digital scrapbooking

A sense of accomplishment

February 1, 2011February 1, 2011 Mirthful Leave a comment

I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment today. Before Christmas I received a promotional code for a photo book on photo paper from Japan Photo, and after a little deliberation decided it would be the perfect incentive to finish the very half-hearted start I’d done on an album from the trip to The Gambia in 2009. The promotion ended yesterday, and the album was ordered just in time. Considering I have a tendency to attack these projects with gusto and then have my enthusiasm fade away long before I’ve actually finished anything, having ordered the book feels like a big accomplishment.

Which is nice.

The best thing? I managed to pace myself sufficiently that I’m not sick of looking at and processing photos. The previous photo books I’ve ordered have led to a few moths hiatus on further layouts because of overload towards the finishing line. Not so this time, I think.

Once I get the book, I’ll post a few pictures of the result and get into what exactly I did. In terms of scrapbooking it was extremely minimalist, but a couple of resources need to be mentioned. I’ll get to that.

The next project, apart from finishing the hobby room (where we’ve run into a little problem, more on that later) involves the sewing machine and needs to be done by the end of the upcoming weekend. We’ll see how that goes.

The next photo-related project involves going through my supplies to create a faux Project Life (because I really don’t need to buy any more supplies) to see if I can’t get a “document life as it happens” thing going. If I get my act together, I’ll share what I do.

ABC

July 25, 2009July 25, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

1-2-3.

Ok, so now I have a Jackson Five earworm. Sorry.

I just ordered this custom ABC for the lass printed from Shutterfly. A few sample pages:

A is for Ape:

B is for Baby:

C is for Chili:

M is for Max:

I tried to keep the design clean and uncluttered. The background paper is by Creashens and the print alpha by Cathrine, both acquired from Catscrap.

Some words pose more of a challenge than others. Chili, for example, though certainly an ingredient in some of the food she eats is not a word the lass actually knows – yet. Also, since my setup was the “studio” picture with a white background I needed things that could be photographed like that, which is where the Duplo comes in.

The other words on the page include the names of friends and family and other words the lass is likely to know starting with that letter, and colours. The colours are also indicated by the type colour. I thought that was quite clever myself.

All in all I’m pretty pleased, and very excited about seeing it in book form.

Week 1

January 4, 2009April 1, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

I stayed up too late finishing this, as I didn’t want to start out being late. I decided to do the layouts weekly, preferably Sunday evening (with Mon.-Sun. pictures), which leaves week 1 and week 53 with only four pictures. I am planning on using Impressions of Imagination for colour throughout the year and sticking to the same font(s) and white background, with a clean and simple layout. What with the nature of the project, I’m thinking the images will have such diverse colour schemes that finding a background that works for a whole week’s worth would be tricky, and the white will help draw everything together and at the same time prevent over-fussyness. I hope.

Trying to freeze time

November 26, 2008April 2, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

Well, perhaps not exactly, but I feel the need to capture the little everyday stories. The lass is growing so quickly, and I feel like I miss something vital each time I blink…

Jessica Sprague‘s Stories in Hand class just finished, and I really enjoyed that. It’s given me lots of prompts for writing down the stories of yesterday – the class is really excellent – and a prod to get the everyday stories down as they happen. However, I know that to achieve the latter I could do with some help.

Along comes the Journal Your Christmas class from Shimelle, and highly recommended several places. So I thought it might be a good start and signed up.

Journal your Christmas

Join me if you like!

Playing around with templates

November 18, 2008April 2, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

Of the digital scrapbooking kind, this time. I really need to get the layouts for 2008 DONE as the grandparents seem to expect a follow-up to last year’s photo book. These literature fans are hopeless, you know, you release one book they like and they are on to you like veritable hounds. Really.

Anyway, to get me going (and boy do I need to get going) I’ve been looking up some challenges, and the first one completed is from Weeds & Wildflowers (specifically, this blog challenge). Since they happen to be one of my favourite design teams (the other one being Catscrap) finding products to use was not a big problem.

Credits:
– template from Weeds and Wildflowers template challenge 11-17
– Papers Weeds & Wildflowers, Gina Marie Huff, Being Me kit, the blue is the green paper recoloured
– green letters from Weeds & Wildflowers Gina Marie Huff, Being Me kit
– & from CatScrap Cathrine’s Traces of Print
– cardboard stars and paint from Weeds & Wildflowers GMH Super Stars set
– stitches from Weeds & Wildflowers GMH Believing in You Kit

Oh, and I know it’s from 2007, but since last year’s books were printed in early December, the last few weeks of 2007 have to be included in the 2008-book.

Now, if I can just persuade the administrator of the W&W forums/gallery that I am not a spambot so that I can get the layout posted, I might just win myself some more goodies. You never know. And at least I got one layout done. (One done, a trillion or so to go.)