Thursday, May 27, 2010

Teacher's Gifts

I wanted to share a couple of cute teacher gift ideas I've done using photoshop and my digi scrap supplies. I apologize first of all because the photos are not that great, and second because I know this is just a little to late to take advantage of for this school year. But, being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't get these gifts done until the last minute possible - and of course I have waited a few days before even uploading these photos and getting this posted. But I wanted to share anyway. :)

This first one I actually made for my son's teacher as a Christmas gift, but forgot to blog about it at the time. I found this idea and quote here. It says, "A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others." To create the label in photoshop, I first measured the width (diameter) and height of the candle, then created a new document using those dimensions. I also printed out the cute apple to go on top. I used Mod Podge to adhere the labels, and added some ribbon around the rim.




{stripe paper from "Echos of Asia" kit by Jessica Sprague; alphabet paper from "School 101" kit by Leora Sanford; ricrac and apple from "The Sky is Falling" kit by Krystal Hartley; label from "Cosmo Chic" kit by Michelle Coleman; "Century Gothic" font}

This was the gift I made for the same teacher for the last day of school as a thank you. I found this cute paint can made of clear plastic at the local craft store. I then used photoshop to create the insert and topper for the lid; again just by measuring the can and opening a new document in photoshop using the dimensions.



Inside the can, I added a gift certificate to a local teacher supply store as well as this poem and the coordinating candy bars:

Throughout the school year you have been a Lifesaver,
And that’s nothing to Snicker about.
So while the paydays are probably not 100 Grand
It’s time for you to Take 5 and rest your Whatchamacallit.
Thank you for all you do, and whether you go across the country
or down to 5th avenue, we hope your summer is extra special!



Added some colorful ribbon and voila! It turned out really cute.


{everything from "School Rules" kit by Something Blue Studios; "Pea Missy" font}


xoxo,

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Just Finish It!

Sometimes I start a layout and either get stuck, or just don't have time to finish and then I forget about it. I save my .psd files in a folder titled "Works In Progress", and every once in a while I go through and delete them, usually after the finished flattened page has been printed. As I was going through and deleting things yesterday, I found a few forgotten layouts. So I made myself just finish them - some I don't love too much, but I'm just glad they are done and will be added to my albums.




{both pages: paper, frames, and leaves from "Crooked Creek" kit by Lazy Cow Designs; alpha from "Santa's Alphas" by Kelley Mickus; "Pea Kristen" and "Problem Secretary" fonts}


{papers and elements from "Holidays & Seasons" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Jane Austen", "Rockwell", and "Pea Karen XOXO" fonts}


{background paper from "Lola" kit by Kelley Mickus; square cutout overlay and number 4 from "Hoopla" freebie kit by Michelle Coleman; circle label from Journaling Shapes freebie by Michelle Coleman; journal strips (recolored) from "Roughin' It" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; "Rockwell" font}


{background paper from "Aspire" kit by Digital Scrapbook Memories; burst overlay and white paper from "Teen" kit on the "Family Ties" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Slab Tall X" and "Supafly" fonts}

xoxo,

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Printing Your Pages

From time to time I get questions about printing here on my blog, so I thought I'd dedicate a post just to this subject. As you might already know, I print most of my layouts individually and then put them in 8x8 "page protector albums. But from time to time I like to make photo books for things like trip albums or my everyday life yearly albums. So I've broken it down into those two categories. But before I go on, let me direct you to these way more in-depth and informative posts on the subject at The Daily Digi:
Printing Photo Books
Printing Layouts

And now... here are my 2 cents:

Printing Layouts

As far as printing my layouts, I have tried a few different things with varying results. My two biggest complaints are 1) that sometimes the colors I see on my computer screen are not quite the colors I see in my prints, and 2) sometimes there is a little bit of cropping near the edges. In the past I have gone to my local brick and mortar copy store: Staples, Office Max, even Costco, to have my layouts printed. My experience varied, but overall I was pretty happy with how my pages turned out. I have even printed on both photo paper and cardstock, and although I like them both I lean a little more towards photo paper, which is pretty much the norm for printing scrapbook pages. It just has a nice quality to it. My personal preference is to use matte or lustre photo paper as opposed to glossy.

But most recently I have tried a couple of online places. First was Scrapping Simply. I really like their prices (even cheaper than any copy store) and they offer pick up at a location in the town my Mom lives in (in Utah County, FYI if you live there), so I just had her pick them up for me and I didn't have to pay any shipping. I was pretty happy with the quality of the prints; no cropping, but the colors weren't quite what I had hoped for. Next I tried Persnickety Prints, mainly because I had a coupon code. Their prices both for prints and shipping is comparable to to Simply Scrapping. I think I liked them best just because the colors were a little more accurate to what I see on my screen (still not perfect though) and the quality was great. Also, I found both these companies to be great when it came to cropping the edges. However, I would recommend trying out a few different printers until you find the one that matches your screen the closest. There are a lot of other places to consider as well - I recommend checking out The Daily Digi post I linked up above for a very complete list of printers. Also, both Simply Scrapping and Persnickety have some great freebies available. {Simply Scrapping Freebies}
{Persnickety Prints Freebies}
I've also added buttons for both these sites on my sidebar if you want to check them out.

Photo Books

Again, I haven't tried a whole lot of different companies when it comes to photo books. I have probably used Winkflash the most, just because the often run really good deals. And I am kind of cheap! I have never ordered a custom cover, I've just gone with the fabric cover. They do a good job, but sometimes there is a little bit of cropping near the edge, and maybe a little bit of a white border added to the top or bottom of the page.

Another company I recently tried is Heritage Makers. I have a friend who is a consultant for them, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far I have made these two books using their site:



The smaller one, a 5x5" book, is my Project 30 album. The larger, my 8x8" album, is my Ordinary Life book for 2009. They are really great quality, I really like the hard cover. And I love how you can customize the cover, spine, and back of these books.







Here's a look inside them:







As you might be able to tell, there is a little bit of white on the top and bottom of the pages. Although I created my layouts at exactly 8x8 and 5x5, for some reason they still didn't fit exactly in their template, which was kind of annoying. But in the end I find it doesn't really bother me when looking at my albums. Of course, this wouldn't be an issue if you just use their premade templates, but I like to create my own layouts. They are definitely more pricey than my Winkflash photo books, but much better quality. Another thing I loved is that the colors looked great.

Currently I am working on making photo books for my boys of their first year of life. They love to look at their baby pictures in our family scrapbooks, but I never made baby books for them so I am working on them now - hopefully I'll get them done before baby #3 arrives! I haven't decided for sure, but I think I will try Shutterfly for them. Again, a little more pricey than some sites, but I have heard nothing but good things.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful! Did I miss anything? If you have any other tips, or places you love to print, I'd love to hear them.

xoxo,

Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Letter + One More

I don't do this very often, but every now and then I like to write letters on my scrapbook pages. I think it's a great way to communicate information I want my kids to know that I might not always tell them, or things I want to record now for them to read later. Down This Road Designs has a new kit called "Rule The School", and when I saw the notebook paper I knew it would be perfect for a layout like this:


{everything from "Rule The School" kit by Down This Road Designs; "Calibri" font}

And here's one more - much more simple journaling but still gets the point across. I love using different types of journaling styles; sometimes a lot, sometimes just a few words. Whatever tells the story best.


{everything from "Music In Your Heart" collab kit by AnnaBV and SuzyQ Scraps; "Keetano ATL My Gangsta" font}

xoxo,

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Zach's Baby Book

I started this album (and this post) sometime last summer, with high hopes of finishing it before the summer was over. But, I always say, better late than never! Honestly I did the first half very quickly and have slowly finished it a page at a time over the last few months.

Although I already have a lot of layouts of Zach as a baby, I wanted to create an album mostly of photos from his first year. I decided to do a spread for each month of his first year. The hard part is over... now I just have to get it made into a photo book.

Now I just have to make one for Miles...


Spread 1: Birth



Up Close:
Left page


Right page

{tan stripe paper from "Clear Day" kit on the "Enjoy the Journey" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; yellow-ish paper "Giving Thanks" kit by JulieMarie; cream paper from "Click." kit by Kelley Mickus; ricrac from "Dino-RAWR" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; button from "One True Thing" kit by Kelley Mickus; swirl brush freebie by Dana Zarling; Z alphabet letter by Melany Violette; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 2: First Month



Up close:
Left page


Right page

{tan paper from "So Memorable" collab kit by Eva Kipler; blue paper from freebie pack by Miriam Lima; brown paper from "Just Breathe" by Kelley Mickus; star buttons from "Andrew" kit by Julie Marie; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 3: Second Month



Up close:
Left page


Right page

{white/blue paper from "One True Thing" kit by Kelley Mickus; tan paper from "Morning Dew" kit on the "Enjoy the Journey" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; gray damask paper from "Daditude" kit by Miss Mint; button flowers from "Kindergarten Crafts" kit by Miss Mint; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 4: Third Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{green paper from "Promise" kit by Shabby Princess; floral paper from "Naturals" paper pack by Kelley Mickus; stripe paper from "Clear Day" kit on the "Enjoy the Journey" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; swirl brush freebie by Dana Zarling; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 5: Fourth Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{papers and elements from "Tumbleweed" kit by Kelley Mickus; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 6: Fifth Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{plaid paper from "Rock A Bye Baby" kit by GG Digital Designs; other papers and elements from "Beginnings" kit by Kelley Mickus; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 7: Sixth Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{papers and elements from "Kelly Girl" collab kit by Kelley Mickus & Kellie Mize; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 8: Seventh Month



Up close:
Right page



Left page


{green papers from "Baby" kit on the "Family Ties" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; tan paper from "Alt 365 January" kit by Something Blue Studios; ricrac from "Wedding" kit on the "Family Ties" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; button from "Heritage" kit on the "Family Ties" CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 9: Eighth Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{graph paper from "Maybell" kit by Audrey Neal; blue/white paper from "One True Thing" kit by Kelley Mickus; stripe paper from "Honey Bear" collab kit by Britt-ish Designs and Plum Dumpling Designs; heart button from "Tangerine Twist" freebie kit by Flergs; glitter spray from "Bohemian Summer" freebie kit by Michelle Coleman; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 10: Ninth Month



Up close:
Left page



Right page


{everything from "Happiness" kit by Kelley Mickus; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 11: Tenth Month



Up Close:
Left Page



Right Page


{papers from "Capture the Everyday" by ErinInk; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 12: Eleventh Month



Up Close:
Left Page



Right Page



{tan paper from "Out Came the Sun" kit by Pamela Donnis; aqua paper from "Happy Go Lucky" kit by Shabby Princess; flourishes by Dana Zarling; "Sketch Block" font}

Spread 13: One Year Old



Up Close:
Left Page



Right Page


{blue paper from "Day at the Dentist" kit by Twin Mom Scraps; plaid paper from "Story of Everyday Life" collab kit by Something Blue Studios; cream paper from "Story of Everyday Life" collab kit by Ziggle Designs; flourish by Dana Zarling; ricrac from "Freshly Baked" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; button from "One Fine Day" kit by Kelley Mickus; "Sketch Block" font}

xoxo,