Coming up with fresh ideas for your scrapbook layout designs can sometimes be a challenge. So here’s a tip you might find useful:

Recycle your old scrapbook layouts!

I don’t mean that literally of course. But if you choose some of your favorite scrapbook layouts that you have previously done you can easily create a sketch that you can turn into a totally fresh new layout.

How to Create a Sketch from a Scrapbook Layout

• Choose a scrapbook layout that has some strong structural elements to the design.
• Now sketch the layout on a piece of paper, leaving out all the small details. Just draw basic geometric shapes such as circles, rectangles and triangles to represent the key elements.
• The reason for this is that you don’t want to replicate your original scrapbook layout on your new one. You just want to create the structure that you can build your new layout on.
• Now turn the sketch around. See how it looks from each of the four sides. You don’t need to necessarily repeat the sketch exactly as the original layout. But you will have the basic structure of the design to build on.

And for digital scrapbookers you can take it a step further and

Create a Template from your Scrapbook Layouts

• Choose your scrapbook layout in it’s layered format. As before it’s best to choose one with strong structural elements to the design.
• Duplicate the file so you don’t accidentally destroy your original layout.
• Delete any layout specific layers like journaling and any embellishment layers that don’t contribute to the overall structure of the layout.
• Now Control+Click on one of the layer icons in your layers pallet to select all the pixels on that layer.
• Set your color swatch to a shade of grey (just because that’s the usual color for templates) and with your bucket tool, click on the selected element to turn it a solid grey color.
• Repeat the previous two steps for each element layer, varying the shade of grey so that you can easily distinguish between the layers.
• You now have a digital scrapbook layout template which you can vary to create very different looking layouts.
• As with the sketch above, rotate the file so that you can see how the design looks from other angles. And don’t be afraid to discard any of the shapes if they don’t fit what you want to do with your new scrapbook layout.

In the Published scrapbook layout below I turned the template 90 degrees to the right and removed some of the element shapes to create a very different look.

You can download my Karooch Kurvy Template clicking on the template image.

For instructions on how to use your template check out my article on making a Scrapbook Patchwork Quilt. You can pick up another free scrapbooking template there whilst you are at it.

So now you can create many scrapbook layouts from a single favorite.

Do you use sketches and/or templates?

And have you ever tried making your own?

It can be a real boost to the inspiration and it’s very satisfying to get that extra mileage from your favourite scrapbook layouts.

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How to Make a Scrapbook Template or Sketch from a Scrapbook Layout

And of course, my annual homage to the event.

I made this layout using Marcee Duggar's Music Kit with some embellishments from Amy Cheeseman's Heartsong. I'm going through a phase of blending my photos so that they form part of the background paper at the moment.

Once again I meant to buy the early-bird tickets and get the discount. Once again it slipped my mind. Once again I almost forgot which weekend it was on.

But despite all that, once again I have had a great day out at my favourite folk festival.

Kilmore lies about 40 minutes drive north of Melbourne. So from my perspective it’s one of the handiest folk festivals I can get to. And an added bonus is that my sister lives ten minutes away from Kilmore on the way home so it’s become a bit of a tradition to stop there on our way back for a bite to eat and a cosy catch up in front of their fire.

The Kilmore Celtic Festival takes place on the last weekend of June each year and kicks off with a dinner and cailaigh on Friday evening, culminating with a big lunch and concert at one of the Kilmore pubs on Sunday afternoon.

And in between there’s Saturday!

A day packed full of great bands, musicians and singers as well as markets, dancing and workshops.

Kilmore is a small festival and for me that’s part of its charm. There are always plenty of new acts to sample as well as many old favourites to revisit. And this year was no exception.

My favourite band, Ced Meledo’s Bric-a-Brac were in fine form. They represent the Breton contribution to the Celtic culture. And Ced is cute, French and wears leather pants. What more could you ask for? Oh yes, their music is great to listen to.

Another favourite act, Braemar, opened the Festival and woke us up to a set of Scottish balllads. And we enjoyed the return of Bhan Tre who are always great to watch. Each year we like to find a new act that we can add to our favourites and this year we came across two. Both are young bands from the Lake School of Celtic Music. One is called Rant and the other is Dram. Definitely two bands to watch out for on the celtic/folk scene.

And, in what has now become part of our Kilmore Festival tradition, we stopped in at Elaine and Greg’s on our way home. Topping of a terrific day with home made pizza and wine.

Aaaah! Life’s good!

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Kilmore Celtic Festival 2009

With its seventeen syllable format (although the western versions do give a little bit of latitude), it’s perfect for creating a short piece of journaling that still manage to capture the essence of the story you’re trying to tell.

Long term readers of Scraps of Mind will probably remember that I’ve raved about this form of poetry on Scraps of Mind before. I even once ran a bit of a challenge to readers to create their own haikus and we got some fantastic results. I suspect many of you surprised yourself.

It looks difficult but when you actually do it, it’s surprisingly easy.

You just write down what you want to say in three lines. Then you think about the words and manipulate them so that they fit the haiku parameters. The traditional pattern is

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

But no one is going to condemn you if you vary it a little.

And when you have to try to fit what you want to say into that sort of pattern you will amaze yourself at how creative you will be with your words.

And suddenly you find you’ve expressed your message in a very special and concise way that looks really special as a piece of scrapbook journaling.

Have you tried it yourself?

I’d love to see some examples of your own haikus in the comments below.

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Haiku Your Journaling

What’s happened?

Has all your creative juice dried up?

Has your ‘get up and go’ just got up and gone?

Does this mean you’re ‘over’ your beloved craft and will never create again?

Have we finally run out of questions?

Seriously, this is something that many of us have experienced at some point in our creative lives. And it can be very stressful.

You just can’t seem to get in the mood to be creative and so you stop creating.

Let Nature take its course

Remember when you’re looking for something that you know you put away but you just can’t find it? Or when you’re trying to remember something and it just won’t come to you? And finally you decide to just put it out of your mind and stop thinking about it.

Next thing you know it just pops into your head without any effort. Admittedly, this often occurs at an inconvenient time but at least it comes back to your memory.

Well when you feel your mojo has flown out of the window and you just can’t seem to get some creative inspiration going, try using the same technique.

Stop ‘trying’ to be creative.

Don’t let it stress you out.

Do something different.

Focus on family activities or sport or home related stuff or doing things with friends.

DO NOT get a guilt thing happening because you can’t get in a creative mood.

Maybe your brain is telling you it’s time to take a break. So just go with the flow.

After a while you will find that you will naturally come back to your craft and feel in the mood to start creating again. But don’t push it. It may take a few weeks, it may take months.

Remember the words of the Prophet: it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

And you will be relaxed and ready to go again when your scrapbooking inspiration does come back.

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When Your Mojo is No-Go

“How so?” you ask, “When you have to buy the computer equipment and software before you can start.”

Well stop and think for a moment. You already have the computer equipment, or you wouldn’t be reading this article.

So all you need extra is the software.

Now if you’ve been reading Scraps of Mind for a while you will know that my digital scrapbooking weapon of choice is Adobe Photoshop Elements. You can read why I like it in my review of Photoshop Elements here.

But I would never pay full price for it!

I always run with a version that is not the latest one and I buy it from eBay. The important thing is to make sure you are getting an original copy that you can register with Adobe. Then if you want to upgrade at a later date you can do so easily.

Adobe are up to Version 7 of Photoshop Elements but I am still running Version 5 because I find that it gives me all the scope I need for my digital scrapbooking and photo editing. Plus I can easily make my own scrapbooking embellishments to print out and use with my paper scrapbook layouts. So I’m never stuck for the right embellishment.

So you see, you don’t need to spend over a hundred bucks to get your software. And once you have that you actually don’t have to spend another cent if you don’t want to. Because the Internet abounds with scrapbooking freebies. If you browse through the Scraps of Mind Scrapbooking Freebies section you will find links to some great sites that regularly offer freebies.

And in a shameless plug for my own tutorials, I can teach you how to digital scrapbook with Photoshop Elements in my  Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Program of weekly eclasses which brings you a weekly video tutorial showing you how to create a scrapbook layout and teaching you new techniques each week. As well as a full complementary digital scrapbooking kit with each new layout.

Generally when you start digital scrapbooking you will like to create scrapbook layouts that look like paper scrapbook layouts. And of course digital scrapbooking kits provide all the elements, nicely color coordinated to let you do that. But often you will then move on to incorporate techniques that let you do some fancy things like blending a photo to become part of your background and giving your photos a soft feathery vignette edge. That’s where you will enjoy all the functions available in a broader graphics editing package like Photoshop Elements.

But if you can’t be bothered learning how to use Photoshop Elements there are a number of very simple to use software packages on the market that will get you creating digital scrapbook layouts in the blink of an eye.

Scrapbook Max is one of them and I wrote a review of it here. I have tried this out and I can tell you that it is a very easy to use package with practically no learning curve. So for instant digital scrapbooking gratification it’s hard to go past. And if you are opting for one of these packages, I would definitely recommend it.

But there are others too that can offer a variety of templates for you to use to create instant scrapbook layouts on your computer.

Top Ten Reviews is an online store which sells a number of these packages. It’s a handy place to go and browse through the reviews to see which ones you might prefer. The reviews are likely to have a certain bias. But at least you can get a bit of an idea of what each package will give you. So you know what you are getting for your money.

These packages are a very easy way to get started with digital scrapbooking.

But I would issue a warning.

If you’re already a scrapbooker you obviously have a creative turn of mind.

Most of these packages can be a bit limiting creatively. They may allow you to work with the templates and elements provided but not to create or import your own. And they will probably not let you use any other digital scrapbook kits that you download from the Internet as they won’t be in the correct format for these packages.

So there’s a possibility that you will outgrow these packages. But even if that’s the case, a package like these will serve the purpose of acting like a stepping stone to ease you into digital scrapbooking.

That’s one of the reasons why I prefer a generic graphics editing program such as Photoshop Elements. Sure there’s a bit of a learning curve, but I think it’s worth it for the freedom you get to do your own thing.

But whether you decide to go with one of these simpler packages or with a Photoshop Elements graphic editing program, you will easily save the cost of the package with the scrapbook supplies that you won’t be needing to buy.

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Here in Australia we celebrate Fathers Day in September. But I know that many Scraps of Mind readers are preparing to celebrate Fathers Day in their country next Sunday.

I had a look on Wikipedia and the commemoration of Fathers Day is scattered all through the calendar if you look around the World. It seems that there is hardly a month in the year when someone somewhere isn’t celebrating it.

So with that in mind I thought I’d give you some free word art to use in your Fathers Day card rather than just leaving the inside blank.

And if you won’t be able to see your Dad on Fathers Day, why not attach the word art to your Fathers Day email.

Anyhow here it is. If you right click on the image you can download a high resolution JPG file. This will have a white background.

But if you right click on the link below you’ll get a PNG file which will have all the transparent areas remaining transparent instead of turning them white.

I hope you and your Dad enjoy them.

Right click here to download the PNG File

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Right click here to download the PNG File

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Right click here to download the PNG File

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Right click here to download the PNG File

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Right click here to download the PNG File

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Word Art for Fathers Day

Maybe they’re really old photos from your granny or great-granny’s time and have suffered through the passage of time to look a bit battered and worn now.

How frustrating it is not to be able to create great scrapbooking memories from them just because the quality is so poor.

So I thought we might look at some ways in with you can use your computer and photo editing software to try and fix up these photos and give them a new lease of life.

Damage around the edge of your photos

Many of our really old photos have had a hard life. And it often shows in the dog-eared edges that they have developed over the years.

If the damage around the edges of your photos doesn’t extend too far into the photo, and if the background in this area is not important to the context of your photo, then the easiest way to deal with this is to crop the daggy edges off.

Now before we go any further I need to stress that you should not physically crop your old photos. It is the digital versions that I’m talking about. The digital image you have created after scanning your photo (using some of the tips in 6 Top Tips to Photo Restoration with Your Scanner).

The instructions in this article are based on Photoshop Elements but all good photo editing software programs will have similar tools and functions

• Load your scanned photo into your photo editing software
• Select the Crop Tool from your tool bar and drag the mouse across the part of the image that you want to retain in your restored photo.
• Release the mouse button and click on the accept check mark to crop your photo.

Dark and Gloomy

Often your old photos will actually grow darker with age as the black ink on your black and white prints starts to ‘take over’.

It’s important to try to fix as much of this as you can at the scanning stage as described in my earlier article on  using your scanner to help with photo restoration.

By adjusting the lighting with your scanner you can capture much more detail and you will be able to further improve on this using your photo editing software. If you don’t make this adjustment at the scanning stage then this detail will be lost and no matter what else you do, you won’t be able to get it back.

Once you’ve scanned in your photo, play around with the lighting, shadows and highlights functions and also with the brightness and contrast as I described in More Tips for Photo Restoration.

Here’s how to lighten up those dark and gloomy looking photos:

• Duplicate your photo layer and work on the duplicate.
• From the Blending Menu in your Layers Pallet choose Color Dodge for colored photos or Linear Dodge for black and white photos
• Your photo will be lightened and brightened And you should be able to see the extra detail.
• If you don’t want it that light, reduce the opacity of the blended layer so that more of your original photo is in the mix.
• Ctrl+G to group the two layers together. And Ctrl+E to merge them.

If you still have some areas of your photo that are too dark then you can apply the Dodge Tool to spot fix them.

• Duplicate your photo layer and work on the duplicate.
• Select the Dodge Tool from your Tool Bar ( in PSE it is grouped with the Burn and Sponge Tools and looks like a black lollipop)
• Choose a soft brush and set the Exposure to 15% and set the range to Midtones or Shadows (depending on how dark the area that you want to fix is).
• Now just carefully ‘paint’ over the areas you want to lighten up with your mouse.

Faded Photos

Sometimes your vintage black and white photos will fade over time.

Make all your adjustments before scanning your photo into your computer and then tweak the lighting as described in More Tips for Photo Restoration.

Where there is an area of your photo that is still faded you can bring out the detail using the Burn Function. Remember though, you can’t burn back detail that isn’t there. So that’s why it’s important to get the best quality scan that you can. The scanner can pick up detail that your eye can’t see and you can then bring this detail out with the tools in your photo editing software.

Just follow the instructions above but from the Blending Menu in your Layers Pallet choose Color Burn for colored photos or Linear Burn for black and white photos (set the range to Highlights).

To spot fix any other specific areas choose the Burn Tool from the tool bar. It looks like a hand in a fist. Then apply it as described for the Dodge Tool

Spotting on photos

On really old black and white and sepia photos or ones that have not been well stored during their life you might notice very small brownish spots. This is known as foxing.

If the marks are very small you can fix them with the Healing Brush.

Just select the Healing Brush tool from your tool bar and click on the blemish. Your photo editing software will copy the pixels from the surrounding area and paste them over your blemish.

This technique only works with very small blemishes. If your damaged area is larger than a spot I recommend you use the Clone Stamp Tool (I believe it’s called the Rubber Stamp Tool in Paintshop Pro).

• Select the Clone Stamp from your tool bar and set the opacity to between 30-50%.
• Choose a soft round brush to work with that’s smaller than the area you want to fix.
• On a section of the photo that has the color/tone that you want to place on your blemish, click with the mouse button whilst holding down the Alt key at the same time(Alt+Click). This provides a reference point for your computer to copy/clone from.
• Now dab over the blemish area with your mouse. Because you have a low opacity you won’t cover it entirely. But that’s OK because you can Alt+click on another area of the photo and repeat the process. You don’t want to make your cover up look like a cut and paste from another part of your photo.
• You should repeat this a number of times, just covering a little of the blemish each time until you are satisfied.

As you can see this will require a bit of playing around and you may need to reverse your actions sometimes until you get the effect you want. It is obviously a  trickier exercise with a larger area than with a smaller one.

Repairing torn or creased photos

If your photo is sepia convert it to black and white in your photo editing software. It’s easier to work in black and white and you can convert it back to sepia when you have finished restoring it if you want to.

If the tear is on a part of the background that is similar to another part of the background you can copy/paste part of your photo to cover it.

• Duplicate your photo layer and work on the duplicate.
• Select the Marquee Tool from your tool bar.
• Set it to ‘New Selection’
• Drag your mouse across the part of your photo you want to copy. You will get ‘marching ants’ around the selected area.
• Press Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste.
• Your selection will automatically be pasted into a new layer.
• Click on the new layer and switch to your Move Tool.
• You can now move the copied selection over the tear in your photo background.
• When you are happy with the positioning, click Ctrl+E to merge the two layers together.

If your tear is in an area with more detail, you will need to use more specific repair techniques:

• Duplicate your photo layer and work on the duplicate.
• Crop the photo back to what you absolutely need to reduce the amount of repair work you need to do.
• Make all of your adjustment to the photo; adjusting lighting, shadows and highlights, brightnes and contrast etc.
• Now use the Clone Stamp as described above to hide the tear by replacing it with clones of similar areas of your photo. You should choose a soft brush set to a small radius and with 100% opacity.
• This can be painstaking work and you should change your reference point frequently (Alt+Click) so that the repair doesn’t look like you’ve just stuck a section of a photo on top.

I hope these tips will help you to rescue some of those old heritage photos and use them before they deteriorate too far. It’s well worth taking a bit of time and trouble because once they’re gone, they’re gone for ever.

And if you have any other tips or experiences that you’ve had trying to restore old photos, please share them with us in the comments section below. I love to read your comments and ideas and I know other Scraps of Mind readers do too.

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Well is seems that a guy called Joshua Allen has taken this concept and turned it into some great street art.

I’m a big fan of good street art. I reckon we need all the help we can get to keep us cheerful as we go about our working lives in the middle of a large city. And livening up the streets with unexpected art has got to be a bonus for every day life.

Anyway, Joshua has created these very cool creatures out of plastic garbage bags and when they’re attached to hot air gratings the the effect is terrific.

Actually my favourite part is when the air turns off and they deflate.

So check out this and see what you think.

Cool or what?

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Inflatable Bag Monsters

Although you can use it for cards or anything else you want.

Last year I ran a fortnightly newsletter which many of you subscribed to. I gave away three original pieces of Word Art in each newsletter.

Well life is a tad more hectic this year and I don’t really have the time to put together a regular newsletter. But I still enjoy making Word Art.

So I thought I might offer some Word Art Freebies to you from time to time on Scraps of Mind.

Here’s the first. I hope you enjoy it.

Right mouse click on the Word Art and select Save Link As… or Save Target As… to downoad the full sized Word Art in PNG format.

I love this quotation, by my good friend Anonymous. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded that life is not just about the passing of time. We really do need to stop and smell the roses.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the free Word Art. And if you have any favorite quotes or sayings that you’d like me to make into Word Art, just let me know in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do.

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Word Art Freebie

And getting your name right probably seems so obvious that you might not think it worth writing about.

But here’s a tip I discovered a couple of weeks ago.

If your current name is different from the one you were known at school with (such as if you changed your last name when you married), then you should include your birth name in your profile name.

Darn!! I wish I had realised this when I signed up my Facebook account. Because although you can change just about anything else in your profile after your account is set up, you can’t change your name!

So annoying. I’ve had to open another account using my ‘old’ name to that anyone from my past, who might want to track me down, can search on my former name and find me.

What a der-brain I am for not realising this before.

But it is very cool to locate old family and friends with Facebook. I’ve found a couple of cousins from London and hopefully, with my new account in my old name, I might be able to locate some old school friends. How super-cool would that be? To locate an old school friend after many (many, many)decades?

Who knows, they may even be into scrapbooking.

Well wish me luck.

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