cheryl - 6/18 - Chelle's Creations

Classics: At the Park

July 29, 2014
Classics
cheryl

Chelle’s Creations has a perfect digital scrapbooking kit for your playground memories. It’s full of her unique felt creations of slides, jungle gyms, and swings but also has lots of banners, bright patterned papers, ribbons, and buttons for use on a wide variety of pages. Today, I want to show you a couple of pages from the Creative Team made from At the Park. The pages are so completely different, if I didn’t know better, I would think they used two completely different kits.

First, Kimberly used At the Park and a Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs template to record her memories of her teenage daughter taking a break with friends at a park. She also used Chelle’s Me and My Shadow styles for her layout as well as copying and pasting the styles from Cheryl’s Fuss Free template. They coordinate nicely. Most of her shadows are 45 degrees; however, for the main photo, she selected the -43 paper/photo style in Me and My Shadow to help give the photo a little more dimension on her page. Me and My Shadow is a great tool when you scrap in newer versions of Photoshop Elements since the program tries to apply a global shadow direction. The styles let you better customize your shadows on your layout and comes with 45, -43, and 120 degree shadow directions in 11 different settings from staples to large, bulky flowers.

Now contrast Kimberly’s page with Helen’s shown below. She also used At the Park but chose the papers and elements in the bright reds and yellows with just a hint from the blues in the kit. Her page is simply a recording of a happy memory and really isn’t about a visit to a park at all. But, the bright happy colors convey well the happiness of her little one’s giggle and help to present the cheerful attitude throughout the entire page.

I hope you are inspired to scrap a happy memory today, and maybe even use At the Park. Don’t have it? You can find this kit in the market by clicking on the preview image below.

Scrap Skills: A Strong Focal Point

July 23, 2014
Scrap Skills
cheryl

Creating a strong focal point on a digital scrapbooking page is extremely important, for without some variation of emphasis, a reader might get lost and miss the purpose of the page. Since we create scrapbook pages to record precious memories, it would be a shame to confuse those for whom we have saved our memories. Debbie Hodge says that emphasis is all about contrast, and it can be achieved in a variety of ways. Take a look at a couple of examples from Chelle’s Creative Team members.

Jennifer used Chelle’s Boho Summer minikit and matching alpha to make a whimsical page using one large, humorous photo. She double framed the photo and created a cluster around it to draw the eye towards the photo. The cluster and single photo contrast with the plain wooden background, and it would be hard to miss Jennifer’s focal point on this page.

Melissa used Bug Town minikit and alpha to create a double page. She explained, “Since this page has very similar looking photos in each photo spot, I wanted to draw attention to the one I liked best. So I enlarged the photo and really zoomed in. To help keep the focal point on the enlarged photo (since its a 2pager) I cropped the size of all the accompanying photos. And I also kept the all the photos more zoomed out to keep the focus on my main photo.” She also kept the double page layout balanced and added chevrons to help the flow of the layout. Here’s her double page spread followed by the left and right halves separately for ease in viewing.

Remember to keep in mind contrasting elements to bring a strong focal point to your next digital scrapbooking page.

Beat the Heat

July 15, 2014
Classics
cheryl

I can think of a very few ways I prefer to beat the heat of summer than with an icy cold treat. Chelle’s Creations has a terrific classic digital scrapbooking kit called Beat the Heat that has everything I need to preserve those memories of hot summer days with a cold sweet treat. Take a look at a couple of delicious pages as examples from her creative team.

First, Krista captured her two darlings enjoying ice cream. She has masterfully combined the polka dot paper with the plaid for the background, and her clusters of ice cream cones and flowers are perfect accents for her matted photos.

Next, Jen took advantage of some quality time with her oldest and her husband to share a frozen treat at a favorite ice cream shop. I love the photo treatments she has used with the colors in Chelle’s kit, and I’m crazy about those stacked papers in the background.

Need a closer look at the kit in the market? Here it is! The image is linked.

Mixing & Matching Alphas

July 9, 2014
Scrap Skills
cheryl

Hello, digital scrapbooking fans and friends of Chelle’s Creations. Today the Creative Team has a few pages to share with you in which they have used 2 different alphas on a page. It’s fun to do, if you’ve never tried it, and the more contrast the better, it seems with some pages. Don’t be afraid to pull two totally different alphas onto your desktop to use on a page. You can pull from the colors in your photos, the textures on the page, or even the shapes of the theme of your page. Let’s take a look at some very inspirational pages.

First, Kimberly used the ever handy curled frames to make a custom layout without the need of a template. She chose different sizes, resized some, and even rotated them to give her page the snapshot-on-a-page look. She used alphas from Liberty and Play the Game for her title. For the word “Your” she used Janda Elegant Handwriting font and applied Chelle’s CU metal styles to make it look like an alpha or piece of word art.

Next, Leslie used Hippity Hop Hop and the matching alpha for the majority of her page. It was a perfect kit choice since her pictures were from an Easter egg dyeing party. (The words “Dye Job” were made from a retired kit called Spic and Span). I love the blocked look, and the title made from evenly spaced alphas works perfectly in this style. Look how proud her little guy is of his egg! So cute.

Next, Donna has used Hard Hat Required, one of Chelle’s newest kits for her page. Both of the alphas in her title came from the matching alpha set for the kit so they work marvelously together, of course. I love how she used the little construction worker in her title work. I often think Donna is the Queen of using a large photo for a background. Look how well that traffic line flows up through the page. I’m sure it was a frustrating experience, but she’s made a great page from it to record her memory.

Finally, Carol has used the Liberty kit and matching alphas on her page. Look how well her retro photo works with this kit! I love the way she sized one of the title words significantly smaller than the other, and the date tag hanging off the side of one of the letters is perfect. Carol, are you one of the cute young ladies in this picture? Adorable!

I hope you are inspired to mix and match your alphas. It adds texture and dimension to your page and just might be the emphasis you need.

In the Pool and At the Beach

July 1, 2014
Perfect Pairs
cheryl

It doesn’t matter how old I get, I love going to the beach and the pool in the summer. Chelle has at least two perfect digital scrapbooking kits to use with my photos, and they happen to look great mixed together. They are In the Pool and At the Beach and they even have Little People sets to match here and here. The CT has been playing with these two kits, and three of the talented team members have shared their layouts for us.

First, Roxana used a free template by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs and Chelle’s two kits to make this gorgeous page. I love the word tag used in the title, and that large photo blended into the background is a great focal point.

Next, Jenny mixed the kits here concentrating mostly on the pool elements, obviously. She used a Little Green Frog Template. I love the cluster of flowers and pool noodles behind the large title.

Finally, Christine used a single photo as her subject, and it looks fantastic on the stacked paper background. In fact, she has used all my favorite papers on her page. The sand paper is my favorite texture in these kits, but the patterned papers she used for photo mats are perfect for drawing us in to her photo of Logan playing in the water spout.

Want a closer look at the kits? Here ya go! The images are linked to the store at Scrap Orchard.

Time for sunscreen for me.

Scrap Skills: Using Word Bits

May 28, 2014
Freebies / Scrap Skills
cheryl

Word bits are some of my favorite elements in today’s digital scrapbooking kits. I love them because I don’t like to journal (I know, fifty lashes with a wet noodle!), and word bits allow me to tell the story without much trouble. Just pop a few bits of predesigned word art onto the page and I’m done! Let me show you a few pages as examples.

Now don’t be shocked, but I’ve decided to show you one of my own pages. I haven’t scrapped much this year due to a crazy work schedule, but I was able to make this page of my son’s high school graduation in just a few minutes by using Chelle’s word art and word bits in her Graduation kit. I love the time savings I get from using the word art, and that little grad-u-ate word bit will add a nice touch to any graduation page. By the way, that frame with the little word bit on it was a freebie made by one of Chelle’s talented team members, and you can still grab it here.

Next, Donna made a double page spread using the Something Fishy bundle and a Yin template. She used the word bits to label the sea animals in her photos on the page, and they look awesome.

Finally, Jenn combined two of Chelle’s kits (Pizza Amore and One Year Older) and a template from Cluster Queen. She made her own word bits to coordinate with her page. Isn’t it fantastic?

So, whether you make your own word bits or use the ones included in Chelle’s kits, I would encourage you to do so. They add an element of texture and give you a place for some simple but meaningful words.

Classics: Graduation

May 20, 2014
Chelle's Classics
cheryl

By the end of this week, my youngest child will have graduated from high school, and I will have hundreds of photos of the big event to put into digital scrapbooking pages. I can’t wait! And, Chelle’s Creations has my favorite kit for this theme, appropriately named Graduation, but it’s a great kit for whatever accomplishment you want to celebrate. The Chelle’s Creations CT have some great pages to show you how they chose to use this kit and the matching word art.

First, Lisa chose to combine the Graduation kit and Word Art with the Street Smarts bundle to scrap her daughter’s kindergarten graduation. I love the felt graduate she created with Chelle’s goodies.

Next, Helen chose to use the kit to accompany pictures from the prom. The gold and black colors in the kit add an elegant touch to the page.

Finally, Kimberly used Graduation to scrap her daughter’s 8th grade promotion. She used the kit’s red paper and adjusted the color in Photoshop to match her daughter’s maroon school color. She also used Chelle’s Balsa Blooms {Cosmos} to add some flowers to the layout.

Time for me to charge my camera batteries and find Chelle’s kit on my hard drive. Don’t have it? You can find it in her store by clicking on the linked images below.

Framing It

May 14, 2014
Scrap Skills
cheryl

I loved using frames in paper scrapping, and I love using them in my digital scrapbooking projects. But, frames don’t have to be “filled” with photos. This week, Chelle’s CT wants to show you how to use frames in different ways, and if you don’t have frames in your favorite kit, Chelle’s Creations has a couple of great photo frame collections that can be used with every kit, no matter the theme. Her newest of these is Curled Frames, but I love the classic Photo Stacks, too. Let’s see the inspiration from the team.

First, Melissa has made a double page spread for us using Zoo Crew Safari {bundle} and the Basic Black Stitched Alpha. She has some of her frames placed wonky on the page to add interest. First, you’ll see the double page, and then I’ve added the singles so you can get a better look.

Next, Heather did a similar thing with her frame using Chelle’s In the Pool. I love how she mixed paper mats and the frame to add texture and dimension to the page.

Kimberly chose to use Chelle’s Photo Stacks and Money, Money for her page. She also used the Scribbles 2 alpha to write on top of the money paper.

Finally, Roxana used At the Beach and combined the frames in the kit with some photo frames from Curled Frames. The curled edges really give a tangible look to the page.

Here’s a closer look at the two frame sets used. Why not scrap a page with them now? I’m definitely inspired to do just that.

Chalked Products

When Chelle introduced her Chalked digital scrapbooking products, it was love at first sight, for me, and I know I’m not alone. Several of the CT love them as much as I do. Chelle’s Creations has at least 17 products in her store with chalked items, and the CT want to show you just several of them in use.

First, Kimberly used one of Chelle’s In the Pocket {small} templates along with Back 2 School to record memories of her daily life with the two busy teens. I love that she cut the frame off the chalkboard in the Back 2 School kit to make a card for her pocket page. That’s stretching your stash!

Next, Melissa made a baby’s birth announcement to print. This would make a great gift idea for a new mom. She used the Chalked {Outline Alpha} with one of the Chalked {boards} to make this masterpiece.

Next, Jenn used Bluebird on My Shoulder along with the Chalked InstaLife Cards, and the Chalked {bundle} to create this adorable page with some of her Instagram photos.

Next, Heather used a Scrapping with Liz template, Chelle’s Home for the Holidays kit, and the Chalked Cards {winter}. I really like the way the chalk compliments the snowy photos.

Finally, Jen also used a Scrapping with Liz template and Chelle’s At the Park, Chalked {cards} and Chalked {doodads} for her cute page. I like how she cut the chalked card to fit the oval shape and didn’t feel limited by the fact that the card was rectangular originally.

Scrap Skills: Shadow Styles

If you’re a new fan to Chelle’s Creations, you might not know that she has some shadow styles in the market that can help you turn your digital scrapbooking page from good to great in one click. The product is called Me & My Shadow and it has 3 common shadow directions for a multitude of different thicknesses of items. But Chelle also has some photo frames that are fairly new to the market, and they include custom shadows that can add variety to your pages. They are Curled Frames and they include warped shadows, exactly like the shadows that would occur when a matted photo is placed on a traditional page. Let’s see what the CT has done with these products.

First, Donna used Chelle’s Choose the Right {Baptism} on a Scrapping with Liz template, and she used Me & My Shadow styles to realistically shadow the flowers, leaves, strings, and papers on her page. I love how the folded paper flower pops off the page with Chelle’s style added.

Next, Kayla used Hippity Hop Hop kit and matching alpha and the Curled Frames for her Easter photo of her daughter. The warped shadow on the photo gives a variance to the shadow that would most certainly occur if the page were a traditional paper and glue page.

Finally, Tammy also used Hippity Hop Hop and the alpha with Me & My Shadow on her page about four generations of her family together at Easter. As with the other pages, the flowers seem to pop off the page, and the tight shadows on the title label are the perfect thickness.