Creativity Prompt

Hybrid Mini Album – Step By Step

Avital — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:04:22 +0000

On Friday my husband turned thirty.

My beautiful, wonderful, perfect husband has joined the thirty something group and I will join him in October.

I wanted to make a book telling him how awesome he is while incorporating photos from the last year in our life (and one from 29 years ago…)

The easiest way for me to go about it was to make a hybrid mini album.

A hybrid is an album created partly digitally on the computer and partly traditionally with papers, adhesive and other scrapbooking goodies.

I created all the photo collages and titles for the album with Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 8.0 and the rest by hand, here is how I went about it:

Supply

In this album I was using a ton of different products I have had piled up in my office, so I will not tire you with the complete list. I will only highlight some of the main products I was using and loving.

American Crafts Neutrals cardstock.
Basic Grey 6 by 6 paper pad – “Granola“
American Crafts letter “Thickers”.
Doodlebug Designletter stickers.
Basic Grey micro letter stickers (Love. Love. Love)
Martha Stewart starburst punch.
Martha Stewart heart punch.
Tonic paper trimmer (Guillotine).
Tombow temporary adhesive.
Glue Arts glue glider pro.
We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-dile.

Step By Step Instructions

Digital Part

Open a letter size file with 300 DPI resolution.
Use the rectangle shape tool to draw a 6 by 6 square in the middle of your page – that will be your page base. Choose a very faint color for the square, to save ink later…
Create your design only on the 6″ by 6″ area. (I only used fonts, “Impact” in particular.)
To print your design, click on the eye icon next to the layers with your page design, that will conceal everything but the 6 by 6 square.
Print your page on plain copy paper. It will be used as your positioning guide later.
Now conceal the square by clicking on the eye icon and reveal your design again.
Adhere a 6″ by 6″ piece of cardstock to the printed rectangle on your copy paper. Use temporary adhesive to make its removal easier.
Put your copy paper through your printer again, with the cardstock attached to it.
Print your page design.
Repeat. (You don’t have to print the positioning guide again if you don’t move the square on your screen.)

For the photos I just cropped each photo individually to the size I wanted it and layered all the photos on a letter size document I then printed on photo paper.

Traditional Part

Crop all your photos.
Design your pages, add letter stickers to add texture to the rather flat printed titles.
You may also use the free journaling tags you can find here, on Creativity Prompt. They will help you add your journaling in an easy and polished way.
After you finished all the pages design, gather all the pages in the order you want them to be and make sure no page is rotated.
I also added two 6″ by 6″ acetate pages to protect the front and back cover pages.
Use the crop-a-dile to punch holes for the book rings. Punch them at 1″, 3″ and 5″, about ½” from the edge.

Photos of the Finished Mini Album

Do you use the computer to add titles or other elements to your scrapbook pages? Please share by leaving a comment here.

Check out Creativity Prompt’s new and unique self paced workshop: “Welcome Little One”. This workshop will provide you with everything you need, and then some, to make a fabulous handmade mini album to record the first moments of a new born baby.

Bonus Freebie – Learn Today Journaling Tags

Avital — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:53:06 +0000

As a bonus for the Labor-Day weekend I am sharing another set of FREE journaling tags with you guys (for personal use only).

To download it simply click on the image (or the link) and if it doesn’t work try to right-click on it and opt for the “save target as…” option (it may be phrased a bit differently on different operating systems – but do NOT opt for the “save image as” option, as you will get the low resolution tiny preview image).

I hope you like it and have lots and lots and lots of fun with it.

Make sure you didn’t miss the rest of the free printables on Creativity Prompt.

What are you going to use these labels for? Leave a comment.

Check out Creativity Prompt’s self paced workshop: “Capture Your Dream”. In this workshop you will capture, follow and make your dream come true as well as document your journey in a fabulous mixed media mini album.

Friday Freebie – Dear Diary Journaling Tags

Avital — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:09:10 +0000

This week I am sharing a set of FREE “Dear Diary” journaling tags with you guys, for a little bit of self exploration (for personal use only).

Today is a very special day as my wonderful husband is celebrating a very round birthday. On October 20 – I will celebrate my special birthday

I hope you like it and have lots and lots and lots of fun with it. I hope you’ll take this opportunity to look inside and create a layout which is all about YOU.

Make sure you didn’t miss the rest of the free printables on Creativity Prompt.

What are you going to use these labels for? Leave a comment.

Park Adventures And How To Use Fonts As Die Cuts

Avital — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:15:36 +0000

[Fonts: Impact and Adler; Digital Kit: KD Crush by Karla Dudley.]

As a scrapbooker, or a memory archiver, I find myself doing things I would never imagine doing, just for the sake of collecting visual memories.

This layout is a wonderful example of such irrational behavior.

The pictures in the layout were taken with a regular 55mm lens – no tele lens, no zoom – I was standing right in front of the huge bear.

Gladly, I caught Mr. bear on a good day…
(I hope he isn’t traumatized by the insane human who ran after him with a camera)

How To Create Digital Letter Die Cuts

In this layout I used Karla Dudley’s newest digital kit, “KD Crush”, which will be available tomorrow at the Digichic online store. The kit is based on a natural color palette, just in time for fall and includes beautiful papers, brushes and elements (including an alpha set).

However, I used it a bit differently by masking the patterned paper to a regular true type font.

Here is how I made the title for my layout above:

Choose any font, preferably a dominant one, such as “Impact” to give room for the digital patterned paper.
Type down your title, each word separately to allow maximum control over its position.
Decide what is the FINAL position and size of each letter in the title.
Simplify all the title layers (by right clicking on each layer and selecting “simplify”).
Merge the layers together (just select all the relevant layer and then right click on your selection and opt for “merge layers”. To select a couple layers together press the CTR or CMD key while clicking on the layers).
Insert any patterned paper and make sure its layer is directly above the title layer.
Mask the two layers together by pressing “CTR+G” or “CMD+G”.
You may now merge the 2 layers together to add a drop shadow or leave it as is.

Have you ever acted out of character just to take a picture or preserve a memory? Please share your story by leaving a comment here.

Friday Freebie – Watercolor Circle Journaling Labels

Avital — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:55:55 +0000

This week I am sharing a set of FREE watercolor journaling labels with you guys (for personal use only).

I hope you like it and have lots and lots and lots of fun with it.

Make sure you didn’t miss the rest of the free printables on Creativity Prompt.

What are you going to use these labels for? Leave a comment.

A Visit From Home

Avital — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:01:30 +0000

[Digital Kit: KD Rousti by Karla Dudley.]

My mom and dad have flown 7,528 miles to visit me in California.

Both their main flight and in-land connection flight were 3 hour late. Each.

I was sooooo excited to meet them here at last so I can show them around and speak to them.
So when we picked them up at the airport at 1 a.m. last week, I was ecstatic.

My parents are currently staying at our place and I try to do my best in hosting them but it is definitely a challenge.

I am hopeful that when they leave they will return home happy and with the understanding that I did my best to keep them entertained, happy as well as healthy… Or in other words, they will know everything I do – even the stupidest thing – is done with the best intentions.

Therefore I will be less available during the next few weeks and there will probably be less posts up – but stay tuned because I have awesome things coming up on September.

I’d love to get your advise on how to entertain my loved and loving guests without becoming overwhelmed (and insane)… Please leave a comment and help me

P.S.

The layout I made was created with Karla Dudley’s newest release: KD Rousti. Check out the kit, it’s AWESOME!!! The photos were taken with my parents’ point and shoot camera at Point Lobos, CA.

Digital Template – On The Flip Side

Avital — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:03:29 +0000

One of my favorite ways to stretch up my digital supply is by flipping the digital elements over.

It’s so easy, I just go to “image”=>”rotate” and flip it either to the left or to the right and sometimes vertically or horizontally, and voilà – I have a whole new product.

I then nudge a few of the images or rotate a few of the text boxes, so the design will make sense on the flip side… and in the end I get a whole new look.

Today Shimelle Laine has released a new digital template: “Instant Pretty Page template” and as soon as I saw it I knew I am going to flip it.

Here are the two layouts I made with it:

[Fonts:Bradley Hand, Pharmacy, Adler; Digital Kits: Instant Pretty Page Template by Shimelle Laine for Two Peas In A Bucket and KD Capture and Record and KD Fly Boy by Karla Dudley.]

[Fonts: Adler; Digital Kits: Instant Pretty Page Template by Shimelle Laine for Two Peas In A Bucket and KD For The Boys by Karla Dudley.]

How do you stretch your scrapbooking supply? Please share an advice by leaving a comment on this post.

Monika Wright – Reader Highlight

Avital — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:02:47 +0000

Every Friday (almost…) I put up a set of free printable labels for you guys and I always ask what are you planning to do with those journaling labels.

I always enjoy reading all the creative ideas you share with me on what to do with those labels.

However, what I enjoy the most is seeing projects you’ve made with my labels or based on my tutorials or workshops. Those e-mails or comments really warm up my heart.

A few days ago I got an e-mail from one of my readers, Monika Wright, who has recently discovered my blog through Celeste Smith’s blog. Monika sent me a link to an album she made, using my labels (among many others).

Monika is amazingly talented and super creative. I love her blog and I am totally in love with the mini album Monika made. Isn’t she amazing???

Please share any project you’ve made with my journaling labels by leaving a link to your relevant blog post or gallery page as a comment.

Friday Freebie – Watercolor Journaling Labels

Avital — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:57:04 +0000

This week I am sharing a set of FREE watercolor journaling labels with you guys (for personal use only). I love the instant artistic look these labels provide.

I hope you like it and have lots and lots and lots of fun with it. Do you have any suggestion for later labels?

Make sure you didn’t miss the rest of the free printables on Creativity Prompt.

What are you going to use these labels for? Leave a comment.

I have Missed Yet Another Birthday…

Avital — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:02:33 +0000

[Font: Adler; Digital Kits: Sailora and Stamped Alphas 1 - all by Karla Dudley.]

My husband and I are extremely fortunate.

We get to travel a lot.
We experience living in different continents.
We are learning new cultures.
We are meeting new friends from all around the world.
We are following our dreams freely and passionately.

Indeed we are very lucky (not to mention that we have each other).

But our adventures and unique lifestyle also encapsulate a huge drawback –
we are living far away from our families.
We live far away from our childhood friends and soul-mates (except for us two).
Very far away.
Too far.

The distance is so long that no web connection can adequately bridge between us.
The distance is so long that our hearts sometime feel disconnected and torn apart.

I had such a wonderful connection with my family (and with Nadav’s).
I used to meet my sister every week for a coffee.
I used to meet my niece and nephews at least once a week.
I used to attend every birthday party, even if it meant being late to an important meeting or leaving it early.

I had a wonderful connection with my niece and nephews and now distance is tearing me apart from them.
Occasionally I send them handmade cards which they collect but they keep getting less and less inclined to speak with me when I call via Skype.
And worse of all, I miss all their birthdays…

I wish there was a way to enjoy all worlds, but there isn’t (maybe if we are rich enough to buy a jet…)

I miss you so much!

Is there a special event you have missed? Do you ever feel like one part of your life takes over another? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.