preschool pages

I've shared before how excited I was to find this awesome digital kit from Cathy Zielske. She has samples here & here.LOVE it! I used it to do Brandon's first year of preschool a few months back, and I just completed his second year of preschool, and Olivia's first.

Here is Brandon's second year of pre-k:

For this school year I did three pages (plus the pocket page for work I want to save); there are four collage pages with the kit, and if you have a decent working knowledge of PSE you can easily alter the shapes & sizes of the photos.

You can also easily change the color of the numbers on each photo. They come in white, but as you can see in photo #1 below, it wouldn't show. So I "replaced" the color in PSE & changed it to black. Perfect.

I'm so pleased with how these pages have turned out so far. So easy! I love to scrap, but sometimes I want something simple, you know? I've done layouts featuring many of these photos already.

(I didn't notice this when I put the pages together, but did just now: Olivia is wearing the same darn dress in almost all of her pictures! I swear, they were all taken on different days...we got that dress at Target last year for like $10 & she wears it every chance she gets!)

Hybrid Scrapping

At one time, I printed only 4x6 photos & did my best to cut them down to fit. The problem? I took too many pictures & would have multiple layouts of a single thing just to fit all the pictures in.

Then, at some point after I switched from film to digital, I realized I could crop my photos in Photoshop Elements prior to printing. Now I could get any size photo I wanted & fit 13 photos (or more!) in a single layout.

Recently, I've started doing a bit more digital. I wouldn't call myself a digital scrapper by any means. But I do incorporate a lot of digital techniques. I am a hybrid scrapper.

Like on this new layout:

I've used lots of paper goodies from my July kit. But my photo section is a collage all done in photoshop & printed up that way. I even have "photo" under my title block. I just put the paper & stickers on top.

How simple was that? Seriously, no cropping. I just plunked the whole photo collage onto the paper, and basically was done.

First Day of "Four" School

It's such a great feeling to get a bunch of layouts done, isn't it? I have a list on my computer of "pages to do". And of course I have a HUGE stash of goodies waiting to be used.

I knew I wanted to use a bunch of goodies from my August kit for this layout, and I found this cute layout sketch at PageMaps. I love that site! As many of you know, I'm an avid Becky Higgins fan. But I'm also an avid Becky Fleck fan. I mostly use her sketches for my one page layouts. But I really like how she sketches in embellishments too.

What I like to do is open up a copy of the sketch in Photoshop Elements. I resize it to a 12x12 and add some photo layers. Then I can play around with the photos until I get them to the size I want. I enlarged the photos for this layout.

Brandon has always called his prekindergarten class "four" school. I think it's because his sister is three and in preschool. And he insists that we're saying "three" school.

Christmas cards :)

I love making Christmas cards! I stamped mine for a while, only taking a break when Brandon was a baby. We had some adorable pics of him taken & the photographer offered this:

 

How could we resist?

Then last year I found some great digital cards at The Shabby Shoppe & downloaded them, tons for $4.95 (and I think they were on sale when I got them). My sister & I used them to make these:

This year, Kathy decided to purchase the new Christmas card line from the Shabby Shoppe. Today we put a couple of cards together, one for her & one for my parents.

Didn't they come out great?! (Sorry, I took Kathy's card out when I realized some of my readers might be on the receiving end....I might share it later.)

Now, you may notice that there is a big white area at the bottom. I have to let you in on a very cool not-so-secret: You can buy your Christmas cards from Costco for $14.99 for 50 (including envelopes). If you want the Costco predesigned cards, right?

Wrong!

If you are interested, you can browse "more holiday" cards and at the bottom you will find "custom template place your own holiday design here".

Oh yeah!

I had no idea this existed until my sister told me last week (when she found it by accident). Basically, as long as you have Photoshop or some other photo editing program you can create your own 6 x 7 1/2 inch card & paste it to their document! Woo-hoo! Way cheaper than printing your own 5x7 & purchasing envelopes (which, at least for me, is the pricey part). The reason there is a white space is that we created 6x6 cards (really 5x5 that we enlarged) so that my mom & sister can cut the bottom off & still use the Costco envelopes.

 I'm so giddy about it I had to share!

And, if you get the Costco coupon book, there is a $5 off of Christmas cards coupon right now. So $10 for 50 cards! It's an additional $5.99 for another 25 (again, with envelopes). So I need to get crackin' & figure out exactly how many I need; last year I was at 72 on my "official saved list". But I don't think I'll be sharing my card on here...at least not until AFTER I've sent it out!

Mama's Garden

Last spring I tore this layout out of Creating Keepsakes.

Besides the overall design, I love how she printed so many pictures on a 5x7 with s brief title on the side. I set it aside in my "to do" pile, not exactly sure when or how I was going to use it.

Then I started going thru my photos & realized I had a bunch of my daughter water plants at my parents' house. They're all very similar, but as any parent knows, each is different. So instead of trying to narrow it down, or do one big layout that everyone else looks at like I used nine of the same photo, I did this layout

I simply made a quick template in photoshop & used a clipping mask so I didn't have to crop my photos first. I put my pictures on it and then moved them around until I liked what I saw. So easy!

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!

Ugg!

I've been so proud of myself since the moment I made this, a couple years ago. I made the "custom" license plate in photoshop. Grunge edge on a yellow box, with a font I no longer have (thanks to a computer crash a while back).

Brandon *loved* to wear David's Uggs on his hands, & thought it was hysterical that I thought it was so gross! I used to tell him it would make his hands fall off from all the nasty funk in those boots.

eye pop!

I just learned how to use & install actions in PSE...so awesome!

Here's Abbie, SOOC (straight out of the camera):


And here is is with a bit of tweaking:


I adjusted for skin tone & played with the levels. Then ran the eye pop & skin soften actions from CoffeeTeaPhotography.

Broiled Orange Marmalade Salmon

1/2 c orange marmalade
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t ground ginger
4 6-oz salmon fillets (I use a half salmon sliced into 4+ strips)

Combine marmalade thru ginger. Brush half marmalade onto the salmon steaks, broil for 6 minutes. Brush remaining sauce onto fish & broil an additional 2 minutes. Enjoy!

I served ours with asparagus & fresh linguini tossed with a bit of butter & parmesean. My kids couldn't eat enough!

The End of Abbie's First Year

photoshop class

My assignment: add a frame & a border.

I thought this picture of Abbie was totally "sassy"!

having fun in photoshop

So I've been taking Jessica Sprague's online course "Good to Great Workflow" this past week.

Wow! I feel like I've learned so much, and I need to change my workflow with my photos. I've been unhappy with what I'm getting back from Costco, so hopefully this is the change I needed.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share a cute photo of Olivia that I took over the weekend. She found Brandon's Halloween costume from 2008 & decided to put it on. It was over a hundred out (this is a recurring theme for her).

Play (02.07.08)

Barely a day could go by that I wouldn’t find you two out in the gutter, playing in the run-off. Probably not the cleanest water! But between that muck, the broken twigs from our maple tree, and the rocks in Daddy’s parking spot, you were as happy as could be. It was as perfect an afternoon as two toddlers could ask for.