Scrap Girl

My mom and dad are here to visit and I asked them to bring another tote of pictures to go through so we are having a blast.  We’re lost somewhere in the 70’s and 80’s.  This is really great for some great belly laughs.  I’ll be sure to do a few layouts with these to show you shortly.  We are trying to sort them out by subject, but some don’t really fall into any particular category so I’m not quite sure what we are going to do with those.  I even found some old poetry I wrote when I was in grade school.  My kids are just rolling their eyes at some of these great treasures.  I’m off to do some more sorting and will get that freebie uploaded tomorrow if you are interested in that.  I didn’t feel like taking on the computer gliches while I have company.  There would probably be too much swearing…

I’m so sorry I can’t offer the freebie for the Sisters quickpage today.  It is all ready but for some reason will not upload to the share site so I can get it to you.  I think it has to do with my online connection but I need to check into that.  I also need to check into the share site itself, because that is when I seemed to start having computer trouble.  It uploaded about 70% of my zip file and then froze.  If you have ever had related issues please let me know.  I’m new to sharing digital creations.  Usually I just use other people’s creations, so bear with me.  For other great freebies since you can’t get one here tonight, I would try digifree.com and Designs by Karyn.  You should be able to find something you like.  I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, please come back or look over the past couple of day’s posts to get ideas.  A layout I did with the Sisters Quickpage was posted a couple of days ago so you can see what it looks like.

The second page I made with the Cherished Memories digital kit I tried a new technique I have never done before.  I got the idea out of “Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 2.”  It is a special issue put out by Creating Keepsakes.  If you are into digital scrapbooking, you should definitely take a look at this book for tips and tricks.  The technique is to blend a photo into a digital paper.  I somewhat like how it turned out, but I would use a lighter paper with a real subtle pattern next time.  Basically, you open your picture in your photoshop or whatever software, convert it to black and white, pick a paper to blend with and bring it into the document.  Make sure your photo layer is selected and then click on the blending mode drop down menu and choose Hard Light.  Those are the basics of it and I have only tried it the one time, but you get the idea.  Of course I’m new to digital scrapbooking so discovering what the blending mode menu is was a big deal to me.  I’m hoping to try one new technique per week and relaying the information to you.

A couple of weeks ago I received a new digital kit called Cherished Memories from my designer friend to use.  As a member of her creative team, I make layouts using her kit and then post them on my blog and on different scrapbooking galleries.  I just love this layout because of the picture of my mom and my aunt when they were about 2 and 4 years old.  We guessed the year at about 1947.  I wish it would have said on the photo.  I scanned it when my mom and I were sorting through some old pictures.  The purple colors in the kit go great with the black and white photo and even though the layout isn’t really anything fancy, it’s gorgeous.  I found a little poem about sisters to put on the notebook paper piece and used the alphas from the kit for the title.  I may have it printed and give it to my mom and aunt, but I haven’t really decided yet.  I will be offering this page as a quickpage freebie on Friday so check back to download it. 

This is the last of the layouts that I did while on my scrapbooking retreat.  My cousins came last summer from Georgia and Arizona to visit.  When that happens, the rest of us who are closer to Wisconsin, all hop in our cars, trucks, whatever, and make the trip to see them.  It is basically an impromptu family reunion.  These pages especially mean a lot to me because I hadn’t seen my one cousin in 10 years and finally got to meet his wife.  It was a lot of fun because most of us cousins are able to pick right back up where we left off.  These papers go along with the papers I used for the previous layout from yesterday.  My favorite parts of these two pages, are the flowers and button brads one of my friends at the retreat gave me.  I know I have said it before but I sure love my scrapbooking friends.  They all love to share their supplies!

I’m so disappointed.  I used the neatest paper on these pages and I didn’t write down what the name of it was.  Usually it also says on the back of the paper, but not this time.  These pages are about my cousin and his family who came last summer from Atlanta, Georgia to visit.  She is a picture-taker madwoman like me, so I had plenty of nice photos to choose from.  I had so many in fact, that I have another set of pages to show you tomorrow.  I must admit I had help on this page.  One of my friends at the retreat is a stamper extraordinaire and I asked her to stamp names on the tag.  She did that and more.  As you can see, her embellishment is fabulous.  I just love my creative friends.  I can tell you that the stickers I used here and there are from Marcella by K and called Sheri’s Mini Words.  I also like the paper strips on either side, that are an quick and easy way to add interest to the page.  The title was cut out by once again, my Cricut machine, my lastest greatest tool for scrapbooking.

This is another of the many layouts I completed while away on my scrapbooking trip.  This one was especially a challenge because I had so many pictures from this event.  I ended up eliminating 2 or 3 photos from the layout and luckily they weren’t the best pictures so I didn’t feel too bad.  The horseshoe print paper is by Flair Designs and called “Happy Trails.”  The other paper is green, brown and cream cardstock to match.  The letters for the title are a mix between Wild Asparagus “Spring Letters” and alphabet letters from a Scout-a-bout kit from Autumn Leaves.  The rope sticker was also from that kit.  The paper clip and flower embellishments were cut using the Cricut electronic cutting machine.  That Cricut is so versatile depending on the cartridges you have.  For the journaling, I typed up the names of the girl’s horses, cut them out and placed them by each of their pictures.  Luckily, I wrote all of this down after the event or there is no way I would have remembered the names of eight different horses. 

I think this is one of my favorite layouts that I finished last weekend.  My oldest daughter is such a nature lover and loves to camp and be outdoors.  These pictures were taken at Gooseberry Falls on the north shore of Minnesota.  In fact, when she was about three, my husband wanted to come in from out in the back yard and she was like one those animals you see in the cartoons that stick out all arms and legs in an attempt to not fit through the door.  How do you not completely bust a gut at that!  Now it just pouting and a long face, but still quite funny.  I actually wrote down my supplies for this one in case you like something you see.  The patterned polka dot paper is called Confetti & Daisies from Kelly Panacci, Inc.  The Fern’s Garden paper is from Provocraft.  The cardstock paper came from a DCWV stack of paper.  The leaf embellishments(I have been waiting to use forever) are from Colorbok Photographics line.  The title was cut with the cricut doodletype cartridge.  The nature saying was from a vellum mini-stack.  She really is my nature girl. 

Happy Friday readers!  Here is another page I completed on the scrapbooking trip.  Every summer my family goes on an annual camping trip with my cousins and my aunt and her husband.  Last year, we went to Lake Carlos and here are the pictures to prove it.  There was a wine orchard not far from the campground so we took a trip over there to check it out and taste some wine.  The paper I used was from Karen Foster Designs, called “Road Trip.”  The yellow and green cardstock was from scraps I had leftover from other projects.  The watermelon ribbon was from the dollar bin at Target.  The title was cut out using the All Mixed Up cartridge and the Cricut electronic cutting machine.  We made a lot of use out of the Cricut on the trip and I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of that already.  If you have a Cricut please do not pay full price for cartridges.  Go on ebay and find deals on the ones you would like.  You’ll save big bucks!

I made this “Just Add Water” page last weekend at the retreat also.  I have to admit I scraplifted the idea from Creating Keepsakes for the tic-tac-toe design.  For papers I used plain blue cardstock and some polka dot paper for the lines.  The wet and swim figure digital sticker I got from Scrapgirls.com.  Valerie Randall created some nice Camp Scrappy digital kits there.  The Just Add Water embellishment I made myself using Adobe Photoshop Elements software.  That is probably my favorite part of the page, besides the pictures, of course.  The second page looks a little crowded to my eye, but I didn’t want to do three pages so I overlapped photos on the page.  It was a fun camping weekend with 4 families from the MOMS Club group I used to belong to.