Digital Layout

I have been reorganizing my craft supplies and am inspired to do more scrapbooking. To start, I enjoyed making a digital page inspired by the current challenge to use brads from Pixel Maven's Retreat.

Supplies Used:
My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!
Designer Series Paper/Flirtatious - 3     
Seam Binding Ribbon/Crumb Cake - seam binding (re-colored)     
Seam Binding Ribbon/Crumb Cake - seam binding knot (re-colored)     
Antique Brads - brad 1     
Night of Navy brad (re-colored)     
Melon Mambo brad         
1.25 Square Punch
Card Stock/Wisteria Wonder

I edited my photo and added the frame at Pic Monkey, which is a fun and easy to use website. This was my first time recoloring embellishments in My Digital Studio, which is a neat feature.

Interview with Alex

I found a fun idea on Pinterest to interview your son or daughter around her birthday each year. Here is Alex's interview at age 4:



1. What is your favorite color? Yellow
2. What is your favorite toy? Spiderman
3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Super Why
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Blueberries
6. What is your favorite outfit? Super Fire Shoes (his new sneakers)
7. What is your favorite game? Super Fast (He described it as a police man game.)
8. What is your favorite snack? Crackers
9. What is your favorite animal? Elephant
10. What is your favorite song? A lull-a-bye (did not specify which one though)
11. What is your favorite book? Cars and Trucks and Things that Go by Richard Scarry
12. Who is your best friend? Corin
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios Kix
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with Finn
15. What is your favorite drink? Water
16. What is your favorite holiday? Summer
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Moosey
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Peanut butter and jelly
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Firefighter

I made a quick digital scrapbook page with his interview and a recent picture.

Grateful for you

Yesterday we enjoyed our first Thanksgiving in California. We had a low key day since we are still moving the last of our stuff from the apartment to the house. (It is easy to forget how much stuff you have in your kitchen until it is time to move it all!) We enjoyed lunch and time with John's brother. We bought prepared food from Trader Joe's, so we did not cook a whole turkey this year.

I am still setting up my craft space, but I did make a digital layout with some of my favorite pictures from 2012. I upgraded my Stampin' Up! digital software to MDS 2 since it is currently on sale.

I am also grateful for the long weekend (and so much more)!

Home

I need to pack up my crafts supplies for our upcoming move. Luckily this move is less than 3 miles instead of 1600 some miles! During this transition, I can work on some digital scrapbook pages. This one was inspired by a song that I heard at the beginning of the month:



I made a digital scrapbook page using My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! and a digital stamp from Ali Edwards. I really like photo collages right now and used a variety of photos from this year.

Visits

Last week was my brother's birthday, so I was looking through some photos from his visits to Texas and California over the years. I used some photos in a collage for a quick digital scrapbook page.

It only took me a few more minutes to make another photo collage on Shutterfly and send it to Brendan. Even if you do not scrapbook or do not have time to scrapbook, photo collages are a nice way to put together some photos.

Take Twelve & Lots of Links

Last week, I used the Take Twelve Challenge from Ella Publishing to document one of my last days as a stay-at-home mom. I actually found it challenging to get 12 unique photos of our day. I made a digital layout using My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!, some digital elements from One Little Bird Designs, and some digital stamps from Ali Edwards/Designer Digitals. I edited the photos in Pic Monkey, which is my new go-to site for photo editing since Picnik is going away soon.

I thought about lining up the photos in a grid, but I went to the scattered look instead. I am thinking that all of the words and details will show up when I print this as a 12x12 page. For now, you can click on the image for a larger view.

Participating in memory keeping projects reminds me to take more pictures of our daily lives. Next week Ali Edwards is putting together her Week in the Life project. I enjoyed participating last July, but I do not know if I will be up for it with my new job starting. (I will probably decide on Sunday evening.) Eventually, Week in the Life would make a good Shutterfly photobook. You can get a free 8x8 book through May 21st with this promotion.

Color Combo Blog Hop

I can't believe that it is already the middle of October! It is time for another Color Combo Blog Hop. I will have the entire list of participants at the end of the hop so that you don't miss a stop.

For October, we chose between three fall color combinations from Design Seeds. Here is the one that I chose:

After reading this article earlier in the week on Scrapbook Update, I was attracted to the combination with grays and yellows. Last night, I scrapped one of my favorite photos of Alex from the summer.

This is a digital page designed in My Digital Studio, and most supplies are from Stampin' Up. I also used a stamp designed by Ali Edwards available at Designer Digitals.

The journaling reads:
Our neighbor was nice enough to let you help water his lawn on some hot summer evenings. You had fun watering the plants and playing with the hose. One day, you exclaimed, "My belly's wet!" We could not help but laugh! Not only was your belly wet, but you were soaked from head to toe.

Our neighbor also blogs, and you can read his great food blog at http://www.sanantoniojoe.com/ .

Your next stop on the blog hop is http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com

You can see more ways to use this color combination and two others by following the entire hop:
http://www.abstractsmixedwithextracts.com
http://suealthouse.blogspot.com
http://xnomads.typepad.com
http://michelleroycroft.blogspot.com
http://throughthecameralens.typepad.com/
http://scrapyourlife.net
http://spud-pickle.blogspot.com/
http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com
http://1200somemiles.com (You are here.)
http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com
http://alyssephotographs.blogspot.com
http://handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com
http://adriennefalzon.blogspot.com/
http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com
http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/
ttp://scribblesstickingstitchingstroking.blogspot.com/

Thank you for stopping by!

In Print

In the age of digital photography, it is easy to share an enjoy your photos without printing them. While I do not print all of the photos I take, I still enjoy having a tangible product. There are countless ways and places to print photos and projects, so I will highlight 3 of my favorite sites that I have used recently.

Shutterfly.com
I love Shutterfly's 8x8 photo books! I have printed multiple books and just printed 2 for Father's Day gifts. If you subscrible to their email list, you will find that they regularly run sales. I am currently using my Pampers Gifts to Grow points for these books, so I only pay for extra pages, tax, and shipping. The custom path option is getting better and better on this site. Make sure to save often, since I did have the site crash on me once. I love their books for printing a large number of my photos in an organized manner and for making gifts.

Tiny Prints
I just used this site for cards recently and was happy with the result. They have cute, quality photo cards. I plan to order more cards from them in the future.

Scrapbook Pictures
This is my go-to site for printing unique photo sizes and digital scrapbook pages. I have been using My Digital Studio for over a year and finally printed out my 12x12 digital scrapbook layouts. I orginally wanted to print them through Stampin' Up!, but I did not find their printing service as intuative as their software. I went back to this site, and am happy with the results. I may give the Stampin' Up! printing services another try, but it is hard to beat the price and quality of prints from this company.

Next, I want to try out a service that will print your blog into a photo book.

Forgotten Layout

It was a good thing that I went through some files on my computer. I found a forgotten scrapbook page. I added some journaling and it was done. I started it back in February, but forgot about it. All software and supplies are from My Digital Studio.

Stamp Camp

Summer has arrived in South Texas and it is hot! The kids here got out of school last week or will finish this coming week. Many of them will be heading to camps, and I stay on the look out for camps that Alex can attend when he is older (Engineering, Archeology, Sports, Spanish, and maybe even Space camp!) I will be busy at work all summer, but at least I get to go to camp for a day.

I am going to Stamp Camp on Saturday, June 18th. If you live in the San Antonio area, you can check out the camps on June 18 & 25 on the Stamp in Strength and Hope website. The projects are good for both new and seasoned stampers and scrappers. There is even a "kit by mail" option if you cannot attend.

A portion of the proceeds benefit the Thrive Well Cancer Foundation. In addition, Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from the purchase of the Strength & Hope Stamp set and Strength & Hope digital kit (which will work with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Project of the Week #4

I have been in the mood to scrapbook this week. I found a great sketch online to use. I completed a digital layout in My Digital Studio over a couple of evenings. Most of the elements are from Stampin' Up!, but I used Ali Edward's Baby Blue Patterns and Solids Papers from Designer Digitals. I am glad that I can use digital papers, stamps, and embellishments from various sources with this software. My first paper choice for this layout was too bright and busy, and this one fits much better with my photos.

Paper or Digital?

Both!

I took one of my favorite "stamp club" cards and made a digital version. You can read the details on Candy's blog. I enjoy making paper cards and scrapbook pages, digital cards and scrapbook pages, and hybrid projects. I can't chose just one type and like to leave my options open!

Scrapbooking

This started as a long comment on Facebook, and I figured that it would also make a good blog post.

I first started scrapbooking in 2005, although I had made some scrapbooks as a teenager with photos from camps and Australia. In 2008 I took a digital scrapbooking class at jessicasprague.com and used Photoshop Elements. I was happy with the class but felt like I did not have enough time to really learn Photoshop. I printed those pages at Scrapbook Pictures and added them to my traditional scrapbooks.

I am currently using My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up for my digital scrapbooking. I was already purchasing their products from a local demonstrator, so this was a nice addition. I've found the software easier to use, but I still need to print these pages.

I also like Shutterfly photobooks, and have made a few 8x8 books. Becky Higgin's Project Life looks really neat in both the traditional and digital versions.

I started listening to the Paperclipping Digi Show and have learned more about digital scrapbooking and how scrapbookers approach Photoshop. Many people use templates and learn this software over time. I may give digital scrapbooking with Photoshop Elements a try again in the future. But maybe I should just pick a system and stick to it!

Snow Layouts

With the theme of today being snow, I did two digital scrapbook layouts with our snow pictures. Of course, there was more snow in the pictures from Ohio than in the ones from Texas.

Contest Entries

On Tuesday Stampin' Up! announced the winners of their My Digital Studio contest. You can view the winning entries here. Even though I did not win, I thought I'd share my entries, which were 2 scrapbook pages and a card.

This was the first time I entered a big scrapbooking contest. It can be challenging to meet the contest rules and still create the things that you want to create. The good thing was that it motivated me to create more pages with some of my favorite photos. I do not know if I will enter any more scrapbooking or card contests. It is important to me to just keep my scrapbooking and card making for FUN.

22 Months

Alex is 22 months today, and lately we just tell people that he is "almost 2" when they ask how hold he is. Here is a (digital) scrapbook page about toddlerhood that was based on a previous blog entry.

Why I Love My Digital Studio

My Digital Studio software can be used to make photobooks, scrapbook pages, cards, journals, calendars, and more. The sotware is both MAC and PC compatible, which makes this MAC girl happy. It is from Stampin' Up! and can be purchased through one of their demonstrators. I purchased the software last June for my birthday. It is $79.95 and comes loaded with lots of digital stamps, papers, embellishments, etc. You can also purchase more items from their website for about $.95 to $9.95 each depending on how much is included in the download. I am part of a "stamp club" that meets once a month, so I was already purchasing products from this company. I have not printed anything from their printing service yet but plan to in the near future. The printed items I have seen are good quality, and they recently made their prices more competitive with other companies. I love My Digital Studio for many reasons: it is easy to use, it is helping me to regularly scrapbook again, it saves space, and it is "mess-less."

I had tried some digital scrapbooking in the past with Photoshop Elements but found the software difficult to use. I would often become frustrated, and it was difficult to get back into using the program after taking a break. I also would have needed additional software or an external hard drive to organize all of the papers and embellishments. The My Digital Studio software is intuitive and easier for me to use than Photoshop Elements. By watching a few videos online, I have been able to learn many features of the software.

Between October 8th and November 14th, I have made seven scrapbook pages using the software. I do not know if I have every completed so many pages in a little over a month! I like the ease of going through my favorite photos on my computer and then making them into some pages. I do not have to worry about sizing the photos until I am making the page. I do not have to think about printing photos ahead of time or where they are stored.

I have a craft desk in our family room, but it has gotten quite full. I enjoy the physical scrapbooking and stamping supplies, but they take up a lot of space. My Digital Studio allows me to access more supplies digitally than I could (and should) own physically. I started using the software to print out greetings for hybrid cards. The software came preloaded and organized with hundreds of digital stamp sets and papers that I did not already own.

I was in need of some "mess-less" scrapbooking and card making. I am a messy crafter with a curious toddler, so I can no longer leave projects out on my desk. I am able to start a project in My Digital Studio, save it, and come back to it later with no mess. I don't have to worry about glue, glitter, or scraps of paper getting everywhere. (I am especially messy with glitter and should be banned from using it. I got green glitter all over myself at stamp club this week...)

You can visit http://mydigitalstudio.net for more details about the product. The website includes great information and inspiration, so I have become a regular visitor there.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Stampin' Up! I am a regular customer who enjoys their products. This blog post with be linked to the My Digital Studio Blog for the chance to win a free copy of the software. I would love to share the software as a gift to a friend.

Halloween Layout

Beach Layout

I made this layout last night with pictures from our beach trip last summer. I recently made two more digital layouts and a card to submit to Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio Contest. In my five years of scrapbooking, this is the first contest that I have entered. I had to stop fussing over the pages and just email them off before tomorrow's deadline. The entry cannot be published or submitted elsewhere, so I will post those pages in the future.

Kiddie Park Layout

My Kiddie Park layout is featured on Candy's Sweet Stamper blog. It is nice to be able to scrapbook digitally without making a mess! I am going to work on some more pages and then have them printed. Once I have gone through the entire process, I plan to write a review of My Digital Studio on the blog.