Oh Life!

Have you heard of Ohlife.com? This site has been a revelation for me! You sign up (it's free) and every day they send you an e-mail asking how your day was. You hit the "reply" and type out your answer. No one else reads it, it's tied to your e-mail address.

I started it on January 1, 2012. I have to admit I didn't respond every day, but that's okay. Today when I got the e-mail I clicked on a link to see all replies. It was great reading the entries from the past 2 weeks. This will be very useful when doing month at a glance LOs or Project Life pages. And it's so easy to hit reply and type a few sentences about what happened that day or things I'm thinking about.

The best part (other than the whole free thing) is that it can be whatever you want it to be, no pressure. If you want to keep a journal, but find it difficult to find time to sit and write this may be something to try.

Thanks for stopping by and ... wait for it ... Happy Scrappin'!

PSE or Bust

Digi Supplies: Tangie Baxter,
J Kneipp, Holliewood Studios,
Bellisae Designs

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  WELCOME TO 2012!
One of my goals this year is to learn to use Photoshop Elements (PSE).  When I bought my laptop PSE7 was preloaded on it.  It seemed so scary that I ignored it for 2 years!

So when Jessica Sprague had a sale in December I bought her beginner  "Up and Running" class.  Having knowledge from using other programs really helped me start understanding PSE.  Light bulbs (low wattage, but still...lol) started coming on in my brain.

To further encourage my learning, I signed up for Tangie Baxter's Art Journal Caravan-2012 Expedition and made a commitment to myself to make all LOs using PSE.  I used a clipping mask and even learned how to change the color of the stitching I used ... WOOHOO!  I'm really excited to be learning new digital techniques and am looking forward to taking the Caravan journey this year.

As the quote above says "BEGIN IT NOW", and that's what I'm doing.

I hope you have lots of fun and crafty things planned for this year :-)

Preparing for the Teenage Years

One of the things I enjoy most about digital photos is you have unlimited copies available.  This year my son entered the <shudder> Teenage Years. So I decided to create a photobook for he and my husband that reminded them of all the good times they've had together over the years.  Kind of a buffer for future issues :-) 
Even though a couple of the photos were used in vacation LOs from earlier years, when combined with a new group of photos/LOs they take on a new life.  I had two books printed and gave them each a copy for Christmas.  It was so great to see them looking through their books together and sharing memories.  Mission Accomplished!

Digi Elements: Would You Play with Me
Collab by MelCrea & Paprika

Digi Elements: Assemblage &
Great Expedition Kits by Marta Van Eck

Digi Elements: A World for Boys by Thaliris

From Digital LO to Christmas Card

I wanted to share what we did for this year's family Christmas card.  I've had a lot of trouble with my hands this year making it difficult to cut, punch etc. which is why I've done so many digital LOs.  Gotta scrap no matter what!  I knew I wouldn't be able to do handmade cards this year and I was very disappointed.  For me, making handmade cards helps me connect with the joy of the season. 

I had made a Christmas LO for a challenge over at Soul Scrappers.  I really liked the page and decided to see if I could incorporate it into a card.  I changed the journaling to a Christmas message and added our names.  I also added a partial overlay to help frame the image.  I then re-sized the image so I could fit 6 to a page for printing.

I matted the image to some green cardstock and popped the image up with some dimensionals.  The white cardstock background was scored to add a touch of elegance and then I gilded the green flat card using a gold paint pen and voila!  I got to make handmade Christmas cards this year :-)

As the card reads, "May the Wonderful Peace of Christ be yours at Christmas and Always."

Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year!  Happy Scrappin!

Christmas Magic-Sketch Challenge

Debi Clark has a great sketch challenge going on over at Soul Scrappers. 
We had to use 3 colors in the title, ribbon and a Christmas-y photo.  I made my very first glitter letters!  I used a surface texture and increased the amplication and spacing to create a sparkly effect.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrappin'!



It's a White Christmas over at FS2S

Digi elements are from Anna Aspnes,
Jessica Sprague, Mye De Leon
and Forever Joy.

This month's film inspiration over at From Screen to Scrap is "White Christmas". We had to use white cardstock, 2 color title and Santa hats. I used white cardstock as my base and then made sure to add white cardstock in between paper layers and even matted my two different color letters on white. Of course the picture itself took care of the Santa hat requirement.

 

I did some blending on the papers and varied opacity levels. I also tried my hand at adding different level of shadows. It's amazing what different shadow angles and depths do to the look of a LO.  To shadow or not to shadow?  That is the question we digi scrappers deal with onn every LO.  I always try to imagine if it would have a shadow on a paper LO and go from there.  IF you do digi LOs how do you handle shadowing?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to head over the http://screen2scrap.blogspot.com/ and check out this month's challenge.

Is It Christmas Time Already?

I know I am waaay behind, but here's my first Christmas card for this season. I stamped the bells and greeting in gold and then embossed them with gold embossing powder to give them added dimension.

I used some mini jingle bells from SU! where the holly berries are. Mainly because I bought these things and haven't figured out what to do with them yet. Any ideas?

Well back to the craft room to work on some more cards. Have a great, crafty weekend!