Keeper of the Scrapbook

More Digital Scrapbooking!

I am entering the 3^rd week of my second class learning digital scrapbooking with Photoshop Elements 6. The class is Now We’re Rocking and is taught by Jessica Sprague on her website www.jessicasprague.com.

 

Our lesson for last week covered how to make really cool journaling strips, put 4 pictures into a circular template and how to give our photo edges’ a grungy look. Very fun stuff!

 

But wait, what about all my Stampin’ Up stuff you ask? Well I have not given up paper scrapbooking at all. I’m just busy learning right now. After I finish this class I really want to do my hybrid (incorporate digital and paper) scrapbooking.

 

So, what are some of the things I really enjoy about digital scrapbooking??

• No mess!
• It’s quicker because it is all on the computer.
• Much easier to choose a picture because they are all on the computer and you don’t have to search for them or get them printed first.
• Love the ability to change colors of paper and elements digitally to coordinate with whatever I’m doing.
• It’s just fun putting the pages together!

 

I really only see a couple of negatives to digital scrapbooking and they are…

• Way to easy to shop online and spend a fortune! LOL!! (Maybe I am the only one with that problem? And honestly it’s not like I didn’t spend a fortune on paper/stamps!)
• Unless you incorporate some hybrid elements or you’re really good the pages may look a little flat – like a magazine ad.

 

The digital scrapbooking community is awesome. I recently enjoyed a chat/challenge on www.scrapgirls.com where the challenge was to scrap a background for our desktop. How cool is that?? I don’t like too busy of a desktop so mine was very simple but some of these ladies are amazing! I also really love the gallery/community at www.DesignerDigitals.com. They are very friendly and helpful. Oh yeah, in case you are interested Ali Edwards just started offering some digital templates and they are for sale at Designer Digitals. Awesome stuff!

 

That’s it for now, I’m outta here!

 

Marcie

Page below is my week 2 midweek assignment.

 

The things we buy & why...

Have you ever gotten into a rut with your scrapbooking or card making? Well I have! As I was finishing my youngest son’s graduation album I noticed that several pages had the same basic layout and design. The book looks great but it made me realize that I needed to change up my style a little. So while browsing through the Big Picture Scrapbooking site (http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com) I found a class called Baker’s Dozen that sounded interesting and I decided to take it. The instructor is Darci Dowdle and she is Stacy Julian’s sister. In case you aren’t familiar with the name Stacy Julian she is the founder of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine and the author of the book Photo Freedom from my last post. Darci’s scrapping style is classic and simple but where she really shines is in the concept for her pages. For instance the page posted below is built around a recent family picture and a receipt from my purse. I would NEVER have thought to do that but I love the results! I started scrapbooking to make graduation books for my sons three years ago so most of my scrapbooking has been event based. What I love about Darci and Stacy’s style is that the scrapbooking is based on the people we love and the things relating to us. It is definitely refreshing and eye opening.

 

Big Picture Scrapbooking has ongoing classes that you can take at your convenience, short scheduled workshops, and longer scheduled classes. So if you’re in a rut or just looking for something new check out the Big Picture website for a change of pace.

 

Outta here,

 

Marcie

For this layout we used a recent family photo and a receipt from my wallet. I chose a photo from Gabe’s graduation and receipts that went with the events of the day.

Scrapbook Organization

Over the past six months I have been working to complete my youngest son’s scrapbook for his graduation and I am excited to say that I completed everything except his last two events (still working on those). He was very happy with the album and excited to see it on his display table at graduation. He told me that another parent came up and asked him if I bough the pages premade! NOT! LOL!!

So, as I working on the album I realized I need a better system of organization for both my pictures and future albums. In my search I discovered a couple of things. One of the biggest things is that I am very visual so putting everything away in boxes or closets means “out of sight out of mind” and those things weren’t being used. Another thing I noticed is that many scrapbooking systems tell you to catalog your pictures in boxes, again hidden, so it doesn’t work for me. Then I read an article about a new book by Stacey Julian called Photo Freedom. It is awesome and I highly recommend it. She uses some boxes plus various other storage but she also uses 3 Up photo albums (a 3 Up album is simply a photo album with a slot for 3 pictures per page). For my scrapbook I put all the pictures that I needed to scrap into the 3 Up album by event then when I wanted to scrap an event I simply flipped through the album for the best shots.

A couple of other great ideas from Photo Freedom

1) The scrapbooks are for me and I do not need to make one for every member of my family.

   Note... with digital scrapbooking you can make one page and print as many copies as you need!

2) Each child gets their own scrapbook called ‘School of Life’ about their school years.

3) I do not have to scrapbook chronologically.

4) Many, many other excellent ideas for organizing and scraping your pictures.

Links to Stacy Julian

Book: http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/shop/item.ihtml?idx=738

Website: http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/colorquote.php

Blog: http://stacysbigpicture.typepad.com/

I hope this helps you with your scrapbooking and organization.

Marcie

 

 

Graduation Day all digital layout

I am in my 4th and final week of Jessica Sprague's awesome Up and Running with Photoshop online class. I can not believe how much I have learned in such a short time. Not just about digital scrapbooking but I also have a much better understanding of how to use Photoshop Elements for editing my pictures. I highly recommend the class to anyone who wants to improve their digital scrapbooking or Photoshop skills.

Below is my week for all digital layout using a picture from my youngest son's graduation last week. For the layout we converted the picture to Sepia tone so that it coordinated better with the paper and grid that we used - isn't that cool?!

As far as printing I have heard that Costco prints nice 12x12's for around $3 so that is the first option I will try. Some online options include Shutterfly and Scrapbookpictures.com. I'll let you know about my final results.

Thanks for looking!

Marcie

Finally! A actual paper scrapbook page.

Hello it's me again.

I am working diligently to finish the 'School of Life' scrapbook of my  youngest son's high school graduation which is less than 2 weeks away. Fortunately, I have been working on it for two years so I just need to scrap the current events from these last few months. The pictures from this layout are from spring 2007.

I used all Stampin' Up! supplies except for the 8 dew drops (gotta love those!). Not sure if my colors look true in the photo but the background is Soft Sky, the photo's are matted on Not Quite Navy and Chocolate Chip is used for the borders and accents. Accessories include the large and small star punch and a white gel pen for the journaling.

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.

Marcie

May - Photo a day

Hello!

The idea of a photo-a-day sounds deceptively simple and actually it is but it also forces me to focus on what is happening today that I want to record and remember.  One of the primary reason I decided to participate in the challenge was so that I could get better at capturing everyday life. Guess what? It's working!

I am also taking an online Photoshop course so I decided to combine the two things into the digi page you see below. I promise to post an actual paper layout tomorow. LOL

Outta here,

Marcie

May - Photo a day

Sorry I am so behind on my posting! I have been stamping and scrapping just not posting. :-(

The photo a day is challenging but fun. I am also taking an online class for digital scrapbooking and it is awesome! It is an excellent digi scrapbooking class plus in the process you learn Photoshop Elements. Love it!

Below is my photo for Day 1 and a digital scrapbooking page I made using the picture.

That's it for today. I'll try to post my traditional page tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

Marcie

Photo a day in May

I am joining the awesome Jessica Sprague in a challenge to take a photo a  day in May. I know this month is going to be incredibly busy and I will already be taking pictures so I think it will be a good time to attempt the challenge.

I stumbled onto Jessica's website while blog-surfing photography tips. Every Friday she post a Photoshop Friday tutorial for editing pictures with various versions of Photoshop (including Photoshop Elements which I love!).

Here is a picture of some of the chaperone's from a recent choir trip to Gatlinburg. This picture is actually 2 pictures that I merged so that we could all be in one group shot. (That's me on the far right!)

I'll upload my first May picture tomorrow and also a scrapbook page that I have been working on.

Outta here!

Marcie

Bible Verse Challenge card

I made this card for the monthly Bible Verse challenge on Splitcoaststampers. We have had such amazingly beautiful weather here in central Florida that I wanted something spring like. I really like the way the colors look together and the soft look of the stamped flower over the verse. It was a simple card to make and I will definitely use this color combination again.

Thanks for looking!

Marcie

First digital scrapbooking page

Hello,

Sorry it has been so long since I posted! My son's have kept me busy for the past couple of weeks and that is a good thing. My sons are 17, 19 and 20 and I know I only have a short time left with them all here so I take advantage of times for us to do things together.

I wanted to share my first digital scrapbooking page! I participated in the virtual scrapbooking weekend on Splitcoaststampers over the weekend and one of the challenges was to make a digital page. I have to say I love the ease of manipulating the pictures and the elements but there is definitely a learning curve in working with Photoshop Elements. I used digital scrapbook pages and elements that I got free on the Creating Keepsakes webpage. I will definitely be doing more digital scrapping but my first love will always be the paper and ink! J

Have you tried digital scrapbooking and if so what do you think about it?

See ya!

Marcie