Write My Life

Layouts done: 13

I finished my gift project. It’s being printed by Shutterfly and now I am awaiting its arrival….

I’ve started a project for 2009 to take a photograph a day. That’s my goal but I’m not going to pressure myself to do it. I missed one day (a lazy Monday) but was “saved” by my husband who took a photograph while in Japan.

I’ve collected the photos into a scrapbook page - one page per week. I am stuck on how to do the title page and the first page (only 3 days in the first week) but I need to move forward before I got too far behind. So, here are the pages from week two and week three. They are a very simple style designed from a template I created. I am a big fan of the 9 square grid so I used that as a jumping point making 7 squares for the photos and combining the last 2 squares for journaling.

Partially done: 6 layouts

Completely done: 6 layouts

I have two weeks of class to finish, week #11 and #12. I have a basic sketch and idea for the layouts, but I have put them aside for now. I’m on a detour. Here’s why:

For Mike’s mom I made her a digital scrapbook for Christmas. It consisted on pages from our life January - June. It was not all the pages. That would have been about 100 pages. This was 25 selected pages. Well, her birthday is in February and it is my goal to give her a book with July - December done. Of coarse, I haven’t scrapped all those pages yet so I have to do some of those! I went through all my pictures and figured out which 12 (!) pages I need to do. So, I have about 3 weeks to do 12 pages. How am I doing? Well, I’ve got the photos on pages, titles and journaling done on all of them. Now, to tweak them with my wonderful Designer Digital products.

Partially done: 11 layouts

Completely done: 1 layout

I am SO catching up here!

In week #10 Cathy Z. took a look at the huge topic of color. We have  been discussing color all along with various color combinations to try. This week, she discussed the basics of color theory but then shared her approach to color. She looks for 4 colors in her photographs that may work. She may narrow them down to 2 or 3 colors but then she looks for papers and embellishments in those colors. Next, she will work with the proportions.

We did a couple exercises of picking 4 colors from the photograph and then narrowing it down to 2 or 3 colors. I learned that I am really more comfortable with a two color plus neutral combination. I am addicted to white especially for the journaling and/or background colors. I did two layouts this way, but I won’t post the pictures because they are group shots.

Here is a two-page layout to share. In this layout, I picked a favorite color (blue) then used it as a triad color scheme for my layout. I ended up with this blue, red and yellow layout. Not typical Christmas colors but kinda fun!

Journaling:    Our Christmas celebrations begin each year the day after Thanksgiving when the tree gets put together and decorated. It is usually a one-day job but this year we had to stretch it out a few days.
I had more than usual to do since we had just returned from southern California. In one day I had prepared and served our Thanksgiving meal. I still had plenty of clean-up to do so the girls put the tree together themselves on Friday. When I went to string on the lights there were several strands not working. Mike used his engineering skills to try to fix them but to no avail. After a trip to Target on Saturday, I was able to finish stringing the lights. The girls decorated the tree. Finally, I finished the decorations and we had our pretty tree up and ready for the holiday.

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids, Title Lines 2

Ali Edwards: Harvest Cardstock, Holiday Word Art , Holiday Title + Journal Photo Overlays

Mindy Terasawa: Winter Sparkle Paper Pack

Anna Aspnes: MonoBlendz Berry Poinsetta Paperie

Pattie Knox: Shimmer Me Tidbits: Starry Night , Pin It On Tinsels

All above from http://www.designerdigitals.com

Sue Cummings/Taylormade: True Magic Christmas v2-3 at O’scraps

Font: Garamond

Layout and concept provided by Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life workshop at Big Picture Scrapbooking

Week #9 of  class concentrated on the elements of LINE and SHAPE.

The placement of line (vertical, horizontal, etc.) can effect the feel of a layout. Lines also lead the eye on a layout as well as provide stability. Lines do not have to be physical but can be implied by the use of space.

Shape is the form of an object or a group of objects. Shapes effect the feel of the layout.

In the first layout, the obvious horizontal line and implied vertical lines provides unity and stability to the layout. The whole layout has a nice shape to it as well.

 Journaling: Even though we visited Disneyland before Thanksgiving, the holiday decorations were already up in full force. While it was pretty and festive, we decided we preferred the regular Disneyland look. Jennifer in particular was annoyed by the fact that holiday decorations were up before Thanksgiving. In the end it was nice to see the decorations but our next visit will be during a regular time of the year.

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids and Anna Aspnes: MonoBlendz Confiture Paperie, designerdigitals.com

Font: Disney Print, Arial Black

Layout and concept provided by Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life workshop at Big Picture Scrapbooking

Here’s two-page layout concentrating on line:

Journaling: It was a whim. It is very unusual for us to do
anything on a whim but when we realized the girls had the entire Thanksgiving week off and it would be the last year we would ever have that situation, we decided to go ahead and go to Disneyland. We made hotel reservations a few days ahead of time. We left on Sunday morning and spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning at Disneyland.

Michelle Martin: Sayge paper (white), Jesse Edwards: TitleLines 2, Pattie Knox: Brad Bonanza 3, Anna Aspnes: MonoBlendz Confiture Paperie (red), designerdigitals.com

Font: Century Gothic and Myriad Pro

Layout and concept provided by Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life workshop at Big Picture Scrapbooking

Week #8 of class continued the idea of Emphasis. The sketches for this week made a clear emphasis by having a large photograph. Here are my two examples:

Journaling: We loved the beauty of the two swimming pools at San Simeon.

Pattie Knox: Brad Bonanza No. 03: Digital Fasteners
Mindy Terasawa: Winter Sparkle Glitters
Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids, By the Sea Alpha
Art Warehouse: Memories Circles No.10

Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com

Other: Vinnie Pearce Your Heart paper

The next layout is a two-page spread.

Journaling: Jennifer had a wonderful season playing for her Fall 2008 AYSO team, Red Hot Chili Peppers. They started practicing in early August and continued throughout the season practicing on Tuesday and Thursday after school. Each Saturday we had a game to attend, most often either 8:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. Their first game of the season ended in a tie. They went on to win every single games afterwards and ultimately they won the Redwood City championship.

Pattie Knox: Little Enamel Sports Accents
Ali Edwards: Remember This Title And Journal
Michelle Martin: Bergen Ribbons
Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids

Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com

Font: Century Gothic

Cathy Zielske pointed our class to this website, http://kuler.adobe.com

Our challenge was to use this color generator as a way to find a good color combo for our layout using her sketch. I did one layout by finding this color combo of blue, white, cream and teal.

Journaling: At the Renaissance Festival Jaclyn and Jennifer used a bow and arrow for the first time. At the archery station, they both learned to shot. One man at the station helped the girls to learn to shot properly.
First, fit the arrow into the bow string. Then, pull back on the string, not the arrow. Get the shooting elbow and place your hand near your cheek. Aim with your other hand. Let go!
The girls really enjoyed shooting the arrow and improved greatly in a very short time.

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids, Title Lines 2, Goodness Solids
Ali Edwards: The Story Vertical Photo Overlay
Katie Pertiet: Notebook No.4

Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com

Also: Kellie Mize: ArchiTextures

For Week #7 the class emphasized the principle of EMPHASIS. That is, making something really stand out in comparison to something else. Emphasis puts attention on something. Attention can be gained by making something big or at big in comparison to something next to it. This can be done in many ways including type size and photograph size.

My two layouts here put emphasis on a photograph because it is slightly larger than the others in the layout. Placement of the photograph makes a difference as well. Another trick is to place the title or embellishments near the photograph that is being emphasized.

Journaling: Eating out is a necessary thing while on vacation. To cut costs, though, we will do a variety of things including eating one large meal and one small meal each day, staying at a hotel with a free breakfast, and saving meals and heating them in the microwave later.
Another cost saving (and often time saving as well) technique is to pack our first meal at home and eat it for our first meal of the trip.
On our Southern California trip, we packed cold submarine sandwiches, grapes and drinks, then ate them at our first stop - San Simeon. This saved us time from having to hunt for local food and saved us money since we didn’t have to pay the high restaurant prices there.

MaryAnn Wise: Angelic Overlay
Katie Pertiet: Chunky White Chipboard Alphabet and Simply Bloom paper
Anna As: 12X12 Edge Overlay 7
Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids
Ali Edwards: Harvest Cardstock
All Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com

Font: Garamond

Journaling: After kidnapping the party guests from their homes we drove them to our secret destination - a friend’s beach house south of Santa Cruz. At the beach house Captain Jackie inspected her crew. She announced her treasure map was missing so she inspected the girls’ bags until it was found. With map in hand, they followed the path to the beach. On the beach, they discovered a treasure chest filled with gold chocolate coins and snack bags. They were apparently hungry because they all yelled, “Food! Yes!” Next, they played at the beach. Afterwards, we headed back to the beach house. After changing clothes, the girls gathered to open presents. Dinner followed with pizza, watermelon, apples and Jackie’s requested lemon cheesecake.

Fonts: Garamond and Hannibal Lecter

Jessie Edwards: Title Lines 2 and Clean and Serene Solids
Ali Edwards: 31 Days Circle Numbers
Katie Pertiet: SimplyBloom paper
All Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com

Thanksgiving, Christmas, family visits and vacation have all been wonderful this last month, but I’m ready to go back to “regular” life.

Back on track with my Cathy Z. scrapbook class….

Here’s an additional layout from week 6 on unity.

Journaling: The Storybookland Canal Boats have always been a beautiful and quiet ride among the hustle and bustle of Disneyland. On this ride, we sit in a boat that winds through miniature settings from Disney animated films. The outdoor boat ride starts by passing through Monstro’s cave. From there we pass Disney scenes landscaped with miniature trees and shrubs. The miniature settings include:

* Toad Hall from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
* The Sultan’s palace from Aladdin
* The village from Cinderella, featuring a gold-spired castle that is the highest point in Storybook Land.
* An English village including Alice’s house from Alice in Wonderland
* The pigs’ homes from The Three Little Pigs

Pattie Knox: Chat Freebie 06 11 08
Jessie Edwards: Title Lines and Clean and Serene Solids
Katie Pertiet: Decorative Scissors
Fonts: Myriad Pro and Garamond

All Designer Digitals, http://www.designerdigitals.com