Signature Scrapbooks Blog

Creating a Digital Project Life Layout

2013-01-07T15:55:00.001-07:00

New Project Life Tutorials are on the site!! And as always, they are FREE! See how easy it is to create a digital project life layout in less than 10 minutes! :)

Everyday Life / Project Life 2013

2013-01-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

If you are thinking about starting a digital Project Life album for 2013, you might want to check out our new products! :) Everything is 25% off too! Each title/journal card design comes in all 30 colors so it's no problem matching any photos in your layouts! :) Plus with the EDL Brush Collection you can add extra embellishments to your journal and title cards! :)

Click this link to watch video tutorials of how to create a digital project life layout in less than 10 minutes!!

Click this link to go to our Everyday Life Products!!

Project Life Pages

2012-11-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

I know many of you are really overwhelmed with your scrapbooking. I feel for you. I've been there... and I still have guilty feelings when I fall behind. I worry that I will forget these everyday moments with my kids if I don't get them recorded. It's a fact that I have trouble remembering things from last week... let alone years ago. :)

What I really want is to sit down with my books (when I'm old and grey) and re-live some of these wonderful memories I get to live today. :)

Here are some things I've learned about scrapbooking/documenting your life:

#1. Photos are awesome, but they aren't the whole story. When my oldest daughter was born, I took TONS of photos. And I scrapbooked everything you could think of. I have a layout of her eating toast... another with her holding a toothbrush... yeah... I know. :) Here's the kicker... I have NO journaling. It's a huge book full of layouts of her doing anything and everything, but no journaling to go along with it. So although I had some significant reason for scrapbooking her eating that piece of toast... I can't remember now why I did it because I didn't write it down. :( Even if you just write like you talk (as I do... as you can tell I'm sure.) One day, you will be happy you did.

#2. If you are behind... start with RIGHT NOW and work your way back. It is so much easier to keep up with the present, then to start in the past. Let me tell you why. Let's say you are 3 years behind on your scrapbooking. So you go back to 2009 and start. That's great, but by the time you get to scrapbooking Thanksgiving of 2012 (that just happened last week and you could write a novel on), it's now 2015 and you are trying to remember what you did that year... see the problem? Things that were in the past are already mostly forgotten, start with today and get these memories recorded while they are fresh on your mind, then work backward. :)

#3. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Oh my gosh this one makes me laugh. Back in the day, I made this layout that was TO DIE FOR... haha (or so I thought)... turns out, today... it's not that hot. LOL. In fact I look at it and chuckle wondering what I was thinking. :) All that matters is your photos and your journaling. Take the pictures to help tell the story and write about it. That's all that matters. :)

Now this brings me to Project Life. On my site, we call it Everyday Life but it is the same concept that Becky Higgins came up with. :) Basically, take your photos and get them in a book. Take it "back to basics." Your scrapbooks should be about the photos and journaling. Period. One day, you will be grateful you did it this way, and guess what... it's SUPER EASY. :) I have no problem staying up to date with my book. And!!! You can do it however you want! :) If you want to take a photo a day, great, if you want to scrapbook your "week", awesome. If you want to put all your favorite pictures in a book with captions, do it. You are free to do whatever you want! :)

Here are some of my layouts from these past few weeks:

I am a digital scrapbooker, so all my layouts are done on the computer (which I love). But you can also do this same thing with Becky Higgin's products. :) The choice is yours, but I totally recommend the system. It works. :)

By the way, this is the perfect way to get you started in 2013!! We are releasing an all new Digital Everyday Life kit for 2013!! It's awesome and it has everything you see in my layouts and much more. :)

Our Holiday Card

2012-11-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

I was trying to figure out how to schedule in a family picture before Christmas... realizing that I just didn't have time. So this year I decided to do a little something different. :) Here's what we came up with:

I saw this idea on Facebook but I think it originated from Photographer Jason Lee. :) I loved the idea!! It really fits our family. Our little red-head is a fire-cracker and he really would do something like this. HaHa! I love that we can do a not-so-traditional holiday card... and for the first time, the kids had fun making the card. :) (Disclaimer: the kids were not actually taped to the wall. :)

Here's the back:

I figured we would stick with the duct tape and stick some across the back of the card. :) I hope this helps inspire some creativity for your holiday card this year! :)

Digital Scrapbooking Actions for Photoshop & Photoshop Elements

2012-10-17T15:47:00.001-06:00

Oh Happy Day! I'm so excited to announce our new Action Set for digital scrapbooking! It is truly amazing and I can't wait to get some tutorials up on the site to show you. :) First though, you must be wondering what is new? Well, I'll tell ya... our Insert Image Action is all new and now resizes your photos! So you only click once where you want your photo to go and the action does everything else for you! It honestly can't get much easier.... (trust me, I've spent the last five years teaching people how to use Photoshop Elements to scrapbook. :) Lol. :)

Here's a basic run-down of our new Signature Scrapbooks Actions:

SS Insert Image: (SS Stands for Signature Scrapbooks)

Lets start with a cute Photobook Template first, ;) like this one from our site. Lets say you want to use it "as is" and insert your photos into it. Simply click on Photo 1 and run the action.

A window will open that is asking you to browse to the photo you want to put into Photo 1. Simply browse to your pictures and click on one.

Here are a couple of WONDERFUL tips!! For Mac users, you can click on any image (in the browse window above) and hit your space bar, this will show a huge preview of the picture so you know you are getting the one you want. Plus, you can just use your arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the next ones, the preview window stays there and rotates pics! :) It's sweet. For Mac users using iPhoto, simply click on the Photos link in your sidebar and your iPhoto Events will load. For Windows users, if you need a larger thumbnail, just click the thumbnail viewer button and chose the largest option! :)
Once you click on your photo you want, simply hit enter on your keyboard, (or click the open button) and watch as the action does all the work for you!

Next, simply click the Photo 2 spot and run the action. Guess what? When your browse window opens this time, it will be in the exact folder you took your last picture from!! AMAZING right? Now you can just grab another pic for your layout and continue. :) Then click Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5 and Photo 6!!! You'll end finishing your layout in under 5 minutes! SS Insert Image is awesome. :) I just can't say it enough. ;)

Now, lets say you get your photos put into your layout, but they are looking a little dull... well SS Photo Boost is the perfect fix. Simply click on the photo you want to boost, and run the action. You will go from the layout above, to this one below... No more editing each picture before you scrapbook. With our actions you can edit your pictures right on your layouts!

There is also a SS Lighten Dark Photo action that will brighten up dark photos. Again, you can use it right on your layouts. Of course if you want to use our actions for your regular photo editing, you are welcome to do that too. :)

Another great feature... you can use our actions on ANY templates from ANYWHERE! If you like to get your templates from a certain site, it's no problem. Do you like to design your own? That's great too. The actions work with ANY of them. In fact, you could simply open photoshop, draw some boxes on an empty document and the action will insert anything you want into those boxes; paper, photos, etc. :) Your possibilities are endless.

For example, lets say I want to change this layout above and make it a template for my daughter's first day of dance. First I click on each picture I inserted and hit delete on my keyboard. It's really easy to switch out pictures... hitting delete is super fast. :) Next, I click on the brown flower paper and click the SS Insert Image Action, again a browse window opens for me to select an image, but instead of picking out a picture, I go get a different piece of paper. Then I click on the dark brown backing paper and run the action... the same folder with the paper pack I picked the first piece from opens again so I select a coordinating paper. Then I do the same for the red circles and possibly the background paper. It's as easy as clicking once on the object I want to change and clicking play on the action. :)

Here is my result:

It seriously only took me 3 minutes to change this layout. :) I L-O-V-E this action set. :) It has sped up my scrapbooking soooo much. ;) Now, should we insert pictures or do you get the idea? :) Yeah... lets do it because we can and it's fast... :)

Here's another take on the same layout... using the actions to switch out the papers to a new paper pack.

You get the idea right? Endless possibilities. :) Here are all the included actions:

For Photoshop Users, you get:

SS Insert Image
SS Insert Image - Custom Resize (This one lets you resize your photo to whatever you want.)
SS Insert Image - No Resize (This one will insert without resizing at all, ideal for paper.)
SS Insert Element
SS Insert Paper
SS Photo Boost
SS Lighten Dark Photo
SS Create Jpegs (This will split the above 24x12 layouts into two printable 12x12's)
SS Open Template (This will open your psd templates.)
SS New 24x12 (This will create a new blank 24x12 document to create a layout from scratch.)
SS New 12x12 (This will create a new blank 12x12 document to create a layout from scratch.)
CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE DETAILS ON THIS ACTION SET.

For Photoshop Elements Users, you get:

SS Insert Image
SS Insert Image - Custom Resize (This one lets you resize your photo to whatever you want.)
SS Insert Image - No Resize (This one will insert without resizing at all, ideal for paper.)
SS Insert Element
SS Insert Paper
SS Photo Boost
SS Lighten Dark Photo
SS Create Jpegs (This will split the above 24x12 layouts into two printable 12x12's)
CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE DETAILS ON THIS ACTION SET.

Ready to buy? Here's your options.... buy the Action set by itself or buy the Combo Pack. The Combo pack lets you have unlimited downloads of our Photobook Templates on our site. The combo pack is $34.99 and the actions alone are $19.99. So for an additional $15, you get over 80 (at $1.99 each) Photobook Templates for FREE!! This is an awesome way to jump start your scrapbooking. :)

Click here for the Actions for Photoshop CS users

Click here for the Actions for Photoshop Elements users

Click here for the Combo Pack of Actions and Free Photobook Templates for all users

Photographing Lightning

2012-07-23T16:03:00.001-06:00

Last night I was sitting with my family, visiting and watching tv, when I noticed lightning going on in the far mountains. I kept glancing out there every once in a while, especially when there was one extremely bright... but it wasn't until everyone decided to go to bed, that I decided to get out the camera. :) I got all my stuff together and headed outside. It was such a rush to take pictures of something so beautiful and dangerous. I was all giddy when I captured the picture above! :) The only reason I finally went to bed (at 2:20 am) was because I had run my camera battery dead. :)

Now, I'm no expert at taking pictures of lightning, but here is what I do to get the shot. :)
1. I get my tripod. There really no way to get a good picture without one.
2. I switch my lens to manual focus and I look through my eye piece to focus the lens. (Sometimes I keep looking through until I see some lightning, that way I know if it's focused.)
3. Now I switch my camera to Manual Mode so I can change the Shutter to Bulb. This allows the shutter to stay open as long as the button is held. (This is important because sometimes you need to leave it open for a while (3 to 30 seconds) to capture a strike. It would be very hard to wait until you see lightning to click the button. Be careful that you don't leave the shutter open too long though. In my case last night, the sky was still pretty bright from the city lights so 10 seconds was the most I would leave it open.)
4. Now I just aimed my camera at the "most active" lightning spot in the sky and kept taking pictures. :) I use a trigger release so I don't have to touch my camera. It plugs into the side of my Canon and has a cord down to a button. Sometimes when you keep touching your camera to push the button, you wiggle it.... but it's not necessary to have one.
5. Some final tips... If you capture lightning right after you have pressed the button, don't keep the shutter open, release it. The lightning is so bright that it will expose properly. Here is an example of a pic that the shutter was held open for 10 seconds:

You can see that the lightning was too bright so there is not much detail left. (When I took this picture, the shutter had been already open for 8 seconds before the lightning came so the clouds and sky were already getting lighter and lighter... that's why the actual lighting is too bright.) However, I still really like this picture. :)

I hope this helps you get some pictures of your own! Feel free to comment if you have other questions! :)

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

2012-04-20T17:58:00.001-06:00

[ (Left Bracket): Makes brush smaller.
] (Right Bracket): Makes brush bigger.
Shift + [ (Left Bracket): Makes brush softer.
Shift + ] (Right Bracket): Makes brush harder.
Control + u : Adjust color, saturation, and lightness of layer.
Control +Shift+ U : Removes Color (B&W).
Control + L : Adjust photo levels.
Use Arrow Keys to nudge a layer in any direction.
Using the Move Tool, move the cursor outside the corner bounding box until the rotate arrows appear, click and rotate.
Hold “Shift” when drawing shapes or using the cookie cutter or shapes tool to constrain proportions.
Control J copies duplicates the layer your clicked on.
Holding ALT when you click and drag on a layer will also duplicate it.
Control + (plus key) will zoom in on your layout.
Control - (minus key) will zoom out on your layout.
When using the Brush Tool. You can press any number on your keyboard to change the opacity of the brush. AKA: If you want 50% opacity, you press 5 on your keyboard, 35% opacity is 35 on your keyboard.
When using the Move Tool, you can quickly change the opacity of the layer your clicked on by pressing any number on your keyboard. If you want the layer to be at 60% opacity, you press the 6 on your keyboard... 40% opacity would be a 4 on your keyboard.

I have a sheet you can print with most of these shortcuts. Click here to download the pdf.

GIVEAWAY Time!

2012-02-08T12:31:00.001-07:00

We're giving away our new Action set for Photoshop CS+ or Photoshop Elements plus FREE Photobook Templates for LIFE on our site!

The Photobook Templates alone are worth over $100. Not to mention the countless number of templates we'll be adding in the future!

All you have to do is go to our Facebook Page and "like" and "share" the post!! It's that easy!

Contest will close on Friday (February 8th, 2012) at midnight (Mountain time).

Good luck to all!! :)

Organizing Your Photos

2012-02-08T11:25:00.001-07:00

I've had a lot of people ask me how I organize/store my photos so I thought I'd make a post about it. I know this system works because I use it, and has worked for me for many years. :) It may not work for everyone, but maybe it will inspire your own ideas that work for you.

I take A LOT of photos, especially since I'm doing our Everyday Life project (take a photo a day). My system for organizing photos has been tweaked over the years until I've finally found something that works. It's so frustrating to have digital photos and not be able to find them. First of all, I unload my camera card often... usually every other day or so. I would hate for the camera to get lost or for the photos to get accidentally deleted. I put the new pictures in new folders according to the directions below.

First, in my Pictures Folder, I have sub-folders that are by year. That way I can keep track of my 2010, 2011, 2012 pictures by their own folders. Inside each individual year, I have more sub-folders. Now, if I take some pictures at Christmas, and name the folder "Christmas 2012", guess where the folder goes? It alphabetizes the folder and puts it toward the beginning of the folders. If I took some pictures in January about going snow tubing, and I name the folder "Snow Tubing"... guess where that folder goes? Toward the end. That default system is not good for me. I wanted to have my January folders listed first, and the December folders listed last within my year folder. I wanted to know that if I was looking for a picture taken in December, I would scroll to the end of my folders, and find the pictures taken in December. Now, the reason for the numbers... I put a number before my folder description so that I can put the name of the folder whatever I want. The computer will store the folder in numerical order. So back in 2009, I started with folder 01. It's full name was "01 - January Pics." The next folder was "02 - Brooklyn's Birthday." Her birthday is in February. Today I am at folder number 614. The number DOES NOT matter. It just keeps them in order.

I've seen people who go in and rename each and every photo. Wow. If you have the time to do that, great. I do not. I name the folder something I know I can find and know that the pictures inside it will be what I'm looking for.

Now... this is VERY IMPORTANT. Backup, Backup, Backup. Even though I unload my card, and put my photos on my computer, I also plug in my external drive and back them up. Your photos should ALWAYS be in at least two different locations at all times! I can't tell you how many times people have told me they've lost their external hard drives and all their photos on them. Don't let that happen to you. If they are in two places, if one fails, you have another to use. I personally have three backups. I have them on two hard drives and DVD's. (Not the DVD's you play in the DVD player, but used for storage.)

Here is my DVD photo storage case. Each DVD has photo previews on them so I can easily find a photo I'm looking for. It also has the date range of the photos so I know which disk pull for a photo taken on that day. I can't tell you how nice it is to have this case of photos.

No matter how you do it... I can't stress enough how important it is to BACKUP your photos!

Favorite Fonts List 3

2011-10-22T13:53:00.003-06:00

Here is the last list of my favorite scrapbooking fonts. :) Just click on the name of the font you want and it will take you to where I downloaded it. :) Happy scrapping everyone. ;)

More Scrapbooking Fonts

2011-10-06T16:47:00.002-06:00

Here is part 2 of my Favorite Scrapbooking fonts!! I'll probably have one more list after this one too. :)
Again, just click on the name of the font you want to download and it will take you to the page where I downloaded the font! :)

The rest of my favorite fonts to come! :)

Fonts in this post: Everytime I Miss You; Fancy Pants; Gentle Redhead; Guess What; Honey Script; Impervious; Irish Spaghetti; Jailbird Jenna; Jazz Essay; Jellyka Bees; Jellyka Vampire Street; Jellyka Western Princess; Jenna Sue; LD Inventive; Little Days; Many Weatz; Milk & Cereal; Monster Paparazzi; Mr and Mrs Popsicle; My Own Topher; Oh {Photo} Shoot; Paulinho Pedra Azul; Pea Lovey Dovey; and Pea Noodle;s Girldfriends.

My Favorite Scrapbooking Fonts

2011-10-06T16:06:00.000-06:00

Here are some of my favorite scrapbooking fonts! I use them all the time on my scrapbook pages.
Click the name of the font to be redirected to the site where I downloaded the font. :) Enjoy!

I'll have more posts like this coming soon because this was only A through E on my list of favorite fonts! :)

Fonts in this post: A Red Bucket; A Truer Blue; Aint Nothing Fancy; Angelic War; Artistamp Medium; Ballpark; BlackJack; Bleeding Cowboys; Blockography; Boring Showers; Bosox; Bosox Outline; Bosshole; Champagne; Champignon; Chocolate Dealer; Dawning of a New Day; Digital Kauno; Doctor Soos Bold; Dotled; Dreamed About You; Dutch & Harley; Eight Fifteen; and Elephants in Cherry Trees.

Simple Photobook Templates

2011-09-09T18:52:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited to about our new Photobook section on our site! I bet you can tell because I keep posting about it. Ha! ;) I've just been so inspired lately by my printed blog book. :) I made my book so quick that I didn't really put much detail in it. (Not that that's bad.) But now I'm excited for my next book. I've made a ton of new templates for a quick book! Here are some of the Simple Photobook Templates I've made. These can be mixed and matched for full 24x12 layouts too! They also work perfectly for you blog posts layouts. :)

These photobook templates can be found on our website! :)
And of course they are free to anyone who purchases the plugin! :)

Photobook Templates

2011-09-06T18:56:00.002-06:00

I am so excited to introduce a new section to our website... Photobook Templates! This section is full of templates that are made for the major online printing companies like Shutterfly and Blurb. They are designed with their margins so when you print, (usually) nothing gets cut off.

Here are some sample Photobook Templates:

The reason I added these to my site is because I USE THEM. They save time and I love how versatile they are. I also have A TON of basic templates I'm going to be adding in the next few days. :) Yay! They are great for putting together a quick book that is really 'just about the photos'.

One more thing... right now if you buy our Signature Scrapbooks Plugin (for photoshop or PSE) you get FREE Photobook Templates on our site... FOR LIFE! That's right... every existing photobook template... and every one that gets added from now to forever, you get for free! Besides that, using these templates with the plugin is SO EASY. You no longer have to resize and clip your photos to fit. Trust me, saving time is saving money. :)

I hope you enjoy our new section to our store!! :) Check it out!

Signature Scrapbooks Plugin Deal

2011-09-01T11:45:00.001-06:00

I've been so behind on my scrapbooks (as you might have read in my previous post)... but lately, I've finally been making a dent. :) Yay! I'm so excited. Not only that, but I turned my personal blog into a book as well. When I got it from Shutterfly, it made me even more motivated to get my other books finished and printed. :)

I don't know about you... but I tried to make a blog book using Blurb's software. It was too much work. I had to customize each and every page, right down to the default font size. I wasn't a fan. So I started completely over using photoshop and our plugin. I made over 100 pages from 3 in the afternoon, to about 6 in the evening, then from about 9 to noon the next day. I think that is fast for a custom blog book. :)

In honor of my new book... and me getting caught up on my kids' scrapbooking... I've decided to share the love and give away all my Photobook Templates on my site when you purchase the plugin. FREE for LIFE. So whenever I add new Photobook Templates from now... to forever... you can download them for free! :)

The point is... get caught up... get your photos in a book that you will love. Care a little less about all the perfect details because in a few years you won't care anyway. :) Promise.

{By the way... The Photobook Templates are designed for printing at the major online printing companies. The margins on them are made so your words and photos don't go into the binding in the middle, or get cut-off on the outside edges. I really love my hard bound books.}

Scrapbooking These Days

2011-08-29T15:27:00.006-06:00

I've been thinking a lot about scrapbooking and what it means these days. I was looking through my scrapbook layouts from a few years ago and realized what I thought was "amazing" back then, is just ordinary now. The layouts are about the photos and the journaling... period. :)

When I first started scrapbooking, I would spend hours... I mean HOURS... on my layouts. I made sure the embellishments were in just the right places, I'd save the layouts and come back to them later with a 'fresh eye' and I would search the internet for hours looking for the perfect supplies. Not anymore.

Mostly because I am over a year behind on my kids' books... I have taken a new approach to how I scrapbook. My goal is to get the photos in a book... and worry less about the "surroundings." I've started creating Photobook Templates (easily done) that I can use in Photoshop (or Elements) over and over again. They are basic templates for showcasing photos and letting the photos speak for themselves. The next thing I use is my plugin for Photoshop. It allows me to put my photos into the templates so FAST and EASY.

Last but not least, I save the layouts so I can send them to print at any printing company I chose. I have used Shutterfly the most and I've been really happy with the books I've received from there. I've also heard good things from the Blurb books too. :) Make sure if you print from Shutterfly, you subscribe to their email list because they send exclusive coupons for 40% to 50% off. I just ordered a book and saved over $100 on it because of a 50% off coupon and free shipping.

I have really enjoyed my scrapbooking journey. I wouldn't change it for anything. I think everyone has to do what works for them. One day, when I am all caught up (because I can do 12 layouts in an hour) I will probably go back to making them more "cutesy"... but maybe not. :) Thanks for reading this post. :) Here is a free gift for you.

Download this fully layered template here. {This is a large download... it may take some time... :)}

Here are some links to show you how I used this layout.
Kason's
Brooklyn's
Aiden's

Disneyland 2011

2011-04-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

What a trip! Look at our crew at Disneyland! There were 15 of us in all wondering the streets of Disneyland and California Adventure. :)

It was really busy but still a blast. We were able to do everything we wanted! :) Now I can't wait to scrapbook our trip! I will be using the plugin, for sure, so it doesn't take me all day. Hopefully we can get permission from Disney to create products to use on our layouts! Keep your fingers crossed!

Look for my Disneyland layout in our gallery!

Excited for Disneyland

2011-04-05T15:49:00.000-06:00

Looking at this picture makes me laugh. I can't believe it has already been 4 years since we've been to Disneyland! My kids are so little!

Luckily, the wait is over... and we are going back this weekend! I can't wait to make some more memories.

I hope to be able to start creating Disney digital products on our site! There aren't very many sites that have "legally" gotten permission to produce Disney products... we hope to be the first!

I also have a new facebook freebie available for our fans. It is inspired by my lilac tree outside. :) It just reminds me of spring. :) Click here to go to our Facebook page.

Enjoy your week and weekend! I'll be posting pictures from Disneyland!

So glad to be home!!!

2011-03-20T22:05:00.000-06:00

Well this last week was spring break so I went back home to Idaho to visit my family and we just got back tonight. It was a nice little vacation but the weather there was horrible it was cold, windy, and guess what it even snowed!!! It was so bad the snow plows had to come out. And that is way I moved to the nice warm weather here in St. George, I missed it so much. So I wanted to make a cute Spring/Summer/Easter template called Spring Fun, I made a 12x24 & a 12x12 Layered Quick page, it reminded me of the warm weather!! Hope you enjoy it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T12:30:00.000-06:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! It's spring break this week and having all the children off school has made it difficult to get anything done. We also traveled up to Salt Lake on Tuesday for a funeral and came back on Wednesday. Things have been crazy!

Sorry there haven't been many new things on the store this week... almost all of my designers are off for the week for the break! :)

However, we do have a new facebook freebie in honor of St. Patrick's Day! The are super fun for your scrapbook pages and your blog!

I hope you all have a great "green" day!

Wild & Crazy!

2011-03-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

So my amazing little sister is running for Junior Class President next year and she asked me to help her with her theme and poster. I always love helping her with these, cause it challenges me creatively. It's extremely hard to come up with anything original... since student council elections have pretty much existed since the beginning of time, and the requirements have never changed. Every year the posters have the same stipulations.... and I would dare say every theme that exist has been covered....but we still did our best to find something unique. I really wanted her poster this year to "SCREAM" Shalei... which meant the design had to be FUN, LOUD, BRIGHT, CRAZY, and CONFIDENT! And... well.....This is what we came up with!

It definitely was a team effort! My mom and best friend Melody Averett took her pics... I designed the poster.... and well... Shalei was the inspiration and Model! :) I am so proud of her and want to wish the best! Good Luck Shalei!! Love ya tons, Thanks so much for letting me help... I had a BLAST Designing it!!

I also decided to let EVERYONE in on the fun!!! I'm giving away these FUN & CRAZY frames for FREE!!! All you have to do is "like" us on facebook! No logging in, no checking out, just download your freebie right there! How awesome it that!!! Hope you ENJOY!!

click here to download frames

Blog Templates

2011-03-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I enjoy blogging and I love to scrapbook... but I need both to be fast or I end up not doing it. That is the whole purpose behind the plugin for photoshop... to make scrapbooking faster. Which, in turn, has made my blogging faster too. I created this set of simple, easy templates for my blog and I really like them. They are the same size so they line up perfectly with each other on my blog... and I can chose whichever layout I want. Awesome.

Now, the best part is that they work with the plugin to create fast jpeg's to upload to your blog. You can just open a template (since they are all psd's for easy clipping), and throw the pictures in with the plugin. Then I can just do a File-> Save As, and save them as jpegs for uploading to my blog.

I love how clean they look and how easy it is to update my blog.... and here is the "other" best part... I am giving away these templates! Obviously, they work faster and easier with the plugin, but you are not required to have it to use these templates! :) So enjoy blogging like I do, faster and easier! (Oh and not to mention cuter!) Here is the latest post from my personal blog....

~Brooklyn's Soccer~

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Here are the rest of the templates that also line up and match these ones. (By the way, these are the "Large" size in picture options.) The "Extra Large" will stretch across a 640px wide 'main wrapper'.)

Click here to download.

Paper Flowers

2011-02-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to make some paper flowers for about 6 months now... but being a "digital scrapbooker," I didn't really have many physical scrapbook products to work with. I finally decided it was worth a try anyway. Me and my mom, Katie, spent the afternoon making Paper Flowers... I loved how they turned out! :)

You can find more info on them here. :) Yay for Paper Flowers! :)

{After} Valentines Day Sale

2011-02-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

We are having an {After} Valentines Day Sale! All our Valentines products are 50% off. Now is the perfect time to stock up for next year and scrapbook this year's Valentines Day! I like to scrapbook when it's fresh on my mind, that way I don't forget the little things I wanted to write down.
Hurry! The sale only lasts until February 21st! :)

We also have a new Facebook Freebie! Thanks to our designer Katie for making this cute frame for all our Facebook fans!! Get it now because it it will only be free for one week!

Party Fun

2011-02-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

My daughter had such a fun birthday going to Little Chefz! They made it such a special party for her and it was nice for me to just be able to enjoy it without all the stress and worry of hosting.

She was so excited to open her iPod. She already had a hint she was getting one, so we wrapped it in a huge box, then a shirt box, then the iPod box. At first, she wasn't suspecting it was an iPod... but by the time she got to the little present... she knew. :) The look on her face is priceless. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to share this cute collage of her and her birthday party! ;)
(Just a side note: make sure you check out our Facebook page each week for a new freebie!)