Monthly Archives: February 2012

(Leading) Making Journaling FIt on Lines | Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

Have you taken a look at the tutorials here?  This is an oldie but goodie.

I LOVE the “undo” part of digi-scrapping…and typing my journaling so there are no errors, but I also like the look of “hand-written” journaling on all those fun journal elements…especially the ones with lines.

There is a simple tool in photoshop & photoshop elements for quickly and easily lining up your journaling on those lines. It’s called adjusting the leading.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Make a text box. With the text tool, click down in the upper left corner of the journaling element, then drag down to the bottom right corner without letting up on the mouse button. When you are in the bottom corner THEN let go. You should see your new text box highlighted (the marching border)

Step 2: Paste your text in the box. I suggest you write your story in a program with spell-check, then paste it into Photoshop/Photoshop Elements. You may need to edit it to fit. Move the text so that the TOP line of your journaling is sitting nicely on the top line of your journaling element.

Now we’ll be adjusting the leading. THIS is the little box where we adjust it. (In Photoshop it’s under Window>Character.)

Step 3: Highlight all of your text (Ctrl-A) Then using the drop-down box try some of the preset numbers. Here I tried 18 (too small) then 24 (too large)

Step 4: Be a little goldilocks and figure out the exact amount to make your text line up with your journaling element lines. Mine turned out to be 19.2

That’s all there is to it. Now you can have “hand written” journaling “on the lines” on all your layouts. It also works great on lined papers…like those in back to school kits.

Here’s a couple of freebie journaling elements to practice on:

Here’s a few samples from the CT:

From Karen using Gone Fishing:

From Carol using Chilling & Grilling:


Sneak Peak Giveaway Winner!

Happy Leap Day Everyone! I am here to announce the winner of Chelle’s new “Rainbow Collection!”  Thanks to Random.org the winner of the Rainbow Collection is:  #34  That is Kim! She said:     “Kim says:FEBRUARY 27, 2012 AT 1:30 PM Love the colors! Thanks for the chance.”

Congratulations, Kim! Email Chelle at     chelles.creations1@gmail.com   to claim your prize!

Thank you to all who entered this giveaway! Stay tuned for the next one!  And don’t forget the Leap Year SALE at Chelle’s store at Scrap Orchard.  You can get the “Rainbow Collection” and so much more on SALE today only!

 

2-28 Perfect Pairs: Big City and Techno Love

Today we’re looking at some of my favorite digital scrapbooking goodies from Chelle’s Creations: the Big City kit and Techno Love. The creative team has been busy making layouts combining these two kits so you can see how to stretch your stash. First, take a look at the two page spread KairynLisa made about her daughter’s building project regarding the history of Wall Street. I think that newsprint paper is one of my all-time favorite background papers. 2009-07-12WallStreet-2pgKairynNext, Neenee also used the newsprint paper, but she added a gray paper from Techno love on top of it to make an appealing stack. Look how well the black and white heart elements from Techno Love coordinate with the Big City elements. chelle_bigcity_techno_webNeeneeKayla took an entirely different approach to mixing the two kits, still using the newsprint for background, but she made a winter snow page using the pink and red elements from Techno Love, and the computer fits perfectly since the page is about the snow in the weather forecast. forecastSnow_Jan12_webKaylaErica chose to use a different background paper, and she has an equal mix of elements from the kits. The computer elements from Techno Love are complemented perfectly with the zippered flowers and ribbons from Big City.Kit by: Chelle's Creations Techno Love and Big City Template by: Litabells Designs Head Start vol. 4Finally, Cara made an adorable page of her son’s building projects by mixing the elements and papers of the two kits and even made the title by mixing the alphas. Look at his face – no doubt he will do as well as Trump in the future, right? the-next-trumpCaraDo you have both these kits? Do you need a closer look and maybe a trip to the store? Here they are! cc_bigcity_preview_2postcc_technolove_kit Happy Scrapping! 

02.27.12 Sneaky Peak & a Giveaway

You will want to watch for THIS wonderful goodie coming out this week from Chelle! It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! Truly!

I have a feeling that this will be a HUGE staple of scrapbooking bliss on your hard drive! (PSSST!!!! You will NOT want to miss Wednesday’s reveal! It could save you money!)

Do you want to win the collection?  You know the drill.

1. Post here to enter.

2. Post the image with a link to this post on facebook (then come back here and post to let us know you entered again)

3.  Tweet about the contest with a link (then come back here and post again to let us know you entered again.)

CONTEST ENDS at midnight EST TUESDAY 2/28.

2.25 Playdate Tagged Sew & Sew

It’s always so much fun for me to see the playdate LOs. You guys are amazing. I particularly loved Carol’s (Iowan) layout this week. I decided to pick one each week as my personal fav. Since I have no digi-background, I’m sort of like a patron in a library looking at photo albums.  I’ve also been reading the cc announcements back-posts of all you wonderful gals. I feel like I am getting to know you all better. Now if I’d just read them again, 3 or 4 days in a row, I might be to remember them. My silly brain…

Don’t miss out on Chelle’s latest products. Loved the Tagged Sew & Sew and CU Swirls & Doodles.

And finally my friends… (duh, duh, duh) the LO’s from the playsters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2012 Desktop Freebie | Digital Scrapbooking Freebies

Can you believe it’s that time again! Winter in nearly over, and Spring is sneaking up on us. I don’t know about you, but I am ready for more sunshine and warm weather! Rather than use a Spring themed kit this time around, I chose to use Family Tree. It is one of my favorites! Here’s a peek:

Here’s what I’ve created for you:

Isn’t that the sweetest photo of my dd meeting her long awaited cousin for the first time? I think so, too!

As always, I created this in three sizes… 1280×1024, 1280×800 and 1024×768.

You can download all three here. Happy March!

If I had to do it again…

…I would back up my files starting with day 1.  I didn’t understand the importance of back-ups until I was WAY into digi-scrapping.  In fact, I’d been designing for 18 months.  I had TONS of files.  Every time I heard a horror story of someone’s EHD failing, I would shudder and hide my head.  It took forever to do my initial online backup.  Two months, I think.  (Not as long as it predicted, but still a LONG time.)  And yes, it was difficult to use the computer during that time.  I got to the point where I would shut the back-up rate down to next to nothing while I was working, then turn it up whenever I left the laptop.  Some days when I was designing, it felt like I was going backwards…I was creating new files faster than it could back them up.
But eventually it finished.  And now it backs up continuously.  I don’t even notice it.   I have been to the website & checked to see if new stuff is there (it is)…checked to see if my EHD is there (it is).
I have had a couple of EHDs fail on me.  One of them DD15 accidentally knocked off the counter within a few days of my filling it up.  OUCH!  And one just got too old?  I lost half of 2007 & all of 2008.  Fortunately my favorite photos are printed in photo books, but I can’t use them again…unless I pay $1500 for a restoration company to TRY to get data off the disk.  If backing up sounds expensive, the cost of restoration will put it in perspective.
For the record, I use BackBlaze.  It was the best option available when I started an online backup, mostly because it recognized EHDs as long as they were plugged in at least once every 2 weeks.  Perfect for my laptop.
The Daily Digi did a post about Backing Up.  Steph recommends CrashPlan.  And if I had to do it again today, I’d use crashplan and I’d pay the extra $100 or so for seeding.  That means they’ll send you a 1T EHD.  You put your stuff on it and send it back.  That is your initial backup…the one that took my computer 2 months running non-stop.
Whatever you decide to do, DO SOMETHING.  Before you are the one in the photo.

Getting Creative with Buttons and Brads 2.22.12

Hello digital scrapbooking friends. Today I would like to share with you a few ideas about how to use the buttons and brads found in so many of Chelle’s Creations kits. Chelle’s creative team has come up with some fun ways to use these items.
Karen combined buttons from different Chelle’s Creations kits to create this colorful frame around her photo. It may have been a little time consuming but I think it definately makes one amazing page.

Monica used the buttons to represent bubbles on her adorable page.

Jenn used buttons to create a decortive layer on her page.

Ophelia added four basketball brads to her page. The first three are them semi-transparent with a dotted line added to show the movement of the ball. The fourth brad is in the basket.

I hope these pages inspired you to use either brads or buttons in a different way.

Yee Haw | Digital Scrapbooking Classics

Howdy!  It is rodeo time here in Texas!  I am not sure about your neck of the woods but here we have cowboys, horses, roping, bull riding and mutton busting.  All of these events make great pages using Chelle’s Creations YeeHaw Bundle.  The bundle includes the Cowgirl Up and Ride Em’ Cowboy kits.  If you don’t have the rodeo or even western pictures to scrap then there is still a lot you can do with this fabulous kit.  The creative team created some fun layouts for you.

Roxana created this fabulous page: On the Range

Fran created this page from a trip to the museum

Finally Jennifer has this fabulous page that is a non themed page

Here is a closer look at the kit: YeeHaw Bundle

Head on over to Scrap Orchard and grab this kit today and get started on those rodeo pictures or simple everyday pictures.  This kit will be a great addition to your collection.