddos. I used the digital "cuddle" stamp for my title, along with the heart stamp, changing them both to white and adding a drop shadow to help them stand out a little more. I also lowered the opacity on the heart to make it a bit more subtle, as to not distract from the title. 

 

 

I created a large "journaling card" for the right side of my spread, starting with Kerri's Journaling Template, which I cropped to a 6x8" size. I added a black and white diagonal stripe border across the top, using the Simple Staples kit. Then I got to work on my journaling, keeping in mind some of the Hey Kiddos digital stamp words/phrases that I wanted to work into my journaling.

 

 

I love how easy it is to tweak digital elements to fit your needs - like how I added an extra "s" to the "cutest human ever" phrase to have it read "cutest humans ever" (because I watched a lot of little humans!). 

 

 

I changed the colors on my digital stamps so that the words would stand out more, pulling the green and burgundy from my photo.

 

 

Once I had everything done to my liking, I printed the left page (my enlarged photo) on photo paper, and the right page (my journaling) on textured cardstock. Once trimmed, I simply slipped them into my 6x8" album. So happy to have documented some current feelings that have been on my mind!

 

Digital Project Share: 2017 / 2018 Shows

Hey everyone! I'm back to share a project that has been on my mental to-do list for well over a year. About two years ago, I created a travelers notebook projects, documenting my favorite TV shows from the 2016 / 2017 season (seen HERE). And about four years ago, I created a 6x8" pocket page spread documenting a handful of my favorite TV shows from the 2014 / 2015 season (seen HERE). 

Being a self-proclaimed TV junkie, I love the idea of documenting my favorite shows every year. While I loved the two previous projects that I've made, I really wanted to settle on a format that I could easily add to each year going forward. I tossed several ideas around. Did I want to keep going with the travelers notebook, knowing that I would be able to fit two years into each notebook? And just have a stack of notebooks that I could keep together in a basket or box? Or did I want to go with a 6x8" album, or maybe a 6x12" album? 

After much back and forth with myself (tell me I'm not the only one that talks things out with herself?), I finally settled on a 6x8" album. I knew that I wanted to create my pages digitally, so the first thing I had to decide on was what templates I would be using. I have a pretty big collection of digital templates, in a variety of sizes. I narrowed down my search to the 6x8" kits I had, and finally settled on a few template kits from Cathy Zielske - specifically her Six By Eight kits.

Her Six By Eights No. 06 kit was what really made up my mind, since the templates had the days of the week, which fit this project perfectly. I loved the format I used when I broke down my shows by what days they were on. So my plan was to use the template with the day of the week on the left side of the spread, and then to use a second template for the right side of the spread. Between all of the Six By Eight kits that I have, there were plenty of options, depending on how many photos I needed to include. 

I started this project the same way I started it the last time. By making a list of my shows, and which day they usually air. Now, this is documenting my 2017 / 2018 shows. Luckily, I made my list last year, as I knew this was a project I would get to at some point. But I will say it is SO much easier to make this list during the year, while your shows are on - as opposed to waiting and trying to go back and figure out what shows you watched (as we all know shows have a way of disappearing).

I even went into my DVR at one point, to check out my massive list of shows I record, to make sure I didn't miss any. When I did this project the last time, using the travelers notebook, I was limited in how many images/shows I could include for each day. So I had actually left out quite a few of my regular shows. This time around, I managed to include every single show that was on my regular "must see tv" schedule. 

On a few of the collages, I actually combined a few spaces in the templates to fit my photo needs. Like on the right page of my Tuesday spread. It had 12 squares, but I only needed 10 spaces. So I combined two squares to make a longer photo and then repeated it on another row as well.  

Once I had my list in front of me, I went looking for my images. Just as I did two years ago, I found all of my images using Google photos. For the most part, I just searched the name of the show, along with "cast", "logo", or "poster". I actually still had all of the images that I had used two years ago, so I added those into my folders as well. But I made an effort to find updated images, and at some point, I realized that adding in the year (for this, I added 2017) would often give me options that actually fit the show's season better. 

I downloaded several images for every show on my list, knowing that some images might be too small to use or may not be the right orientation once I started creating my collages. While I knew that the majority of my images would be squares, I also had some horizontal and vertical spots within the templates. It was easier to just download a ton of options while I was doing my search, than to have to go back and do a second search if the choices I had didn't work. 

I created a folder on my computer for each day of the week. Excluding Saturday, because that's the one day of the week when I don't have any set shows on. Once I had images for every show on my list, I counted how many shows I had to work with for each day, and then picked the templates to fit the number of shows. Then I would open up my two templates for the day I wanted to work on, and start plugging images in, moving them around as needed until I liked the way they were laid out. 

8

Thursday is a BIG night for shows. I feel like it always has been. Lol. I have a TON of shows on Thursdays. Since I didn't want to leave any shows out, I decided to add two 3x8" collages as well, adding a 3x8" page protector in between the two sides of the spread.

To create these smaller collages, I used the 3x8 Everyday Layered Photo Templates kit by In A Creative Bubble. I was able to include 3 additional photos on each collage, which meant I included 6 additional shows by adding in the 3x8" insert. 

The final step was to add some digital patterned papers to the leftover spaces within the templates. The larger area on the left page, under the day of the week, was meant for journaling. I could have easily used that space for an additional photo/show, but I didn't even think about that until I was done adding in all of my images. But I loved the idea of adding in a touch of patterned paper. I also had a few days where I had an empty space on the right page of the spread (like on the Friday page above), so I added some digital patterned paper there as well. 

I printed all of my collages on my photo printer, trimmed them, and slipped them into a 6x8" album. And I love the end result! I'm actually going to be adding my 2016 / 2017 collages to this album as well. I had already re-printed my collages last year, as I was going to switch them into a new travelers notebook (the one that I originally used was a cheap one I got off Amazon). I realized that I could easily work them onto 6x8" pages, and fit them into this same album. Since I really want to keep these all together and add to it each year. 

And I already have my list of shows written out for the 2018 / 2019 season. I'm not quite ready to start that just yet, as there are still some of my regular shows that haven't even started yet this season (why do some start so late now?), and there are new ones just coming on that I know I'm going to love as well. But having the list handy, and being able to add to it as needed, gives me a great head start for when I am ready to complete my pages for this awesome TV season ;)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Currently Fixing and Building All The Things

Hey everyone! I have a new pocket page spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. This is a 6x12" pocket page spread that will go in my personal album, and I added in a 4x11" insert as well. 

With our recent move a few months ago came lots and lots of projects that needed doing once we were in the new-to-us house. Little projects and big projects. I had lots of help on many of the projects from my very handy family - my mom can fix/build just about anything, my brother is the same, and my dad is a pro at the outdoor/yard stuff. But I'm also proud to say that I took on a ton of the projects myself, as I'm the handy one in our little family. 

I realized I had quite a few photos I had taken while working on these projects, and thought it would be fun to create a pocket page spread about some of the projects that I both tackled AND accomplished. 

I printed my photos as 3x3's and 3x4's and slipped them into the pockets, leaving a few empty so that I could add in my title card and a few filler cards. I decided to go digital with these cards, using a mix of Kerri's designs and a few digital papers that I happen to have in my digital collection. 

To create my title card, I used a graph patterned paper for the background, along with a small strip of woodgrain patterned paper along the bottom. I used the PNG file for "currently", taken from the Grammar School: The Adverbs kit, and added in "all the things" using the Digital Stamps: Home kit to create the main part of my title (I added the "fixing and building" using the text tool and a fun font). 

I cropped the What's Next digital card into a 3x3" square, and used it as is in one pocket. I decided to put it in the bottom right corner of the second page of the spread - kind of like "ok, I'm done with all of these projects, so what's next?" ;)

I wanted a black background to go with the Can't Stop Me, so I copied part of the black distressed background from the "What's Next" card and sized it to fit my 3x4" background before adding the "Can't Stop Me" PNG file (which I changed to white) to complete my filler card. 

I also printed a 1x4" strip of that same black distressed part of the What's Next card to add to the top of my larger 4x8" photo that I printed for the backside of the insert page.

I added some tiny alpha stickers from Making Memories along the top, tucking them under the top edge of the photo.

I printed my journaling to fit the 4x11" insert. I was originally going to make it a 4x12" insert, but I realized I had some 8.5x11 page protectors, and decided to cut down one of those instead of a full 12x12" page protector. I machine stitched down the side of the journaling card, and then trimmed off the excess to make the custom sized page protector. 

On the front side of the insert, I added my journaling page, adding a strip of the woodgrain digital patterned paper that I used on the title card. Try and ignore the extra holes from when I stapled the woodgrain paper in the wrong spot, making my page too short for the page protector. Lol. 

I had one more 3x3" pocket to fill, so I created a background using the woodgrain digital patterned paper, and added the cute sketch house from the Digital Stamps: Gather kit (which I changed to white). 

I love pulling Kerri's designs together, both her cut files (and the PNG's that go with them) and her digital stamps, to fit the needs of whatever project I'm working on. There are times when I'm all about working with physical papers and products, and using my Silhouette to die cut designs - and there are times when I'm all about working digitally, using Photoshop to create what I need. And I love that Kerri's designs offer the flexibility to be used in so many ways!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Merry Christmas

I've got a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. While I'm fairly settled into my new scrapbook room, in the new house, I wasn't quite ready to scrap with paper and glue just yet. Things are all put away and the room is clean, but that doesn't exactly mean that I know where everything is or that it's organized the right way ;) So when it came time to create something for Kerri this month, I decided to go digital.

I'll be honest. I'm not one that scrapbooks much about Christmas, other than creating a layout or two each year with any photos that we take at family get-togethers. However, as I was prepping our family's Christmas cards to send out to family and friends a few weeks ago, I realized it was a tradition that was worth documenting. I've made it a habit to make sure that we take a few family photos on Thanksgiving day, so that we would have a photo all ready to go for ordering Christmas cards. I usually end up ordering them that very night, if not the next day. I always love getting our cards out as early as I can. 

I decided to create a digital 6x8" two page layout, as we recently moved and I'm still trying to get situated in my scrapbook room and am not quite ready to play with paper and scissors just yet ;) I used two different templates from the Half Pints: Wander kit to create my two page spread. I included our family photo for this year, along with our photos from the last two years. 

I came across the "did this" image from the Deck The Halls digital stamp kit and knew it would be perfect to include, adding a little digital check mark from the Versed: Note It digital stamp kit. I also added the years to each of the photos, using both the Label Maker digital stamp kit and the Side By Side digital stamp kit. 

I added the wreath above my journaling using a digital stamp from the Bundled Up digital stamp kit. On the first page, I created my title using PNG files from the Christmas Calendar kit.

I typed my journaling on the second page, using the text box that Kerri included within the template. I printed both 6x8" pages of my two page spread. Once I add this layout into my 6x8" family album (or my December Daily - which I have started, but time will tell if I stick with it), I will also be adding all three coinciding Christmas cards that go with those three family photos. 

Craft The Story: Ali Edwards - Details

Hey everyone! I've got another layout to share, and it seems fitting that I'm sharing it this week. Seeing as how the story behind the photos started almost a full year ago. The week after Thanksgiving 2016 to be exact. That is when I started a journey to become a healthier version of myself. 

I've never been one to talk about my weight, or even to acknowledge that I had gained weight over the last 6-7 years. It's been in the back of my head for years that I needed to do something about it, but I never got motivated enough to even try. Until a year ago, when one of my closest friends started her own weight loss journey. And in hearing a bit about the program she was doing, I knew that it would be the perfect fit for me. 

I never took actual before photos. But I had taken photos with the girls on Mother's Day this year, and I noticed that in the photo of Sarah and I, we were posed exactly the same as we were in the photo we took on Thanksgiving last year. So I made her take another photo with me in October, after I reached my goal weight. 

I started on this program the week after Thanksgiving, and started working towards my first goal. Which I met back in April. I then took a two month break, doing my best on my own to make healthy choices and maintain my weight. But I also knew deep down that I still had some more weight that I wanted to lose. You see, I ended up having to replace pretty much my entire wardrobe. I had some clothes saved from years ago, when I was smaller. But I'm also smaller now than I've been in forever and ever. So my choices were limited as I lost more weight. So since I was replacing almost everything, I knew that I wanted to get down to where I really, really wanted to be - so that I could make the most of my purchases with that end goal/size in mind. 

So I went back on the program towards the end of June, and met my final goal at the beginning of October. And while start to finish, it took me 10 months to reach my final goal, with the intentional breaks that I took along the way (including the two month break), I actually only spend 6 of those 10 months actively trying to lose weight. I ended with a 55 pound weight lose, and I'm very proud of it. 

So, on to the actual layout. I was looking thru the Details Story Kit from Ali Edwards, and realized it would be a great way to document my story. There's a lot more that I could share/document about this weigh lose journey, but I wanted to at least get some facts down. Some quick details. 

I have the actual Story Kit, and was planning on creating a traditional layout. But I've also gotten used to doing a lot of my planning either in Photoshop or in my Silhouette software (that's usually if I'm planning on die cutting something). Since I also have the digital version of the Story Kit, I was playing around in Photoshop, mapping out my plan. Kind of the same thing as sketching out the plan for the page. 

And at some point, I decided to just make this a fully digital layout. I love playing with paper, but sometimes, I just want to veg out on the couch and do nothing. And part of my version of doing "nothing" is playing around on the computer. So sometimes, digital just appeals to the couch potato in me ;)

I knew that I wanted to use the "details" 4x6" card, with a 4x6" photo underneath, and another 4x6" card from the kit below the photo. 

Since I had three photos that I collaged together onto one 4x6" photo, I knew that this 4x6" card from the kit would work perfectly paired up with it. The 01, 02, and 03 divided sections allowed me to document some details to go along with each of the photos. 

I recently read a comment from someone that had lost a lot of weight, and they said it should be socially acceptable to wear the size label that comes on new clothes out in public. Wear it proudly. And I guess that's why I wanted to document my starting weight/sizes, and where I'm at now. I'm not one to pat myself on the back often, but I am so freaking proud of myself for accomplishing this goal and getting to where I am. I may not be proud of where I started, but I'm proud of where I ended up. 

In every Story Kit, there is a marketing card that includes a photographic image with a quote on one side, and some info about the theme of the kit on the other side. The card in this kit had a floral image along with a quote, and I thought the colors in the flowers went well with my photos. 

So I selected the top part of the card, and used it to create a border along the top and bottom of the page. Since the card was six inches wide, I just pasted it twice along the top and twice along the bottom. I added in a scalloped border along the top and bottom as well, and picked out a digital patterned paper for the base of my page. 

The nice thing about using digital elements is that you can size them however you'd like. The physical chipboard circle pieces are a good size, but I was able to use them larger digitally. The same goes for the "why", "what", and "when" cards. I sized them to fit onto the page to my liking, and once I was happy with them, I then typed up my journaling on each card. 

I know that, if you're like me, when you hear about someone losing a lot of weight, and doing it successfully, you kind of want to know how they did it. Like I said, I wish I could say that I did it all on my own, but I didn't. I did use a food program, and that program was something that I choose to invest in. I believe in this program 100%, and I know it works. If you work it and commit to it. And I was fully committed, 110%, when I was on the plan. I never cheated. Not even once. Which is why it worked. 

If any of you are sincerely interested in more info about the program that I used, feel free to email me and I can share a bit more about it with you. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Home

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. So, I'm sure you've all noticed that I've gone back and forth a lot this past year - between making traditional layouts, working in my 9x12" Project Life album, creating 6x12" and 6x8" pocket page spreads, and I even gave the traveler's notebooks a try.

Along the way, I'm finding that I gravitate towards certain formats and certain sizes more than others. After 24+ years of scrapbooking, and focusing mainly on creating 12x12" layouts all those years, the pocket page albums and smaller sized formats really speak to me lately. That's not to say I'm giving up on traditional layouts at all (I know many of you come looking for those). But I have to go with what inspires me, when it inspires me, because that's when I'm creating things that truly mean something to me.

So when I set out to create this layout, I decided to create a 6x8" two page spread. I created a layout recently with a similar design - 6x8" photo on one side, and 6x8" journaling page on the other side - and I really love the way it looked. This design works really well when you have that one special photo, and a lot to say about it!

The photo I used for this layout was taken almost a year ago, as we took it on Thanksgiving day 2016. And I'm planning on having us take another one on Thanksgiving day next week, as a lot has changed since then. And it means I'll get Christmas cards ordered and sent off in a timely matter as well ;)

I wanted to create my title directly on the photo, before printing. Did you know that when you purchase Kerri's kits, you not only get the cut files to use with your Silhouette or other cutting machines, but you also get the PNG files that can be used digitally? I used the PNG file for the word "home" from Kerri's Giving Thanks kit and centered it along the bottom of my photo. I also used two digital stamps for the subtitle, both taken from the Oh Yeah digital stamp kit, to add a subtitle under the word "home". 

There were many things I could have wrote about for this photo. Part of the reason I used the word "home" for my title, was because I knew that I wanted to use the fun house stamp from one of Kerri's newest stamp sets. And I knew I could work my journaling around the theme of home and family. 

I'm sure this goes without saying, but hopefully you all know that all of these digital stamp kits have REAL stamp sets that you can purchase as well. I was actually waiting for the new stamp set to arrive before I started my project, but then decided to switch it up and use the digital stamps. And of course, as my life goes, the stamps arrived in the mail last night, right after I finished this project. Lol.

For my journaling page, I added a few digital patterned paper strips, from A Traveler's Pack: Splendid kit, along the bottom of the page. It's cut off a bit in the photo above, but I added the grey dotted paper, and the black days of the week strip. The scalloped border was from an old digital kit in my stash, which I did in the same green as the heart. 

How cute is that house?! It's from Kerri's new Gather Together digital stamp kit, and I think it's just adorable. I sized it to fit in the lower right corner of the page, and changed it to a navy blue to tie in with the jeans that Joe and I were wearing in the photo. 

The heart and the "this photo" are digital stamps taken from Kerri's One Fine Day digital stamp kit. I kept the "this photo" black, but changed the heart to green, to tie in with all of the green in the photo. I sized them to fit in the upper left corner of the page. I added two grey enamel dots to the heart after I had printed my page out (they look green here, but they're grey). 

 

Once I had my journaling all typed up, I also added one last digital stamp to complete the last sentence. It was a total last minute thought, and I'm glad I did it. I used the "happy place" from the Gather Together digital stamp kit, in green to match the heart and the scalloped border.  

I'm certainly not turning into a digital-only scrapper or anything. Just in case anyone was worried about that ;) I know I've done quite a few projects lately that incorporate a lot of digital elements. But I have to say, I really enjoy it. Sometimes, I just have no desire (or no energy) to go into my scrapbook room, dig through product, and try and create something. But I can totally sit on the couch, while watching my shows, and play around in Photoshop!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Food Glorious Food

Hey everyone! I didn't think it would take me this long to get a new post up. I was just saying the other day that I haven't done anything creative in at least two weeks. And while a part of me feels guilty about that, there's also a part of me that's totally OK with that. I've just had other things that I've been more focused on, most of it just things around the house that needed some attention. I always feel so much more at peace when the house is in order, so taking care of that stuff is always a good thing in my book :)

The good news is that I finally created something this weekend. Which means that I finally have something new to share! I've got a new pocket page spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. It took me way longer to create than it should have, but I'm super happy with how it turned out. 

It's been a while since I've added to my 6x12" personal album (pocket pages) that I started about a year ago, so when I was tossing ideas around for what to create for Kerri this month, it felt like a good time to add to that album. I realized that I had shared quite a few "in the kitchen" type photos on Instagram over the last month or two, and I thought they would work perfectly to document one of my newest routines in the kitchen. 

I've actually got a few ideas for things I'd like to document that revolve around food. I started this spread with one idea, and it somehow turned into something totally different than what I had in mind going into it. I've always loved this "food glorious food" design, that was part of Kerri's The History Project workshop, and finally had a chance to use it. 

I started by picking out four photos that told the story I was looking to tell. I have taken quite a few photos in this same spot in my kitchen, with food/meals on the stovetop, so the photos all go really well together. I wanted to add a little something to my photos digitally, before printing them out, and settled on the fun labels in Kerri's Recipe Cards kit. I added the label to each photo, and then added text to the labels to specify what each meal in the photo was. 

While I was digging around in the Recipe Cards kit, I realized the recipe cards themselves would be perfect for the journaling cards. I love how you can pick the background for each card, and then just plop on the filler card, which is the ruled part of the journaling card.

I created two cards that would coordinate with my photos - one 4x6" card, which I used for my journaling, and one 3x4" card, which I ended up using as more of a filler card. I used a digital stamp (the "{heart} food" stamp) from Kerri's Digital Stamps: Thankful set on the recipe label at the top of the journaling card. 

Since I didn't end up needing to add any extra journaling to this spread, I used the 3x4" recipe card as more of a filler card. I like that it tied in with the recipe card/journaling card on the first page of the spread. I remembered these fun little wood veneer silverware pieces from one of Ali Edward's Story kits, and knew they would be perfect to add to this filler card. 

Since I was already in Photoshop, adding digital elements to my photos and creating the digital journaling cards, I decided to just go ahead and create the rest of my filler cards digitally as well. I wanted to create a few 3x4" patterned paper filler cards and my 4x6" title card, so I used print and cut files from Kerri's This & That: Autumn and This & That: School kits to create my own "patterned paper".

I then added a brushscript word to each card, using the Tasty kit, as the "breakfast", "lunch", and "dinner" words worked perfectly for my photos. 

Once I had printed out all of my photos, digital journaling cards, and digital filler cards, all I had to do was add a few simple wood veneer embellishments to a few cards and slip everything into the pocket pages. If you've never though to try using Kerri's designs digitally, I encourage you to give it a try. I love that it gives you even more fun ways to use her kits!

Digital Layout Share: Here We Go

Hey all! I hate that I haven't been blogging. I miss it. Another thing that I've been missing? Scrapbooking. In the last 5 months, I have only created 4 layouts and 3 pocket page spreads. That's it, layout wise. And one of those layouts and one of those pocket page spreads I am unable to share in full. There's plenty of other projects that I've been working on, and I should really get each of them to the point where I can share what I've been doing. Instead of waiting to have the project fully finished. 

I mentioned in THIS POST, at the start of the year, that I was debating whether I want to do my Project Life albums this year with physical products - or digitally, with the Project Life app. I'm still debating if I'm being honest. I already had all of my January photos printed, just in case I want to do physical albums. I also dumped all of my January photos onto my iPad, just in case I want to use the Project Life app. Decisions, decisions. 

I have been playing with the app, creating a few pages here and there. Not necessarily pages for my Project Life album. More like digital layouts. I had quite a few soccer photos from January, so I thought why not toss together a quick page. 

There are things that I love about using the app to get pages done. It's incredibly easy. I can do it wherever, whenever. The fact that I can do it while sitting on the couch, watching my shows - that's awesome to me. It's simpler. There's no printing photos, digging out supplies, die cutting titles (because that's what I love to do), fussing around with pieces, printing journaling, photographing the layout, etc, etc. 

Yet I do miss playing with paper, die cutting fun titles, digging thru my supplies and picking out the perfect pieces to match my photos. I just miss getting in my room and getting creative. The hard part is that I just don't seem to find the time to do that as much as I used too. Or when I do have time, I'm too tired to go in there. Also, there's no TV in there, and that certainly doesn't help ;) 

I'm just rambling. But at least I have a layout to share, right? I also promise to be back Monday, with a recap of my time at CHA two weeks ago. And I'm going to do my best to get one of my album projects ready to share later next week. If I wait till they're totally done, they'll never get shared. Lol.

Last Minute Holiday Card

It's Christmas Eve and I'm blogging. What the heck? This year is a repeat of last Christmas Eve. The girls are with Alyssa's dad, celebrating the holiday with her grandparents. Joe's sleeping and working, as he works the entire holiday week. He'll be working tonight, and Christmas night as well. So I'm just hanging out at the house, wrapping a few gifts, making a few last gifts, and watching Christmas movies. So I figured I would pop in here really quick and share a last minute holiday card idea. It's not too late to throw something together, as I just did this yesterday. 

A bit part of the reason that I fail so miserable at sending out Christmas cards is that I don't always have a good photo to use. With the girls being older, I hardly get any photos of them throughout the year to begin with. So I don't usually have photos on hand to pull together for a fun little photo collage or something. And the only time we seem to get a family photo is when we get together for Christmas. There's always seems to be too much going on in life, that we just put off getting a photo taken for a card, and then before you know it, it's just too late.

The girls went to Magic Mountain (a big amusement park a few hours from here) last weekend, and when I saw this photo they took, I knew it would solve my problem. It's not what I might typically use for a Christmas card, but I thought it was a super cute photo and I figured it was a guaranteed way for me to get a card made to send out this year. 

I browsed the designs online at Costco, which is where I normally order my cards, but didn't see anything that I cared for and that would work well with my photo. I've designed my own Christmas cards before, so I knew it would be super easy to do again.

I dug through my kits from Kerri Bradford Designs, looking for designs I could incorporate into my card design. When you purchase Kerri's kits, you get her designs as PNG files as well as the cut files. The PNG files can be used digitally, which gives you more ways to incorporate them into projects. I didn't start out with all of these picked out when I started. But they're all the pieces I ended up with, including the digital stitches and staple that I pulled from my stash of digital kits.

I started with a sentiment from the Merry Everything kit. I actually started with "Merry Christmas", but since I won't even be mailing these out until after Christmas, I decided to go with the "Merry Everything" instead. I just think it's a cute little sentiment.

The PNG's will often be certain colors (or the standard black) once you pull them into Photoshop. But you can easily change them to whatever color you need by using the "color overlay" option. I went with a dark aqua to go with the ornaments on the trees. I also added a little drop shadow to the sentiment.

I thought the dotted overlay from the Magicalness kit would be fun to use over the entire photo. I layered it onto the "background" layer, so that the sentiment was still on the top layer (otherwise, the title would have been covered by the dots).

I didn't want the dots to cover up the girls, so I used the rectangular marquee tool to select any of the dots that I wanted to remove, and simply deleted them.

I also changed the opacity (down to about 82%) so that the dots were a little more subtle.

I knew I wanted to add a little something to the side of the photo, and that I needed to incorporate a little red into the design. I pulled up the red dotted card from the Hello December kit, and selected just a small strip of it to add along the right edge of the photo (I turned the image here, just so that it fit better on the screen). I sized it to fit, and then changed the opacity so that it had a clearer look to it. Kind of gives a washi tape look to it, right?

I pulled up one of my digital zigzag stitches in grey, and added that along the edge of the red dotted paper, to give it a more finished look.

The upper left corner needed a little something, so I pulled up this cute little tag from the Attach It kit and resized it to fit along the edge of the photo. I changed the opacity on the tag as well, just as I did on the overlay and the red dotted paper.

The tag starts out yellow, but I changed it to the same dark aqua color that I made my sentiment. It's easy to make things the same exact colors, when you use the color code # that comes up once you pick your color. You just copy that color code # into the box on your next item, and it uses the same color.

I used the text tool to add a secondary little sentiment and our names. This is the font that just popped up when I started typing, so I just went with it. The fewer decisions I had to make on this, the quicker I got it done.

The little hole in the tag neeed something, so I added two small digital staples.

And ta-da, the finished card. I spent about half an hour on this, and put my order right into Costco. No overthinking on this, and it feels good to know that after a two year break, I can finally sent out some cards again to family and friends. They might not arrive until after New Year's, but that's more than ok with me!

And with that, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas!  May your time spent with family and friends this Christmas holiday be magical and full of great memories.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Framed Prints

When Kerri asked us to "think outside the box" for our projects this month, my mind immediately went to wall art. I have quite a few walls that need a little something to complete them, but I decided to focus on the kitchen instead. Well over four years ago, I re-did my kitchen, and I picked out a ton of picture frames to display in the area above my kitchen cabinets. It's taken me forever to actually fill those frames.

In fact, over a year ago, I did a post about the status of those frames, which you can read HERE. It's kind of funny, yet kind of pathetic, that so many of those frames remained totally emtpy for almost four full years. I'm so glad Kerri inspired me to work on getting them all filled up.

I put in a request to Kerri for a kitchen/food themed kit of her fabulous hand written, brush script words, and she came back a few days later with her new Tasty kit. I did come across some other words and phrases in other kits, and even some of her freebies, that would have worked for this project. But I really love the kit Kerri put together, so I stuck with that kit for my word choices.

Because these frames sit high up in the kitchen, I knew that I really didn't need to spend time cutting out the words and piecing paper products together to fill those frames, as no one would be seeing them up close. So I decided to make some digital prints, using the PNG files of her designs.

I love the chalkboard look that is so trendy right now, and knew that I could use the hand drawn brush script words to give that same sort of chalkboard look I was going for. I love adding in black and white prints, canvases, and photos in my home décor, since I have a lot of light oak furniture that I can't do much about right now. Adding in lots of black around my home has helped balance out those lighter items. 

I pulled up two different black digital patterned papers to use as my backgrounds. I actually ended up using the same patterned paper for almost all of my prints, as it just worked really well and had a bit of a distressed look to it.  

I created the "canvases" I'd be working on, depending on the size of the frames. To be honest, I did this step several times, as I looked up at the frames on top of the cabinets and just sort of eye-balled what size they were. And turns out, I eye-balled wrong on a few of them. I ended up with an 8x8" print, a 10x10" print, a 12x12" print, and a 10x13" print. For each of these, I pasted on the digital black patterned paper to fill the canvas.

I then added one of Kerri's overlays from her Magicalness kit to each canvas, placing it over the black digital patterned paper. I did lower the opacity to about 20% to make the overlay a bit more subtle, and so that my word would stand out more. I stuck with the polka dot overlay, the chevron overlay, the diagonal stripe overlay, and the heart overlay.

I then added my word of choice to the center of the canvas, changing the color overlay to white and adding a small drop shadow to the word as well. I sized my words as large as I could to fit the space. Once I was done, I flattened all my layers and uploaded my final prints to Costco and placed my order.

I also put together the "get in ma belly" print, which used the same basic design idea, but has a different look since it's not black. I pulled the yellow damask patterned paper from Kerri's Love: Every Little Thing kit, and added a digital ruled line overlay along with a heart overlay from the Magicalness kit.

I went with a little different look for this frame, which is on a little ledge by my countertop. I loved the "breakfast", "lunch", and "dinner" words from the Tasty kit and wanted to use them all together on a print. Btw, this was the one print that I used the second black digital patterned paper on. It had a bit of a paper bag look to it.

I added the little hand drawn boxes found in Kerri's Design Secrets Class Extras (if you haven't taken this class, you can purchase the kit thru today as part of her birthday celebration sale). I was debating putting something in those boxes, like a check mark or something, but in the end my family thought it looked good as-is. So I left it.

I love how simple and easy these were to complete. Because I stuck to the same basic idea, and used lots of the same elements (the same black digital patterned papers, the overlays, and hand drawn brush script words), I was able to create these in just minutes once I had the idea down.

  

I also created two BIG prints for my family room, using the exact same ideas. I went with two 18x24" prints, and I just love how they turned out. I pulled the "gotta love this" from Kerri's Something To Say kit, and the "be your self" from Kerri's Happy Stuff kit.

Knowing that you can use Kerri's cuts as digital files as well opens up a world of possibilities for creating your own wall art and home décor! I love what these have added to my home.

And don't forget that today is the last day of Kerri's 4th birthday celebration sale. She's offering 30% off the entire store on all orders over $15 - just use coupon code BIRTHDAY4 :)

Hello Funniness: A Digital Layout

I was wracking my brain tonight, trying to think of something quick that I could blog about. I couldn't come up with anything, and didn't have any projects laying around to share. So on a whim, I decided to toss together a digital layout.

Which is exactly what this is. A layout that I threw together in less than 30 minutes. Most of the pieces, with the exeption of two of the "laugh lots" and "hello funniess" pieces, came from one kit (Dear Diary, by Studio Basic). That helps speed up the process, since my collection of digital supplies is HUGE and takes me forever to dig through.

I should have added a little bit of journaling, even just a sentence or two, but that would have ended up taking me an additional 30 minutes. Lol.

A Couple Of Digital Boy Layouts

Computers. I don't know about you all, but I have this love/hate relationship with my laptop. I love it to death. When it works and does all of the stuff I want it to do. I hate it with a passion. When it gives me problems, and won't let me do the things that I normally do. And lately, I'm definately leaning more on the "hate" side of our relationship. So frustrating.

I've been in this funk lately. I havn't done any actual scrapping in almost 2 full weeks. So weird for me to go that long without cutting paper and gluing stuff. The craziness of life is wearing on me. Girls back in school. Soccer in full swing. Daycare kids running me wild. Scrapping jobs sucking down my creative energy. Just been really, really tired lately, which makes me avoid my scraproom. So last night, I thought I would make a few quick digital layouts, just to do something creative.

Meet Mateo. He's been with me for about six months now, and he's just about 10 months old. He is unbelievably adorable! And such a great baby. I really love this age, where they are developing such strong personalities. I love that he is more mobile, crawling around, pulling himself up, cruising around the furniture. But that also means he can get to where he wants to go. And that's usually straight to me. Lol. He loves to hang on me, and have me sit and play with him. Which is all good. Except that sometimes, I do actually have to get stuff done around here. But it's so hard to resist that cute little face!

As for the layout. I have used this digital template before for another layout (seen HERE). I love this template, and figured I would just use it again, for both of these new layouts. It's not like these layouts will be side by side in my albums, so it's totally fine with me to use the same basic design.

I've already introduced you to Zachary. He's getting so big. He's two and a half now, and he's a real character. While we tell Mateo how adorable he is all day, we tell Zachary how hilarious he is all day. On days when he's not here, it's so quiet and sometimes a bit boring. He definitely livens up this joint, and keeps us laughing. He's even funny when he's trying to be all serious. He gives us these straight faces, with the pouty lips and one raised eyebrow, and we just bust up laughing because he's so funny.

And if Photoshop had let me finish this layout, and add my journaling, it would have said something to that effect. How he makes us laugh all the time. BUT. Photoshop kicked me out last night.

As in, it literally kicked me out and apparently decided to un-do my layout that I had saved and re-saved about 10 times as I created it. When I went to open it this morning, my file showed nothing but a red line on it. Lovely (said sarcastically, in case you didn't pick up on that).

So I pulled up everything I had picked out for this layout last night, and re-created it this morning. However, I cannot get into my folder that has all of my digital journaling stuff. That's the same folder that started locking up my computer last night. So I gave up on the journaling for now. Just imagine that I have journaling strips on that blue diagonal striped paper. If I can get it all working later, I'll swap out the finished layout.

 

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.

{for whatever reason, this shows better when you click on it}

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)