Scrapping for Others

Do you have troubling scrapping yourself...I know I do. Whether I am too busy taking all of the photos, can't find a good picture or just unconciously don;t think about it...I'm not sure, but when I searched my los for scrap pages of myself I found one in the last 8 years...with the exception of my bridal photos! Only in the past few months, with the help of experts at Creating Keepsake Magazine, Get It Scrapped and Jessica Sprague.com, have I come to realize the value of scrapping oneself! So tonight at my monthly scrappy night I was curious to see how many of my friends also had the same problem...most of them, infact. So instead of tearing the band-aid off, we all made scrapbook pages for eachother. Each person wrote their names and three things about themselves on a note card and we swapped cards. (Now the bigger your group the less each of you may know eachother so think carefully about the clues you provide) Now we decided to to take our los home and use our own pics...but you could also take photos at the crop and print them off so that everyone leaves with a completed lo. Then use the person's photos and the clues they provided you with to complete a lo for that person...from their point of view! For instance I had Aimee, who loves unicorns, being with her family, the color turquoise and going to the movies. I used her favorite color as the basis for the lo color scheme and then used her favorites as the foundation for my journaling: "One day I'll fly to the movies on a turquoise unicorn...but for now I'm happy to be at home with family!" Give this little challenge a try at your next crop night...not only will it help bring everyone a little closer, but it will hopefully help you to be inspired to scrap yourself more often!

"Fall-ow Me" by Aimee Case, "How Totally Glamorous is She?" by Amy Kingsford and "Sweet Girl" by Krisstina Kemp

More Scrap This Kit!

I can't help it I just keep reaching in the kits' packaging and I just keep pulling out more and more great stuff...tell you what I'll stop going off about these kits, when I finally run out of paper and embellies to Scrap These Kits! Here's more los and projects from both the kits offered this month at http://www.scrapthiskit.com/!

Scrap this Kit!

Ever since my order from Scrap This Kit arrived Monday...I have not been able to put these kits down...I even contimplated sleeping with them under my pillow and if it hadn't been for the delicate laser cut doillie papers, I might have! You absolutely have to check out these kits... http://www.scrapthiskit.com/ they are totally jam-packed with scrap goodies, including a coordinating marker, a never-ending stash of awesome embellies and some totally fabulous etsy finds! Not to mention Tami's great Page Starters, which include some great sketches, patterns and creative prompts to help you...Scrap This Kit!

Lamb Days

So I'm backtracking a bit, but I was going through our photos today from this event and just had to share! This was my first time attending Lamb Days, a tradition that has been upheld by my husband's family for many decades! But this year was very special, as all the Collards were in attendance! A lot like Cherry Days or Clinton Days or Roy Days, this is the small town of Fountain Green, UT's annual city celebration. Where it has been custom for years for the town to engage in activities like a talent show, 5K race and walk, lamb sandwiches, a parade and an annual lamb auction. For such a small town, this event sure turns out some numbers! We arrived on Sat. just in time for the paradewhere Caleb[Jake] scored lots of candy. Then we raced over to the city park to save the Collard's corner, a nicely shaded area close to the music, food and restrooms! Caleb met several sheep and liked all of those who did not nibble his fingers. Then Jake and Caleb rode the tractor train...yeaaaa! We chatted and ate our delightful lamb sandwiches then wrapped up by taking several informal family photos...I am sad to say that my son is either playing with keys or picking his nose in every one of them! I was so happy to be part of this wonderful tradition this year and hope to make it part of our routine for many years to come. Thank You Collard's for introducing our son and myself to Lamb Days!

City Folk?...Okay not really!

So I got some really cute paper stacks this week (Joann's had all 12x12 DCWV paper stacks on sale for 9.95....can you believe it!) One of them was the "Downtown" stack and I just absolutely loved the city scape paper...but we don't live in a big city...so this layout it sorda a spoof on how we think we're city people...but we're really not! The journaling reads:

"Okay, so Roy, UT is not exactly what most people consider a big city...but it was the perfect city for a small town girl and a farm town boy to satrt their lives together!"

Happy 24th!

Here in Utah we celebrate the 4th of July on the 24 of July because we are just as backwards as the rest of the country...nay the world thinks we are! Just kidding, but the 24th of July is a big deal for us Utahns because thats when we celebrate our statehood! However, while Jake and Caleb and my mother, along with the niece and nephew are enjoying the local parade (in which my Grandfather is representing the veterans of our state as one of the few living WWII vets in Utah) I am stuck stocking the hotdogs and brats for all of Riverdale's BBQs and 24th of July get togethers! If you do not live in Ogden, UT or were not one of the many individuals who waited until the last minute to purchase your goodies for the 24th...you are not meant to be shamed by the previous comment...unless of course you were passing though Riverdale and stopped at the local Walmart to pick up hot dogs, bacon or lunch meat...and in this case you too may feel shamed! The rest of you..you know who you are... so yeah!

I can't help but sit here...eating my cold pizza,while blogging on my hour lunch and hope that my son Caleb (ok really my husband Jake) has saved a piece of saltwater taffy for me...I really like the banana flavored ones! Well only two more hours to go...but the walmart madness doesn't stop there...because then I get to go grocery shopping right after work...yeaaaa me! But best of all, once I finally make it home....I get to give my son a big squeeeesh...so it all balances out...don't you think!?

Friday Freebies Forever!

This weeks freebie @ Digital Freebies.com is from Karen Lewis' NEW Serendipity kit! Register at Digital Freebies.com to receive Freebies in your email every Friday...FOREVER! (and sometimes just for fun on other days of the week). You'll also get freebies with their newsletter! Go to http://www.digitalfreebies.com/ and look at all of their great products including the subscriptions to their archives...where you can recieve many of the freebies you've missed for the year...1 month's access is only 5 dollars!

The Scrappy Hiatus Comes to an End!

Thanks to Michelle at GIS and Sarah at the Scrap Queen http://www.thescrapqueen.com/ , and a little help from my niece Alexys (use the purple brad...no the pink flower!) my scrappy hiatus has come to an end. I used some of the great techniques I learned in Jessica Spragues photo editing class to paint some color into this black and white photo...making it a fun hybrid experience! And I was totally inspired by this awesome kit I won from Michelle's Oodles of Doodles class. The minute I opened it I new exactly who it was meant for! Alexys is quite the accessorizor though don't you think? Each piece on this lo and its exact placement, had to have Lexy's stamp of approval! Hope you like it!

Check Out this Freebie!

At Digi Scrap Warehouse, where they cater to the digital designer, they are offering a huge Freebie Grab Bag with any purchase of $10 or more! DSW's products are great for personal digi scrappers but most of them also allow for commercial use. Check out their store at http://www.digiscrapwarehouse.com/xcart/home.php

TTV Effect: Frame Ups and Special Effects Day 5

I had never heard of the Thru the Viewfinder Effect until today's lesson at Jessica Sprague's FREE photo editing class, but now I am truly in love with this wonderfully vintage look. Apparently there is a new movement amongst photographers where they use the viewfinders of old cameras to produce that old photo look. The movement is becoming so popular that people are even creating textures that imitate this process for those of us who are less photographically inclined. I've recently found that using textures is an amazing way to fix those grainy cell phone photos (we lost our camera shortly after my son was born and didn't find it again until my son was 8 months old!) and blurry camera shots. I can't thank Jessica enough for showing me a way to use all of these important photos that I thought would never be scrappable!

In the photo above I used Steffen J.'s Bus Stop Window TTV effect and Katie Pertiet's Farm Fresh Frame and Brush. First I desaturated the original photo, then placed a soft light sepia adjustment layer to accentuate the shadows. I then placed the ttv texture on the next layer then multiplied it with the previous layers. I sized the texture down so that it came an eighth of an inch inside the photos edges, placed a frame around the edge of the ttv effect and then used the brush to place the words in the top left corner.

A Great Event and Freebies too!

This weeks Favorite Friday freebie is a collection of freebies from the sponsors of this years Digital Scrapbooking Experience in Provo, UT. This three day, two night digi frenzy is complete with classes taught by industry experts, contests, giveaways, make and takes and just plain fun! Registration began last week, so don;t delay. Scrap and Paper Corner's DSE is coming to Provo Sept. 24,25 and 26. Check out all the details and download your freebies at http://www.scrapandpapercorner.com/events/dse/index.html.

DON'T MISS OUT! Even if you can't make it check out the freebies from designers like Amanda Rockwell, Rachel Young, Jessica Sprague, and Anna Aspnes.

Frame Ups & Special Effects Day 3

Today we learned the perfect recipe for a vintage photo and also leaarned to hand tint! I'm going to have so much fun painting my baby's cheeks, hair, eyes and lips in all of my future photos!Thanks Jessica! This is a perfect way for hybrid scrappers to punch up there photos.

Jessica Sprague's Frame Ups and Special Effects Day 1

Today we learned to use a simple frame and text to punch up our photos, in Jessica's FREE Photo Editing Class

TIPS for Flawless Photo Extractions

TIP #1

TRY USING SOLID BACKGROUNDS: Its not always practical to carry a white sheet with you everywhere you go, but for those planned photo shoot, trying taking some with a white sheet in the background...or some other solid color, but white is the easiest. It helps a lot when using your Magic Wand tool in PS or PSE.

TIP #2

USE THE FEATHER and SMOOTH TOOLS: Once your image is selected before extracting try a 1-3 px feather (depending on the size of the image) and a 3-5px smoothing effect(both under the select pull down, under feather and modify), to give your extraction a clean look.

TIP #3

USE THE OUTLINE STROKE TOOL: After you've extracted your image, control click the image layer's thumbnail to load selection, create a new layer and select Outline Stroke under the edit pull down, then select whatever color and a pixel of at least three, or more if you don't want to zoom in(make sure the new layer is selected when this is done), now you should be able to see all those tiny pixels that were missed by the wand. Select the layer image and and erase where the pixels are stroked to clean up your extraction.

TIP #4

ADD A SLIGHT DROP SHADOW: To really make your extraction look like its jumping off the page add a 1 0r 2 pixel drop shadow to give it some depth.

In my layout elephants, I used Katie Perteit's Snap Frame and fonts Karabine and CK love note. The shapes were from Photoshop Elements talk bubble and elephant)

So Many Textures @ the ZOO!

So I've kind of become obsessed with using textures in my digital scrapbooking. And while there's several free texture images available online, I decided that on our third trip to the Hogle Zoo this year that I would try taking my own texture images and using them in my los. I mean you can only take so many pictures of the same two elephants right! Here are just a few of the totally cool textures available at your local zoo. Then try using them as overlays along with your blending modes to create great effects in your los!