Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A New Blog - and MAJOR DigiScrapping PicSpam

Welcome to my new digiscrap blog!  I created this blog solely to share my digital scrapbooking pages with friends and family (and whoever else happens to stumble upon it).  My real blog is at LiveJournal.  I know, how antiquated, but...I have archives dating back to 2003.  I'm not about to uproot myself and start somewhere new.  Plus, most of my friends use LJ:)  I will likely post a few random snippets from my life here, but nothing super personal.  That's reserved for my LJ friends-only entries.

Now to move in and get myself comfortable here.  I want to do a cute LO, but I'm not sure how to do that.  I'm brand new to the whole blogspot thing.  I want to digiscrap my LO, but I want to be sure that's ok with all the TOUs and such.  Of course, I would give credit where credit is due;)

For those of you wondering what digiscrapping is, it's digital scrapbooking.  It's like paper scrapbooking, but digital (duh;)).  I love it.  You download the "papers" (backgrounds) and the "elements" (cute little decorations) - they usually come packaged together in a matching kit - and put things together in a graphics program.  I use Photoshop 7.  I would LOVE a newer version of Photoshop, but that just isn't an option right now.

Anyway, on to the pages.  These are all the pages I've done so far, except for my wedding pages (will be in another post), in order from oldest to newest.  It's funny; I thought my first pages were SOO good...now I'm thinking I want to go back and redo them LOL.  I first started digiscrapping early November.  Considering how long I've been doing it, I think I'm pretty dang good;)  But, I was already familiar with Photoshop AND with paper scrapping, so that definitely helps.  

The mommy forum I frequent (Baby and Me) has weekly digiscrapping challenges.  Whoever wins the weekly challenge then hosts the next challenge by picking a theme, a kit, or whatever.  I have now won twice:)  In fact, I'm hosting this week's challenge.  So, many of my pages are entries to the weekly challenge.  I also recently scrapped our wedding.  What I REALLY need to do is work on Emma's baby book, which I started paper scrapping ages ago.  But, to continue where I left off, I'd need to find some way to recover my crashed hard drive...

Anyway, here are my pages.  Credits are listed below each page.

Halloween 2008
My very first set of pages.





Credits:
everything is from the Ginger Scraps Jack-o-lantern Mega Kit

Isn't she the cutest little monkey ever? Her little cousin Noah was a banana, so of course we had to get pics of them together^_^

First Trip to the Lake and 4th of July
Here's another I entered for BAM's digiscrap weekly challenge, using Scrap Girls Refresh kit. I do everything in 2-page spreads, since I plan to print them out and put them face-to-face in a scrapbook.





10 Months
Next, I made a 10 month page for Emma. Credits are listed below the pages:





Credits:
Shappy Princess - Promise kit (most elements and paper)
Egiovanni - brown frame
Scrapidea - blue frame
Pure Scrap - starburst thingies on the edges

History of Freedom - Week 3 Challenge
My 2 page spread won this week!! Woohoo! I'm excited^_^ Which means I got to pick the next challenge. The theme was "This is my country" with red, white, and blue. This is the page I did for it:







Credits:
Simply Yin template 63 - modified
Red paper - Scraplandia, Christmas in Scraplandia kit
Blue star paper, silver heart - LiviaY, Sunshine Studio Scraps, Winter Sparkle kit
Red white and blue stripes and circles paper - Shabby Princess, Celebrate kit
Red stripe paper, blue plaid paper, all other elements - Yard Bunny, Freedom kit
Alpha - Juno, Sunshine Studio Scraps, Winter Whites kit
Declaration of Independence photo - Google image search (I closed the tab before remembering I needed to site image sources )
Benjamin Franklin photo - Wikipedia
Gordon B Hinckley, Thomas S Monson, and Seattle temple photos - lds.org

Explanation:
Emma - taken on her first 4th of July
Flag cake - family tradition on the 4th of July
Declaration of Independence - pretty obvious
Benjamin Franklin - again, obvious, but he's also a cousin of mine several generations back
My grandpa in a kilt - he was in the navy during WWII and wasn't allowed to tell Grandma where he was. She had no idea if he was safe or not, since she couldn't find out where he was. So when he was in Edinburgh, he dressed up and got his picture taken at one of those tourist places and sent it to her. Because of the picture, she knew he was safe in Scotland.
Picture of campus where I went to college and where John currently goes
3 pictures of LDS temples - one is where John and I got married, one is where my parents got married, and the other is the one closest to us (just 5 min away)
Pictures of Gordon B Hinckley and Thomas S Monson - recent past and current leaders of my church
Big waterfall - where John proposed and where we spent our honeymoon
Small waterfall - my parent's backyard. I used to go down to the creek any time I was upset or needed time to myself.

Gratitude - Week 4 Challenge
Here's my entry for Week 4. The theme was Gratitude. I picked the them this time, since I won the Week 3 challenge. Again, it's a 2-page spread. I noticed after I posted that 2 of the pics aren't perfectly lined up in the circles, but I'm too lazy to re-upload it :)





Credits:
Templates - Lina's Layouts, #7 and #10
Papers and elements - Michelle Sims, Spumoni Grunge kit
Alpha - Coralee Evans, Thankful kit
Thankful word art - Bekah_E, So Thankful For You
Family word art - Em, Thanksgiving Sayings (no TOU)

Pranks at VBT - speed scrap challenge
This is my entry for the speed scrap challenge.  We had exactly 2 hours to scrap a page. I had a hard time with this one. I wanted to try out the new template I dl'ed. Finding pics to work with this kit was really hard for some reason. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with it. Anyway, here's my page:



Credits:
Little Moments Like That - Andrea
Template - Camilla's Kitchen
Alpha - thisispapier.blogspot.com

Ok, so there's a story behind these pics. I used to work at a software company as the admin assistant. When someone went on vacation, the other engineers played some sort of prank on their office. Sadly, I don't have pictures of them all. One time they decorated someone's office in pink bubblewrap in honor of his new baby girl. I wish I had the pics from that one! Anyway, as you can see, they wrapped everything in tin foil in one office. We filled another with balloons. When marketing was at an off-site meeting, the engineers moved all the marketing team's desks into the marketing VP's office. So there you have it. Pranks from work.

Our Family is a Zoo - LOL!
So...Kasie (a friend on BAM) found a zoo kit and posted it in the "ugliest kit contest" thread (that I started).  One of the elements pictured was a tiger, and I thought the tiger was kinda cute.  So...Kasie said I should make a page with it.  I mentioned that my mom's bathroom is all animal prints, and both Kasie and Shannen were teasing that I should make a page for Mom's bathroom (to hang above the toilet LOL)...hehehe, and I did ;)  I made it as an 8x10 so Mom can frame it.  You know, it actually turned out kinda cute!  

Ironically, the tiger in the preview wasn't even in the kit...

Amusingly enough, I gave it to Mom when we were home for Christmas break...and she loves it! But instead of framing it and putting it in her bathroom, she framed it and it's sitting on the cradenza in the dining room!

So here it is:



Credits:
Papers and elements - Tripalee, Put Me in the Zoo
Alpha (slightly modified) - A Work in Progress, About A Boy

Sleeping with Daddy - Week 6 Challenge
This is my entry for the week 6 challenge.  At first, I didn't think I could do this challenge.  I don't have any "night" pics.  My camera doesn't do dark photos well and the few I DID have are on a crashed hard drive anyway.  I mentioned it to John, and he came up with this great idea of using pics of him and Emma sleeping.  So...that's what I did!  They might not all technically be night pics, but eh, it works for me.  Hope that's ok :)

Thankfully, I already had several kits I could pull from for the colorscheme aspect, and templates are always fun :)  It was fun to do this page, because these aren't shades I typically use, nor is this the style of template I lean towards.  It was fun to get out of my comfort zone a little :)

Anyway, enough babbling from me.  Here's the page:



Credits:
Template - Maria, Scrapmuss Designs #1
Black paper and mat - Tracy Anderson, Sunshine Studio Scraps, A Formal Affair kit
Alpha - LiviaY, Sunshine Studio Scraps, Oohlala kit
Blue/green papers, jeweled rocks - Carrie Stephens, Spontaneous Delight kit
Everything else - Gwen, Cristelle kit

Fairy Tale Moments - Week 7 Challenge
This is my entry for the week 7 challenge.  The theme, in addition to using this kit, was fairy tale moments.  I couldn't think of anything to fit the theme, so I asked John, and he came up with the idea of using several fairy tale moments in our lives. And that's what I did! This is also the first time I've done a cut out.  I think it turned out well :) Here's the page:



Credits:
Template - 3s_enough #119
Papers and elements - Shabby Princess, Urban Kiwi
Flowers and gray dotted ribbon - Choubinette, Sweety Ice add-on
Alpha - A Work in Progress, Sweet Dreams
Photoshop actions - Atomic Cupcake, simple tear

Emma's First Birthday, 1 & 2
This is the first of the 2 page spreads I'm doing for Emma's birthday.  Kimi uploaded it for me since my internet connection sucks, and pointed out that "birthday" is messed up...but it's a word art. Kimi is teh awesome and fixed it for me:) I had to send her the original word art and she made me a new one almost exactly like it. But I don't have the fixed version uploaded, so you'll just have to live;) I absolutely LOVE how this spread turned out! I submitted this spread for the week 8 challenge, as the theme was glitter.







Credits:
Template - Simply Yin 62 (modified)
Papers and elements - Happy Birthday collab kit
Alpha - Michelle Sims, Twilight Obsession (yep, this is my fave alpha - I keep using it!  LOL, it doesn't have any #s, so I used the lowercase "L" for my 1)
Simple tear action by Atomic Cupcake

Emma's First Birthday, 3 & 4
Next spread of birthday pages - opening and playing with presents!





Credits:
Template - Camilla's Kitchen, #2
Papers and elements - Happy Birthday collab kit
Alpha - LiviaY, Sunshine Studio Scraps, Ooh-la-la kit

A Moment in Time - Week 9 Challenge
Here's my entry for week 9. The theme was "A Moment in Time." It's not my best, but it's ok. I tried to add more elements, but it just wouldn't work well with this template. Ah well. At least I'm participating ;)

These are all pics of Emma and one of the family cats at my parents' house. Of the 5 (yes, 5...), he's the most laid back and tolerant of young children (though he scratched Kimi's Richie when he was Emma's age). He DID swipe at her a couple of times (once right after one of these photoshoots - the one where her face is right up by his), but his claws weren't out when he did. LOL, this cat weighs more than Emma! He was 17.5 last time we weighed him, and Emma was 16 lbs 13 oz last weigh in. I'm sure she's gained since then, so they're probably about the same weight now. He was 19 lbs at one point. Fat fat cat! Anyway, on to the entry:



Credits:
Template - Lina's Layouts, #25
Paper and elements - Paula Phillips, Violet Beauregarde kit
Actions - Atomic Cupcake, silver

Cousins - Week 10 Challenge
This is my entry for the week 10 challenge.  The theme was "the ties that bind" and I chose to use pictures of Emma with all her cousins.  I'd been wanting to do a cousins page for awhile, so this challenge was perfect for it!  Also, part of the challenge for PS users was to use at least 1 action.  No problem there; I love using actions!  I really like how this page came out.
BTW, in case you can't read it, the word art says, "God made us cousins because He knew our mothers couldn't handle us as siblings."  Also, on the picture of my neice Rachel in the dog's kennel, Laini made a sign that says, "Please don't feed the animals" - and my other neice (her sister, Alex) is feeding her a cracker, LOL!



Credits:
Template - Simply Yin 74
Blue paper - MeganB Designs, Rainy Day kit
Other papers, glitter splatter, red flower, jeweled doodle - Cherry Moka kit
Blue alpha, wire string, ribbons, brown flower (modified), star brad - A Work in Progress, Berrylicious kit
Brown alpha - A Work in Progress, Breakfast at Tiffany's kit
Brown button - Melany Violette, Warm Autumn Days kit
Wordart - Elegant WordArt
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear, wild tear

Because I Love My Duck & You Can Share My Toilet - Week 11 Challenge
And finally, here's my entry for week 11.  We had to use this kit, plus a quote from a favorite movie or TV show.  I couldn't think of a quote that I wanted to use for the life of me.  I googled movie quotes and looked and looked and looked through the quotes for my fave movies, and found very little that I could scrap with the pics I have.  I finally got inspiration while looking through Emma's pictures. Ironically, I already had the song in my head, but I'd forgotten that I had these pics.  I'm happy with how this one turned out :D  This page won the challenge:)



Credits:
Template - 3's Enough, #136 (modified)
Papers and elements - Wishing on a Starr kit
Ribbon - A Work in Progress, Berrylicious kit (modified)
Actions - Atomic Cupcake, simple tear
Quote - VeggieTales, King George and the Ducky

I did a 2nd page for this challenge, just for fun. It's more of a gag than anything. Here it is:



Credits:
Papers and elements - Wish Upon A Starr kit
Ribbon and frame - A Work in Progress, Blue Earth kit
Actions - Atomic Cupcake, simple tear
Quote - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Phew!  This is probably the longest first post ever. But that's it for now!  I'll post the wedding book later.  For now, I have a sick toddler to take care of.  She's had diarrhea since Saturday, a horrible diaper rash, and today she got a fever.  Poor baby:( Off to take care of her!

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