I wrote last week about the fears I had about my daughter starting a brand new school.  Needless to say, I was dreading the arrival of the first day of school.  As the day grew closer, I began to realize that I wasn’t the only one who was starting to get nervous…my daughter’s nerves were starting to get the best of her.  That night before school began was a tense one, and I went to sleep wondering what the next day would hold.  The next morning was rushed…as you can imagine, seeing that all four of us started school on the same day.  I barely had a minute to think about how she would react to the change.  It wasn’t until I was halfway through my first class that I thought about it.  I put it out of my head, fighting the urge to call my parents to see how it went, fearing the absolute worst.

Want to know what happened?

She was fine.  In fact, she was great.  She was a brave, brave girl walking to her class with no fear.  In the midst of all the nerves, the nerves of all the people around her, she pushed forward and was brave.  Later, when I asked her how she managed to be so brave, she said to me, “I knew I just had to do it Daddy.”  At six years old, my daughter took the bull by the horns and faced her fears head on.  I’ve never been so proud of her.

It got me thinking…how many things are we afraid of, and not willing to face?  Why are we always so reluctant to look our fears in the face and say, “You don’t scare me.”  I’ve decided, that for the rest of 2010, I am going to try and live by my daughter’s inspiration and take the bull by the horns.

It didn’t take long before I was face to face with one of my biggest fears.

I love pattern paper, and I especially love pattern paper backgrounds.  I am always reluctant to use a pattern paper as a background because I can never figure out how to add the journaling to the layout.  I don’t usually journal on tags or such, so I need a good space to journal right on the page.  Well when I went to make a page about the first day of school, I the pattern paper v. journaling fight came up.  I had a pattern paper that I was dying to use as a background, but it would prevent me from journaling right  on the page.   I tried everything.  I tried journaling on it, I tried using a solid instead, I tried journaling somewhere else.  I was reaching frustration, and then it came to me….

take the bull by the horns

I put the pattern paper back, and layered a solid directly underneath it, so you could see the pattern paper, but not the solid.  Then I took a distressing brush, and set it at a low opacity.  I took the brush, and I started to lightly erase the pattern paper in the journaling spot, revealing the solid underneath.  I did it very lightly, until I had created a block that would be good for me to journal in.  When I was done, the effect was something like taking a piece of sandpaper to a paper and wearing the paper away in that space.  This is the completed layout, which I have fallen in love with.

What Scrapbooking fears will you take head on for the rest of 2010?  Are you ready to take the bull by the horns?  We’re here to help…just let us know how.

Let’s talk in the comments below.

At the end of the school year last year, we decided to change my daughter’s school.  We had various reasons behind our decision, however, not really reasons that  six year old would understand.  She was sad to leave her friends, her comfort zone, and spent many nights teary eyed, asking us why.  My wife and I knew that when school started again, we would be in for trouble.  Fast forward to last week, as we started getting things ready for school, the reality of it all seemed to hit us again.  How could we do this to her?  What were we doing?  How could we inflict sadness, which we knew was imminent, on our own child?  That night, I lay in bed, thinking of these questions over and over.  I finally had to get up, and went to the computer.  I opened Photoshop, and I started a layout.  I do all of the design work first, so it was nice to have something to occupy my mind.  Then came the journaling.  It was nearing 2am, and I was still pretty upset.  So I sat there, and poured my heart out into the journaling.  Once I was done, I saved the layout and posted it.  I went back to bed, and fell right to sleep.

What did I learn?  Sometimes, scrapbooking serves a larger purpose than creating a beautiful layout, more than documenting an event, or funny thing one of my beauties has said.  Sometimes, scrapbooking is therapy.  Sometimes, the work of creating a layout and then putting your emotions into words, is the best way to sort through your feelings and clear your mind.  When I left my layout, I was still nervous for my daughter, but I felt better having put those fears into words.  Like talking to a trusted friend, scrapbooking had helped me through.

What lesson can you learn?  Go ahead, still scrapbook all those things you love to scrapbook.  Sometimes, though, take a chance like I did and scrap something that’s bothering you, or something that’s on your mind.  I think you’ll be surprised at how much it will help you work through your feelings.  I know I was.

Here’s my layout:

You can click on the layout to see the credits.

This back is PACKED to the brim too!  It has two mini kits, two template packs, and two alphas!! All for one LOW price.  Check it out now, I’m sure you’ll love it!  As usual, my CT has rocked this release out..check out their layouts after the jump.

By Sally

By Laura

By Kristin

By Sarah

Don’t miss out on this kit!!!

I thought the best way to learn about uploading to multiple galleries is to go to an expert.  One again, CT Laura to the rescue.  Laura is on like 100 CTs, so I figured she knew a bit about how to get this done.  She had recently shared her methods for uploading with one of our friends on Twitter, so I knew she would have something to say.  Here’s Laura after the jump.

Hi guys, it’s Laura again.  I can’t believe I let Aaron talk me into another blog post, but hey…anything to help.  Today, I want to share with you how I go about uploading my layouts to multiple galleries.

5 Links You Can’t Miss Right Now!!

1. aliedwards.com – Ali is a constant source of inspiration for me, in all the facets of my life.  She recently launched the new version of her site and it’s fantastic!  It still contains all the Ali goodness, but keeps everything organized.  I especially love that she had two blogs, creating a separate blog for her projects!  Incredible.
2. Masterful Scrapbook Design – A new site launched from the team at Get It Scrapped!  Masterful Scrapbook Design is dedicated to taking your scrapbook design to the next level, through tutorials and lessons in a variety of formats.  they are currently offering a 10 Day Trial for only a penny!!  You should definitely check it out.
3. Light Your Fire – Light Your Fire is a digi course from Jennifer at Simple Scrapper.  It’s intended to reignite the fire within for scrapping.  I am already signed up for the course, and I hope to see a lot of you in there with me.
4. Kitschy Digitals - I found these designs a while ago, but just recently have I really started LOVING them.  I love the retro look of all of Danielle’s products, and she’s a wealth of interesting information on Twitter.  You should check out both her products and her on Twitter.
5. Scrapzilla! – I know I’ve posted about PDP’s upcoming contest before, but I don’t know if you realize how great the prizes are.  Check out what the first place winner gets:

I think that’s about it for now!!  Keep checking back over the next few days…I may have a few giveaways up my sleeve!

Hi guys, it’s Laura! I’m a layerer.  I can honestly say I’ve always scrapped that way.  I like to use every element in the kit and I try to do just that.  Aaron asked me if I’d write up a post for him about the ‘technique’ I use when I scrap a page, so here ya go!  I’ll try to keep the meaningless jibber jabber down to a minimum and let you in on all my ‘secrets.’

For this layout, I am going to be using:

Let’s get started!

I’m starting with a template.  I always place my photos first and then I delete the majority of the elements and paper pieces, like this…

After I have gotten my background papers and paper pieces placed I can begin to start layering elements and adding text, titles, and word art.  So, as of right now, this is what my layout looks like…

My biggest piece of advice for someone who struggles with layering is to not look at elements as their given purpose.  For example, I use a lot of things the way they aren’t originally intended to be used.  I use journal mats as a layering tool more often than I use them as a journaling tool.  Hearts and flowers are often mostly hidden, but they serve an asthetic purpose.

I generally start by making sure my layout is balanced.   Don’t be afraid to shrink or make elements bigger to fit your purpose.  I try to follow the rule of 3’s quite often so if I add one ribbon, I need to add 2 more to make it appear balanced.    You’ll notice, 3 ribbons behind the photos, and 3 hearts as well…

Another thing that I do a lot is erase parts of elements so that they appear to be tucked underneath other elements, such as this heart…

At this time, my layout is pretty much blues and brown so I want to add a pop of color.  I added the bright blue/pink/white flower as a sort of circular element under each of the photo/frames, again, keeping with the whole ‘3’ theme.

Now comes the fun part.  Layering up all the ribbons, bows, flowers, and various other elements.  I personally don’t shadow until the end of my layout, but some people find it easier to shadow as they go along.

As you can see, I added my title work.  Misty has some gorgeous word art in the kit I decided to use and I incorporated that into my title work.

There’s also some great date elements in this kit so I’m going to just use those to date my page.  I don’t always like to spread my elements all over the page unless it goes with the design.  This layout is pretty layered and is based along the photos and ribbons so I put the date right in there with the rest of the elements.

Now to add elements on top of the photos.  I pick one element at a time and add them to my discretion.  It does take practice to figure out what you like, and I often move things around a lot once they’ve been placed.  This pink flower I just added got shrunk and I duplicated it four times to get this look

One of the navy blue flowers I added got added on top of a photo but another got added underneath one that was already there.  It’s all personal preference, but I like my pages to look as realistic as possible.  I try to layer things as they would be on a paper layout, and this makes sense to me.  I scour a lot of paper galleries to see how this is done.

Basically what I’ve done with the light blue flower is make your eye follow the flow of the photos.

The last few flowers I added are the darker light blue ones.  They balance the colors to me.  I didn’t want it to be to bright, but I also didn’t want it to be too muted.  The darker light blue flowers seem to do that for me.

Last but not least, I’m adding some word art.  If you’re using a kit that doesn’t have word art, you could add date tags, journal tags, even paper pieces.  Like I said, I feel like I need to fill in every space that is available.

Now I’ll shadow my layout and call her done!  I won’t add a blurb of journaling on this one just because, well, it’s pretty self-explanatory!

Here’s my finished product

Hope I’ve helped you out some!

Even better?  Right now, with the Back to School sale at FPD, it’s 30% off!  You have to check it out now!

Need more convincing?  Check out the layouts my awesome CT did after the jump.

By Sally

By Laura

By Kristin

By Sarah

By Alix

I hope you’ll check the kit out!

Check out the Scrapzilla Contest at PDP!!  Registration closes on Sunday, don’t miss this chance!!!

One technique that can help is the Visual Triangle.  The Visual Triangle is a design principle that involves an imaginary triangle on your page.  The Visual Triangle is created by placing three similar elements of your page (elements, clusters, papers, etc) at the corners of the imaginary triangle.

I use this technique often when I am scrapping my pages.  Take a look at this page I worked on over the weekend.

On “I Want You to Know” take a look at my three flower clusters.  If you were to draw an imaginary line connecting all three of the clusters, they would create a triangle on the page.  By doing this, I have created some dynamic clustering that adds movement and flow to the page, but at the same time, my eye is drawn to the “order” of the visual triangle.

On “Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks!” I used the paper stars to create the Visual Triangle on my page.  Using the paper stars allows me to draw the viewer’s eye around the page.  You can see, the paper stars are part of the larger clusters, but placed in the Visual Triangle, they help bring order to a seemingly random page.

“Best Friends Forever” is another layout that I worked on over the weekend.  On this page, there are a few different places where I use the Visual Triangle.  If you look at the flower buttons on the page, they create a small triangle on the top half of the page.  This is great for leading the eye around my page, but if you look at the imaginary triangle, it goes directly around the pictures on the layout, putting the emphasis on the pictures.

Sometimes, the Visual Triangle doesn’t need to be spread out across the page.  In “Smile” I created my Visual Triangle using the large circles of the blue gingham paper.  Keeping these close together, I bring the focus right into the meat of the layout, and connect everything together.  This Visual Triangle brings unity to the other elements of the page.

Using the Visual Triangle can help you create dynamic clustering on your layouts, while still keeping order.  It’s a fairly simple technique that can take your pages from good to great in just minutes, and it’s flexible enough to use on every layout and not have it get old.

What should you do now?  Try creating a Visual Triangle on your next layout.  If you do, make sure to come back here and link us up.  Are you already using Visual Triangles on your pages?  What other tips do you have?  Share them in the comments below.

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