the process

I'll admit it. I'm not the most organized person in the world. However, when it comes to scrapbooking, I do it in a very organized manner. I think it's from my old days as an editor on my high school paper. If only I had more than Page Maker back then!

First I scout magazines, blogs, Green Tangerines, etc, for inspiration.

I found this layout on Becky Higgins' blog a while back. I *love* her layout design & am sad to see her leaving Creating Keepsakes! I wasn't sure what I wanted to use it for, so I kept it in a folder on my desktop.

Then I was in Green Tangerines about a month ago & noticed my friend Brenda had used it too. Hmmm...I liked it! Time to pull it out & use it.




So now I take that layout & start playing with it in Photoshop Elements 6.0. Love that! How did I scrap before PSE? Good question! Another day :)

This is what I end up with. I used to just draw boxes & crop my photos to fit, then set them on my sketch to see what worked. Then I learned about clipping masks. Wow! I can now keep my layouts in a file and simply drag & drop my photos in, no cropping required. I think Jessica Sprague had some tutorials for clipping masks on her website.

Now that my photos are in place, I merge my mask & my photo, then drag & drop to "regular" print sizes & upload to Costco. I even print a 4x6 of my layout. It's great to through in my purse when shopping for supplies. And I like bringing it to crops...less bulky than all my sketch books & notes to remind me of what I'm doing. I can even type notes to myself on it.


Now I just need to get the photos printed & then I'm ready to scrap!