I've had this photo of my younger boy in mind to use as an 8x12 photo on a layout, but I decided recently to use it on a digital page instead of paper. I think of digital scrapbooking in the same way I do paper scrapping:

1. I apply products in layers;
2. I have to stretch my techniques to achieve visually what I want using the supplies I have; and
3. I often get a great idea for a lower layer long after I've applied product above it.

Number 3 above is a good place where digital is clearly superior to paper: the undo button! Plus, I can click on different layers to add stuff or delete layers without having the pry already adhered paper off without damaging the page. Not that it happens that often. ;) winking

I created this paper like I would a paper page: I browsed my supplies, found some papers and elements I thought would work, and started creating a layered template for me to work with.
(Note: browsing supplies to me is where actual paper is superior to digi. Clicking on folder after folder trying to find the paper I want frustrates me so much it makes my teeth ache.)

I clustered elements, journaling spots, labels, and brushes in ways I would with paper. The journaling sport from List It! Childhood Digi Plus. It was bigger than I wanted, so I shrunk it on the page--again, a clear advantage of digi.

One cool thing: I couldn't find a piece of orange paper the exact shade I wanted, but I found two close ones, so I layered them on top of on another and reduced the opacity of the top layer so you could see both. Something you just can't do with regular paper! Fun.

One final disadvantage: it took me hours to make this page, mainly because of searching through and choosing supplies. I suspect creating a paper page would have taken less time, but certainly with less flexibilty in the creation process.

And one final confession: though I use digi elements often in my photos, I do not create many digital pages. This one is my third ever. Will I do it again? Oh, yes! I plan on making a digital photo book of my own design (not the premade ones) for my father-in-law next. I look forward to the entire process (well, except for searching through supplies!).

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Queen of Quirk/Paislee Press You Are Here (oscraps.com), One Little Bird Vagabond (oscraps.com)
Brushes: Katie Pertiet Graphically Scrolled (designerdigitals.com), Cathy Zielske Dotted and Dashed Circles (designerdigitals.com)
Border overlay: Creashens/Paislee Press Nostalgia (oscraps.com)
Label: One Little Bird Vagabond (oscraps.com)
Journaling spot: Ella Publishing List It! Childhood Digi Plus
Scattered flowers: One Little Bird Vagabond (oscraps.com)
Font: Cocktail Shaker, My Own Topher



Giveaway is for a copy of List It! Childhood Digi Plus- leave a comment sharing your favorite digi designer
Giveaway closes in 48 hours, Sept 1 @ 11:00 am MST

Winner of May's Flaums giveaway is Funnybunny

Hello, Jennifer Larson back from CHA, and I wanted to share some of my favorite products, specifically the ones that would work well on pages about boys. As a mother of two boys, I find it challenging sometimes to find nice, varied products for their pages; Summer CHA gave me a multitude to look forward to finding in my local scrapbook store.

Here's what I found, starting with the obvious:

1. Sasparilla by October Afternoon. Even though there were some images of little girls playing cowgirl, the whole line had a rough and tumble look to it which is perfect for little boys.


2. Kaisercraft's Hunt and Gather. This line has a little hunting and fishing in it, but it also has a botanical feel that makes it a little more refined than typical hunting, fishing, and nature products.


3. Bella Blvd's Making the Team. This bright, fun line is perfect for sports, but is subdued enough to use for boy pages in general.


4. Nikki Sivils' My Little Monster. Now, I'm not saying boys can be monsters...well, mine can be sometimes. Plus they like monsters too, so this collection would be nice on many levels.

And now for some less obvious choices for papers and products:


5. Amy Tangerine by American Crafts. I know, this funky collection might not seem like boy fodder, but check out this paper: and this set of die cuts, I'm picturing a page about my boys' adventures.


6. Crate Paper Farmhouse. Some elements in this collection are suitably rough for boy pages, especially this paper, and this 12x12 sheet of stickers

I noticed patterns equally usable for boys in October Afternoon's Farmhouse collection too.


7. Doodlebug twine and twine letters. Such bright and happy things! I love using bright colors on my boy pages, so these will have a place.


8. Little Yellow Bicycle and Fancy Pants' school collections. I was drawn to the bright colors and geometric patterns in Little Yellow Bicycle's Head of the Class line:


I also loved the heavily saturated colors and cool images in the Fancy Pants Off to School line that would work well for boys pages--check out the shoe paper!


9. KI Memories' Good Folk stickers. The whole collection was a traditional KI fall line, but these stickers in particular would go well with the woodsy, farmhouse, Western vibe of the many other lines at the show:


10. Pebbles' wood buttons and American Crafts' Nightfall. These buttons, which came from their Christmas line, would look great on a boy page.


And even though this line is themed for fall and Halloween (clever to combine the two), the theme is muted and rustic enough to work well for boys.

Thanks for looking through my favorite products that I want to use on the pages about my boys. There were a lot of cool products out there, so don't limit yourself to the ones that are the obvious ones for boys. May you not have to wait too long to get your hands on these goodies!

Hello, everyone! It's Jennifer Larson with some colorful ideas.

If you're like me, you have bunches of ink pads or mist bottles or paint jars, but you might not use them much. They look pretty, but the paints and inks and mists are just not making it onto your pages. Here's a few ideas to put that color to use!

1. Draw attention to the title. Here I lay a chipboard heart where I wanted the title and misted with a couple colors, green and blue, just lightly enough for the heart to show. I then outlined the heart to make it stand out more before I adhered anything to the page.



2. Draw attention to the embellishments. Ella Friend Keshet Starr  misted in pink more heavily to highlight the embellishment cluster.



3. Make the journaling stand out. Sometimes I want to journal on patterned paper, but the pattern makes the writing hard to read. Using a paint dauber in a color similar to the patterned paper color, I make a spot for the writing.


And here's a close-up:



I use paint daubers in a similar way with letter stickers I want to use as a title.

4. Make the photos stand out. Sometimes I use paint to make the photos stand out from the background paper if they are too close in hue to the background paper and accents. In the next layout, I painted with a deep teal to make the focal point photo stand out more.



5. Add interest to the background. I use my ink pads a lot for stamping and inking the edges of paper, but I rarely use it on the background of my layout. I should. On this next layout about my son's interesting dressing habits, I sanded the background (including the stitching) to rough it up, then added ink with a sponge to make the background look even more textured. The result looks a little like suede.



Thank you for reading a few of my color tips. Time to get out those bottles and ink pads and jars and get messy!

 

Photo booth photos are hot--you can use real photo-booth photos, make digi ones, or hand cut photos into a photo booth strip. Big Huge Labs has a free option that is easy to use.

First, I signed up for a free account. Next, I followed the directions on the screen, which allowed me to upload 4 photos. The directions were not explicit on how to create the strip, so I clicked around until I figured it out: After uploading 4 photos, you need to click the image you want and the spot you want it in. Finally, you choose the finish you want: black and white photos or vintage aged. Interestingly, you can also choose both at the same time. Here's what I did:


The photo on the left is both black and white and vintage aged, the middle strip is black and white alone, and the strip on the right is vintage aged.

Once you create the image, you are given several options. I saved it to my computer, then opened it in PSE 7 to print them out. I had trouble adjusting the size of the strip, so I printed the strips on the biggest paper I had, which is 8x10, to make the strips bigger. After I printed them, I added them to this layout:



This was certainly a quick way to make a fun, photo booth series of pictures to use on a layout!

Photographer Kelly Willette also shares photo-booth tricks in her final Spring Training video. You can still sign up for just $30 and enjoy all the content (videos, downloads, bonus content, and more) through June 30th! Sign up here.

 

This week you get to see favorites from CHA, today is Jennifer Larsen's top picks.

1. Bella Blvd letter stickers. These came from the Sophisticates collection, which is monochromatic. Each 12x12 sticker sheet comes with four different alphas in two shades of the same color. What a terrific idea to easily buy different styles of letters for titles.

2. Cosmo Cricket embellishment packs. Cosmo has made it very easy to layer coordinated embellishments at an affordable price. I adore the wee blossoms and butterflies (perfectly sized for card making too), but paired with the jewels and buttons, they make a very interesting combo--and an affordable one too. The small packs retail for about $1.50, and the buttons at about $3.00!

3. Crafter's Workshop templates. I have had templates for years that I use to mist various patterns on my page, but the new collection is filled with dramatic and varied patterns, from whirly nature images to houndstooth to clocks to banners. Don't mist? No problem--use them for inks or chalks. They come in two sizes, 12x12 and a smaller 6x6 better sized for cards.

4. Pink Paislee Hometown Summer collection. This was my favorite line of the show. I love the colors, the patterns, the embellishments, the whole thing. I particularly loved the die cut pack, which was another affordable collection.
 

5. Technique Tuesday stamps. The booth had a lot of new images, from vintage to graphic to rough and tumble to sweet. This set of month stamps is a particular favorite of mine.I can see using it on just about every page I scrap.

Favorite Project: These mini bouquets at the Punch Bunch booth were stunning. I know we've seen a lot of punched flowers, but these are almost photo real. What most impresses me are the wee sprays of blossoms on a stem. Incredible attention to detail.

Day 4

Today Jennifer Larson is showcasing a photo planner by Per Annum. 

Jennifer says: "I didn't put photos in the planner, even though it's easy to do so; they would be old during the planner year. Instead, I created 5x7 monthly pages to introduce each section of the planner. I picked a simple formula that made it quick and easy to make monthly pages."

* 7 pieces doubled sided monochromatic patterned paper in various colors (for me, BoBunny and Doodlebug)
* 3-5 sheets border stickers (I used Doodlebug)
* Month stamps (in this case, Studio Calico)
* Die cuts (these were Doodlebug)
* Various latter stickers and jewels from your stash

"On the back of each page, I adhered a journaling spot on the outside of the page protector. I'm a sticky note gal who keeps goals lists regularly, so I thought it would be helpful to keep a monthly goal list in the planner, easy to find and keep focused on the goals!"

"The planner came with 5x7 photo paper for each month, so I now have that photo paper to play around with, and if I want to slide a photo in at any time, I can. I can also slide these months pages out and reuse them for next year's planner. This was a quick, easy, and cute project to make! Perfect for gift giving."

Thanks Jennifer! This planner is totally customizable and would make a fantastic gift. We'll pick one winner from today's comments who'll get one of these for FREE.

Comments close in 24 hours at 9:00MST on December 15

**UPDATE**
Today's winner is commenterstinkydudette. Congratulations!