Doodle Fun

February, really?  I can hardly believe that the last time I posted it was February.  My goodness!  Today I had a big headache.  Not a migraine by any means but the kind of headache that is not the Tylenol variety.  After a nap and a little Excedrin I am now awake.  So I "doodled" in Photoshop.  

My daughter needs a cover for her binder for school.  I decided to create a page for her that she could color using either markers or colored pencils.  I used Katie Pertiet's Doodledo Frames No. 9-3 for the border.  For the flowers I used Janda Flower Doodles font and for the name I used the font Simon Script.

I've also been working on her room.  When we moved into our house almost 5 years ago I painted her room first.  Then we got pregnant and I never finished her room because I started work on her brother's room.  I finished his room from top to bottom but his sister's room sat on the back burner.  So I recently revamped her paint job.  I didn't completely repaint the room but I did make some adjustments to brighten up her room.  I also purchased a new Expedit bookcase for her room.  Luckily I was already using a ton of baskets in her previous storage furniture.  Her previous furniture was our IKEA entertainment center (Markor) which we used when we lived in an apartment.  It was time to ditch those pieces for lighter and brighter.  But her baskets needed some sort of label.  Again, since I was not going to sleep anytime soon I set to work on placing felt on the bottoms of all her baskets and sticking laminated labels on the fronts.

For the labels I used the Simon Script font and Echo Park Paper's "For the Record" element No. 16 and just changed the color up a bit.

My craft room is slowly getting organized (again) and now that I don't have any upcoming weddings or baby showers I'm hoping to have a little fun in here sewing and crafting.

Photoshop Fun

I signed up for a free class through JessicaSprague.com. I love her free classes and if you haven't signed up for one yet, you should.  They are yours forever so you can return to them online and get a refresher if you need it.  This class is a "Photoshop Top 5" and is 5 basic techniques or uses in which you use Photoshop. 

Day 1 is a black/white assignment, Day 2 is a scrapbook quick page, Day 3 is adding frames and textures, Day 4 is creating a blog header, and Day 5 is creating a card.   I've only completed the first 3 days of assignments.  

Below are some of the photos that I have edited and scrapbook quick pages I created. 

I love the scrapbook quick pages.  They only require you to drop in a photo or two and add a little journaling.  Everything else is already completed for you.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Again, I love the classes at JessicaSprague.com.  Her directions are easy to follow and you get a chance to work at your own pace.

Keeping Up

I'm really behind on my scrapbooking. But who is not behind? Most people I know say they are behind or maybe they are just trying to make me feel good. For the longest time I just liked to buy the supplies for scrapbooking. I love the papers, embellishments, and tools. But when it comes to putting it all together with pictures I am behind. I've started dabbling in digital scrapbooking which is helping me to keep up with the now. About two years ago I switched to D-Ring albums which makes it really easy to scrapbook in whatever order I please. Adding pages is really easy and does not require me to unscrew an album.

Here are my latest creations for the present:

I'll be printing these on Matte paper through Costco. Another nice plus to digital scrapbooking is that it only requires my laptop. I can take my computer to the living room to watch "The Office" with my hubby and scrapbook all at the same time. :)

December Daily: 2-5

I have been taking a few pictures here and there and realized I needed to get them into page form or it would never happen. I really am loving digital templates. I can always go back and add "real" stuff onto the pages later.

December 2 & 3:

(I combined the two days because I didn't have a ton of pics and I really didn't want Julia's mouth to take up an entire page.)

December 4th:

December 5th:

Products I used to create these layouts:

Templates by: Creativity by Design and Ali Edwards (Bread and Butter)

Paper: Michelle Martin Papers: Bergen Paper Pack

Embellishments: Katie Pertiet Crystallized Flourishes

December Daily

I'm toying with the idea of creating a December Daily 2010 album. I love Ali Edwards scrapbooking stuff. Since I'm pretty new to digital scrapbooking, her templates are the ones that I am drawn to for their ease of use. She plans on creating a 6x8 this year. The DD templates that I have are 12x12 and were purchased at DesignerDigitals.com. If I print one out for each day it will cost about 75 bucks for the entire album. So I might do some pages the traditional way instead of just all digital pages. And then again, I just might create all digital pages but simply upload them to a CD/DVD and have them as a slide show.

12.01.10: Day 1

Countdown Calendar

I saw the cutest "We're going to Disneyland" countdown calendar on The Crafting Chicks. Jamie was kind enough to post her templates for free and tell where/which digital papers she used. So in just a few minutes I had a cute countdown calendar too! I had it printed off at Costco and then stuck it in a temporary frame. I actually planned to use this frame for something else but it isn't ready just yet. The only problem with printing I had was that my circles to cover the numbers turned out bigger than 2" when they were printed. I'm not sure why this happened but if someone out there does, could you pass me the info? I can fix my circles with a simple circle punch. Now we just have to pick out date to go to Disneyland! Thank you Jamie from The Crafting Chicks!!!!

Digital Scrapbooking

I'm really starting to like digital scrapbooking. I'm not very fast but I am getting better the more I try it out. I won't be giving up my traditional scrapbooking anytime soon. There is definitely something about paper, ink, die cuts, etc. that are fun to work with and move around a page. But when you want to create a duplicate page for a sibling a highly recommend going digital. You only have to make one page but can then make multiple copies quite easily.

Right now I print out my pages through Costco.com. I simply upload them and they are ready in one hour. I also choose "lustre" when printing. I think they look better in a matte finish as opposed to glossy.

Sites I like so far for digital scrapbooking:

Jessica Sprague-great classes and supplies

Designer Digitals-supplies and they even have free stuff!

Design House Digital-saw this on Thirty Handmade Days (Thank you Mique!) also free stuff

I don't have a huge list-I'm just beginning. :)