Digital scrapbooking

Lately, I have been doing some digital scrapbooking. Not that this is entirely new to me, but I have learned several things lately, and thought I would share. First, as you know, I am a huge supporter of Creative Memories. I had made several albums using them, and was always happy with the free program. However, I had some problems with the last book I made, and couldn't get it to print. Finally, and this is over a year after I had completed the album, I found a number for CM, called and received another number for the tech department, sat on hold for about 7 minutes and finally talked with a wonderful guy, who understood my uncomputer saavy way of saying things and was able to help me answer all of my questions! Now, in the meantime, I had purchased the new Storybook Creator plus from Creative Memories and found it harder to use than the original FREE version that you can download by going to Creative Memories website. In fact, I became so frustrated one day, that I felt sick and had to give up on it! I decided to try another company! ( I know, *GASP!*) But Picabo turned out to be a big pain as well! I had to download all this stuff, and then I ended up not wanting it. It was a huge waste of time. I always get my pictures printed from Snapfish, an online company, and I'm usually pretty happy with them. I order them and they get shipped right to me. I like that. So, I noticed they had a sale on scrapbooks and decided to make one of my family summer. We saw so many family members this summer, and I wanted a book for myself to remember it. One night, when I had insomnia from my pregnancy, I went on and completed a whole album! I found it very easy to use. it was very simple, there just weren't a whole lot of options for backgrounds and layouts. But when I ordered it and got 40 % off, I was excited. (You have to watch for the sales, they aren't going on all the time. But you can always create a book and wait for a sale. Just be aware that although they do not tell you you can only order one at the sale price, that has been the case, at least I've heard that is. I personally didn't try it.) The book came so quickly that I was amazed. Compared to CM, it was much quicker. I was pleased with the result, although the pictures are a bit grainy, you get what you pay for! After receiving this album, I really wanted to get back to CM, if only so that I could return the product if I couldn't get it to work. After calling the CM tech, finally geting to order the album I'd made for my cousin a year ago, and having it shipped straight to him, (that was a nice feature and saved me paying shipping twice) I started to work on an album for Princess Camp. One thing I like about CM over the others is that I have more room for writing. I never felt like I had enough room for journalling with Snapfish, and often it really wrote small, too small to read on the computer screen. Sometimes you can enlarge your font, but not always, and at times you lose a lot of the words by enlarging it as much as you'd like.
So, that's where I am now, creating an album about Princess Camp via CM. I like that I'll be able to send my album to the other princess' moms when it's done. Then they can decide if they want one, too! I still have to figure out how to add on the second disk from the Storybook plus, but I'm getting there!

As for traditional scrapbooking, I decided to take over my daughter's desk for a bit and leave my scrapbooking supplies out. I have done a few pages and my problem there is that I have laid out all the pages, but have consistantly forgotten things I want to include (8x10 pictures, a program...) and end up having to reconfigure everything. Fortunately, I do this on paper with a pencil so that I can fix my mistakes. Whew! It's hard feeling this much pressure to get things done before the baby arrives! I haven't even mentioned the quilt and afgan I'm making!
Scrap Happy, I know I am!

capturing the little things

My daughter learned to tie her shoes last year, but since she didn't HAVE shoes that have laces, she had to learn on a shoe that was too small to wear. This is fine, but it really would have been strange if I had taken a picture of her tying a shoe that wasn't even on her foot. This soccer season, when she pulled out her cleats and started tying, I had to run in and grab the camera! I am impressed with all of the little things. When she learns to snap, does math in her head, suddenly shoots up an inch and 1/2 seemingly overnight, and says her classic sayings, the most recent one being, "way six" meaning that this is something that is perfect for 6 year olds.
A lot of these things are impossible to capture in a picture, so I write them down, and make mention of them in her album. But when I remember to capture the little things that I can take a picture of, I'll hold on to those memories forever. So, by all means capture the high school graduation in meaningful pictures, but don't forget to take a picture of that first lost tooth as well. One last thing; just as I didn't get a picture of the first time she tied her shoe, it's OK to get a picture a little late, even months later. It's still just as exciting!

Winners!

The team you see above and below is my husband's softball team. Sure, a lot of the faces have changed, not that you can tell because the first picture is taken from so far away!!! I can't be sure that I could even pick him out from the group! But as the team has gotten better, so has my photography! (and those uniforms!)
This lower pic was taken this year, just after the guys won second place in the top division for the tournament, and had won first in the top division for the overall season. (I'm explaining the 2 trophies) Getting close up shows you how dirty they got this day, as well as their tired faces. It shows their personalities a little bit and the comraderie they share. Yeah, I'm proud to be a fan, and thankful that I got this shot, because although this group of guys were a little bit easier to arrange and photograph than a group of kids, they didn't stay in place too long!

Scrap happy!

Soften that picture

I was talking with a wedding photographer 10 years ago and I learned something interesting that I didn't try until last year! He said if you put a little tulle in front of your picture, it will soften it just enough. The picture below was taken this way.Another year passed, and my cousin came to visit. I don't know what you do to entertain your out of state company, but we spent a good bit of our visit playing with our cameras! I showed him the tulle and he thought it was the greatest thing.
He took several pictures of me with the tulle in front of his lens, and they pretty much turned out like this.
He has a nicer camera, so that could be why they were so cloudy. Actually, the one above is one of the best he was able to get.
Here he is showing my daughter the pictures. I took some as well, and you can see the tulle in the one below. It was blowing in the wind and is doubled in that corner.

I love the way it softens pictures and just thought I'd share my hint with all of you. Wouldn't this be a nice touch for baby pictures?

Scrap happy!

Fun with Paper! part 2

It's no secret that I like to use paper to make personalized embellishments, but here are some more ideas in how I used paper on our Disney Cruise album. Above, I used a mickey punch and gave him a pirate look to match our pirate night page.
Matting your pics (especially your favorite one on the page) is great, but mat with a little flare sometimes! Matting this picture the way I did, and including the letter stickers underneath was all I needed to decorate this page.
I love this page! I filled in the blank spots with pink and later journalled on it. It is so much easier to journal on pink than black.
Once again, I used to paper to make a mat/ journal block for this page. I also used 2 stickers to "make it my own". A title sticker on top of a regular sun sticker. I used letter stickers to spell out Grand Cayman. Love the result!

Scrapbooking is so much fun! School is starting, along with a miriad of other activities, so I won't have the space nor the time to get a lot of scrapping done for awhile. But I continue taking pictures and thinking, "How can I take this picture so that it looks unique?" Still trying to figure that out. But, it's fun!

Scrap Happy!