The title font used on this Birdie page is: “All Over Again“; the text is a standard “Verdana.”

In the Bear in Traction page, the Title font used was: “30 Pack Girl“; the text font: “A Little Pot.”

So these are my 6 top favorite fonts for Titling  & Journaling (if you ask me next week it might be different…)

Titles

Journaling

Are you a “Font-a-holic?” What’s your favorite?

Just Because card kit

If you know me, you know I like quick and easy. So this Just Because Card Kit is right up my alley. They are card blanks that are already colorful so all you have to do is add as much bling as you want. I favor very little embellishment, so I made this card within a matter of minutes. (It took me longer to scan/photograph and write this quick blog than to make the card!)

I love the details on the included envelopes:

inside envelope detail

I used leftover scrapbooking supplies to decorate my card – some Paper Flowers and Paper Ribbon. All I needed was to cut and apply with my scrapbook adhesive and add “Mom” in sticker ABC/123′s:

Would you like to make a card in 2 minutes?

Oh so pretty...

So, what’s her story? You could maybe guess but why should you? Tell the story – it is as important as the picture – sometimes even more important…

So, her story…

I received Raggedy Ann (and her boyfriend, brother, cousin – I was never clear on the

Always loved her red hair...

relationship – Andy) when I was young (not sure exactly but sometime before Age 8.) I liked her immediately – she has subtle red, curly yarn hair – not that really glaring fake (like from a bottle) red hair – similar to my maternal Grandmother’s. At some point I decided she wanted to “look pretty” and borrowed my mother’s lipstick. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember having a moment of “Oops!” so I tried to cover it up with baby powder, thus setting the stain (as if lipstick would have come out anyway.)

I have had ample opportunity to send her to doll hospital so she could “have a little work done” but she wouldn’t be MY Raggedy Ann – I like her the way she is and I like that she reminds me of my past misdeeds and spontaneity.

Do you have something with a back story?

Blanching Almonds - crazy?

Funny how a process that is seemingly unrelated can connect you to memories…

My maternal Grandmother once observed that I choose to do things that pose a challenge for me. I always loved and respected her, but until that moment, I’m a bit ashamed to say, I underestimated her. She allowed me to see a side of her other than the unconditionally loving, perfect cook and baker – the observational and very astute side (something I think she passed on to me…)

So, what challenge did I decide to take on AND scrapbook – because, you know, Life Belongs in a Photo Album?

Vegan yogurt. Now, I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, plenty of people have come before me to do this, but the challenge is seeing which one I like and am willing to make on a regular basis. The digital scrapbook page below shows my first attempt – I will NOT be making this one again.

Since then, I have made several other yogurts that were easier and more productive – heck, I’ve even learned how to crack open a Thai coconut! I still need to adjust the recipes to my tastes. The question is: “Once I master it, will I be done?” Will I continue to make it or move on to another challenge? Or, will I continue to make it AND move on to another challenge?

How about you? Do you have a need to meet personal challenges?

Scanned/Printed Paper

I was going to title this: “How To Make the Carpets Match the Drapes in the Scrapbooking World” but realized that I might get some undo attention…

The blog post Creating Your Own Background reminded me of a similar way I used scanning technology in a scrapbook layout. I was putting together a page of an event for my daughter’s 2nd grade class Pioneer performance and couldn’t fine a “perfect” paper color. I had saved the little paper bonnet that she wore and was planning on somehow incorporating on the page, when I thought, “Hey, I can scan and print it out to use as paper!” So, that’s exactly what I did. I laid the bonnet out flat, scanned and printed* it and used my new “designer” paper to mat the photo shown above and for a title box shown in page layout below.

Second Graders are so cute...

*Warning: Photo Solutions Superhero geekiness about to occur…In a perfect world you would want to be concerned about the paper you are printing on, as well as the inks – they should meet ISO 18902 standards for photo safety. But our desire to include memorabilia and our design sense sometimes conflicts with this.

So, here is what I do: I use photo album pages, adhesives, paper and pens that meet those standards. When I want to include something like a birthday card, ticket stub or a paper I’ve printed, I treat it like memorabilia – meaning I place it so it doesn’t touch a photo. For my homemade printed paper, I mounted the picture on a photo safe paper first, then the printed paper.

What cool thing would you scan and print for your scrapbook layout?

I was watching American Idol the other night – very talented group of individuals this year. I watch it most years, but not early on and I don’t like to watch the results show (it’s so painful – although they usually have some good performances…it’s a quandary…)

This year one of the contestants is from my city. I drove by the high school he attends and saw a banner asking everyone to vote for him. This got me thinking (I know what you’re thinking…)

Is it right to vote for someone in a talent competition just because you know him or people who know him? Or, should you vote for the person you thought was the best (assuming you vote at all?)

So, now shameless gratuitous promotion of my daughters high school choir:

(Sorry for cutting that off abruptly…I started rambling, so I had to edit – but I don’t always take a breath between sentences, so it makes it difficult for the amateur video editor )

I really believe you have to bring yourself to the party. It has become cliche but the fact is people really only like to do business with who they know, like and trust. If you don’t share who you are, how can they? How can you really enjoy what you do if you can’t be yourself?

Honestly, I don’t know how to not be me… The first time someone pointed out to me that I “really knew who I was” I was taken aback. I guess I thought everyone did. I hope you do, because I bet you’d be nice to know.

What do you think? How do you reconcile presenting a business that others would want to do and be yourself?

One thing you will notice right away is that the color is improved in a lot of the after-dark shots – that’s the advantage of technology today that wasn’t available to me 20 years ago. My Photo Organizing Software is also an editor and I can fix color problems fairly easily.

My first version used paper from the Delight Surfer Girl (available as digital artwork or traditional scrapbooking paper.) I then, decided to show a “less busy” version with a white background – either one looks better to me than my original over-cropped pinked version.

What do you think? Should I replace my original page with today’s version?

This wasn’t really one of my “firsts” – I scrapbooked as a kid…but it was one of the first after I re-discovered it. I don’t usually judge, scrapbooking is individual and it’s as much about what makes you happy as telling the story and highlighting your photos.

However…this one is laden with so many bad moves I thought I’d share and let you know that we all start somewhere. This is an actual page in one of my family scrapbook photo albums and even though I’m not happy with it now, I don’t change it because as both my  Queen of Attendance and Queen of  Pages for 2011 pointed out, “A good page is a done page…” (not in this case…)

So, I’m going to break this rule guideline. Since I’ve already converted my negatives to digital (a service I offer, by the way.) Next week I’m going to show you how I might handle these photos today, about 20 years later (egads, I had to do the math twice!)

If you are new to scrapbooking, please back…away…from…the…pinking sheers…

What is your confession?

Love Tree

In creating my digital scrapbook page layouts, I get inspired by different things. Sometimes it’s the photos themselves (imagine that!) Sometimes it’s a decorative element that creates inspiration for my scrapbooking layouts. Sometimes it’s another person’s layout from which I “scrap-lifted”.

For this year’s Valentine page, I had pictures, but nothing in particular was speaking to me. As you can hear from the video, I’m not too keen on the typical Valentine artwork, so I did a little searching within my collected artwork and found this “Love Tree”. This was the inspiration for the color selections in this layout. Take a gander at Part 1, the layout:

As I promised, I’m providing the link to the “Love Tree” artwork… Now on Part 2, adding the Color and Texture:

This was my finished layout:

What’s Inspiring You?