Project Life Tuesday ~ 6 May 13

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here. It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

This year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part) I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them).

I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

I had hoped to get more pages done over the past weekend because of International Scrapbook Day, but I was sick over the weekend and really didn’t feel like doing much more than just sitting still. Sigh.

But I DID get some pages done – continuing to work my way through 2013 and hopefully get caught up soon.

The journal cards are from Juli Fish: You Make Me Happy ~ I can’t find the download link anymore.

The other bits and bobs were from another kit that came from The Daily Digi as part of the monthly kit. I love it. Happy, happy stuff.

I like the pages – I think they capture the fun of that week. And I love that everyone in the family is in the pictures.

Project Life Tuesday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project life Tuesday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
25 great gifts for memory keepers (scrapbookladypages.com)
December Daily + Project Life in action (scrapbooklady.typepad.com)
Sponsor Giveaways: The Daily Digi and Scotty Girl Design (cathyzielske.typepad.com)

Scrapbook Thursday ~ a little bit digital

I mentioned on Tuesday that I did a little digital scrapbooking last week – I thought I’d share the pages I made with you today. The pictures are already in my Project Life album, but I had something I wanted to say beyond what I put in the album so I made these pages. I did this a few times last year and just stuck the digital pages in the PL album where they fit chronologically. I liked the mix of styles and how the finished product turned out so I will probably do the same again this year…

I also did my Roundup for February:

I haven’t decided yet if I will add these to the Project Life album (probably will) or maybe (thinking out loud here) make a small 8×8 album of these pages all by themselves… not sure yet. But I am loving the recap of the month concept.

You can click on any picture to see the page larger.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with more Project Life posts!

Roundup January (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Scrapbooking in 2012 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project Life Tuesday: 1.10.12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

Scrapbook Tuesday

Okay, I’ll admit I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with the whole Project Life thing – it just seems like, well, LIFE gets in the way of doing the project!

But, I have been busily scrapbooking again. Enjoying using the new StoryBook Creator 4.0 software (I love it!) and scrapping the pictures from our recent adventures.

Additionally, since I’ve given up on the whole Project Life thingy, I’ve decided to do my 2011 pictures in digital pages – so that gives me tons of pictures (and stories!) to capture… Now, instead of being overwhelmed and feeling like a loser for not doing anything with my PL album, I’m feeling energized and inspired to get some scrapbooking done again!

Here are some pages I did this past week… loving the fact that digital scrapping means no mess and it’s so easy to do a page or two here and there without a big production.

Anyhow – here are the pages – enough rambling!

A little bit of scrappin’

I have been on overload this week. Lots going on at work and at home.

So, I managed to carve out a few minutes of time last night to do a little therapeutic scrapbooking – to give my brain some creative time and my body a little rest.

Here are the pages I did. Not many, but it sure was nice to get some done. I am hoping to do more this weekend.

I can publish CM SBC+ templates if anyone is interested… let me know!

What? A Scrapbooking Post?

I know, I know… those of you who originally started following my blog to see scrapbooking related posts have probably gotten really disappointed in me lately… the scrapbooking has been rather absent. As a matter of fact, if you’re still hanging around, I have a special message for you…

Thank you.

I know I have been rather lax in the scrapbooking department. But, I have no good excuses for you – Life just gets in the way sometimes, you know?

But, the good news is that I have two scrapbooking retreats this fall – one was this past weekend and one is in October. I think I have found my scrapping mojo again – although it took me most of this past weekend to find it!

Here are a few pages I did over the weekend. For those of you who are Creative Memories software users, I’ll post some templates later in the week.

Another Template for You

Ok, SBC+ ladies… I have a mid-week goodie for you.

I thought I would share another template I have made.

Here’s the template:

And a page I created with it:

The papers and embellishments are CM’s Vintage Digital Power Palette
(except for the button – can’t remember where I got it from)

You can download the template from here.

I hope you enjoy and I would really like to see some of your pages! Post a link to your blog in my comments section!

A goodie for you

I had a little time this weekend to create a couple of templates. I thought I would share with you.

Here is the template:

The embellishment is from Creative Memoires’ Digital Freebies page. Have you downloaded any of theirs? Some of them are really nice. I especially like the flourishes that you can find there.

And here is the page I created with the template:

The paper and snowflakes are from Jen Allyson’s blog.

If you haven’t checked out her new digital scrapbooking store, you should. Design House Digital, it’s called. There is some beautiful stuff out there. I go browsing and I just want it all!

So, here is the template, if you’d like to download it to play with. (it’s for StoryBook Creator 3.0)

I’d love to see what you do with the page! Post a picture of your layout!

Creative Memories Tip: Saving Page Template in StoryBook Creator Plus

I am so excited. Creative Memories posted on their blog today about how to save individual .page files as templates so that you can share page templates with people. If you have downloaded any of my recent template posts, you know it was not just a single file to download.

With this new information, it should mean easier creation of template files. Which is good for me, but even better for you! That means I'll be posting more templates here in the future for you to use with StoryBook Creator Plus! (yay!)

Here's a template for you – just because I'm so happy about the new process! (just click on the link to download)

And, here is a page I made with the template:

Note: The text boxes are in the template, they just don't show up on the JPG of the template for some reason.

Also, if you want the top right photo to have a rounded corner like mine does, you will need to flatten the image once you drop your photo in the frame. Then you can round the corners.

I must give credit for the inspiration, though, to Cathy Zielske's template on Designer Digitals. I love the clean lines she has in her designs! So, if you are not a StoryBook Creator Plus user, but you like this design, go get her template!

Oh, and if you like the paper and embellishments, it's all from DigiChick – Brown Eyed Girl.

Puppy Love

I’m finding more and more inspiration for scrapbook pages in reading online blogs and looking at websites selling pre-made digital templates. Because I’m not using PhotoShop, most of those templates are not much use to me. It is easier to make my own in StoryBook Creator than to figure out how to re-layer the many files that are sent with a downloaded template. (I’ve tried it on a few freebies and decided it was way more trouble than it’s worth)

What I have been doing, though, is much like what we do when we’re scrapbooking traditionally. (and I use this technique for both digital and traditional pages) I simply “eyeball” the page and make my own version using rough estimates on what sizes the pictures are and where the embellishments are placed. This challenge has been fun and I have been enjoying seeing if I can reproduce what I see online with some relative semblance of accuracy.

Here’s an example: I saw this layout from Designer Digitals:

And decided to create this layout:

You will notice I took some creative license with my design. I didn’t add the dotted/stitched border. I added an additional embellishment. I had planned to put a background in there once I was finished, but then I decided I liked the clean look of the white page, so I left it.

I’ve been thinking about doing a page on Sydney for a while, and have been waiting for the right inspiration to hit. Well, one look at that layout and I was ready to go.

Inspiration can come from many places. You can be inspired by a picture, by an advertisement, by colors, fabrics, sunrises, etc. The trick is to be open to the muse and either act on it right away or write your ideas down so that you can act later.

These Hands

These Hands…

Are Strong and Tough
Yet Gentle and Loving
Work Hard and Rough
and Caress so Softly
Represent Making a Living
and Safety and Security
These Hands are Tough
… Yet Fragile.
We love these hands.