All posts by cheryl

I love to see arrows on a digital scrapbooking page. They let me know what is important on the page or the direction my eye should follow. Chelle’s Creations team members have some pages to show you different ways to get the effect of arrows on a page.

First, Jenn used Norlandia and the Norlandia {alphas} by Ziggle Designs and Chelle’s Creations to make her page. The arrows are large chevrons that are part of the Little Green Frog Designs template, and they are placed behind the photos. They create a great flow for the page.  

Jenny also used a Little Green Frog Designs template and Chelle’s In the Backyard kit for her page. Again, the flow is obvious, and the page is fun to read.

Tammy used Chelle’s newest kit Out of this World for her page. She has chevrons on her page, like the others, but she also has a large curved arrow framing an adorable young Buzz, and there’s another carefully placed arrow pointing to the hero in the top photo launching to infinity and beyond, I’m sure.

Melissa has made a page with Love Grows, and it’s the perfect kit choice for her sweet little baby girl’s photo. She has used triangle paper pieces to form an arrow pointing to that sweet baby face.

Finally, Donna has used lots of arrows for her double page layout. On a recent trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway, she took photos of signs she encountered and photos of the views those signs described. On her page, she has used arrows to point from each sign to its respective view. It’s the perfect way to use arrows to help journal. By the way, she used Chelle’s Great Outdoors Bundle and the arrows are from Vrooom!

I hope you’ll consider adding some arrows to your next page. You can use chevrons or triangles instead of actual arrows, or you could even use drawn arrows like the ones in Chelle’s Creations Mark My Words.

Several members of Chelle’s Creative Team love to make double pages for digital scrapbooking layouts. I asked them what they liked about it, and several of them, including Chelle, said they like to use lots of photos on the pages and have both sides of the spread be “matchy matchy.” Helen said, “I like that I can scrap lots of photos without having to make them smaller to fit on a single layout or have to ‘ditch’ some off the layout all together.” Besides being cohesive in theme, Melissa also said she prefers to use only a few photos on her pages, so having a double allows her to use more photos and not have a crowded look.

Personally, I like using double page spreads for vacation books when I have lots of great scenery photos that I want to print in large size. Jan must agree with me because she made a double page with some photos from her trip to Yosemite. The views of El Capitan and Half Dome certainly warrant large photo spaces. She used a template by Little Green Frog Designs and Chelle’s kits Let’s Camp S’more and On the Trail.

Next, Jenny made a double page from photos of a zoo trip. She also used a double template by Little Green Frog Designs, and she used Chelle’s Prehistoric with her Bedrock Alpha. Because she used 2 pages to tell her story, she was able to enlarge her son’s photo on the left side of the page and still have room for photos of the animals at the zoo.

Tammy was able to use no less than 9 photos on her layout because she used a double spread, and she was able to show off her little cuties at the beach while still having lots of room for her story and cute elements from Chelle’s At the Beach kit. I love the sand castle in that kit, and it looks great as an anchor to the photos on the left side of the page.

Heather also loves to show lots of photos on the page at time, and family play time at the bay was the perfect reason to do so. She chose to have the title extend across the middle of the page, which works well since several printing companies now offer lay-flat pages with no gutter. She used At the Pool and a template by Little Green Frog Designs.

Like Jenny, Donna used a double page spread for her zoo pictures so she could include lots of animal photos. She has used a template by Scrapping with Liz and Chelle’s Bluebird on My Shoulder for the main kit and a few elements from Zoopendous and Forrest Friends.

Finally, Kimberly has a great tip to share with us regarding the making of a double page spread. She started with a template from Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs and used Chelle’s Anchors Aweigh kit. She also mixed  the use the styles on the template with Chelle’s  Me & My Shadow styles for added elements for a huge time saver. She doesn’t like to see seams on the background papers, and since the papers are generally only large enough for a single page, the combining of papers is necessary for a double. But, Kimberly uses three papers on the background layering the third paper on top in the middle of the spread. Then she blends the outside edges with the eraser tool into the 2 papers behind. That way, no seams show and the background appears to be one long 24 inch paper.

I hope you’re inspired to double a page now. I know I am!

Chelle recently released some new glitter styles and her creative team members have been playing with these and other glitter elements on their digital scrapbooking pages. Take a look!

Jenn used a template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs (Center of Attention) combined with Chelle’s kit Love Grows and her CU Iridescent Glitter Styles to create her page. She used the glitter styles to add sparkle to a bracket paper shape included in the template and to several hearts used for embellishment around the page. It’s the perfect touch for a page about a favorite princess.

Next, Lisa shows us that the glitter styles look fantastic with a snowy page. She used glitter to embellish this magical snow scene she created using Chelle’s Snowlandia kit which is full of sparkly elements. I love the sparkling frames around the photos to draw attention to the focus of the page. She also has a small strip of glitter paper peeking out in the layers at the bottom of the page.

If you don’t want to use the glitter styles, or if your program doesn’t allow use of them, you can still add the sparkle. Several of Chelle’s kits come with elements that are glittered for you already. Helen has used one of them for her page. She used Pearly Whites for her creation. This kit includes a glitter frame in three colors, so it makes it quite easy to add a touch of shine to your project.

Finally, Kimberly show us how to add lots of shine and sparkle to a page. In addition to applying the CU Iridescent Glitter Styles to several of the paper mats, Kimberly used a gem from Girlfriend and utilized the same glitter style and CU Metal Style to create different looking centers to the flowers. She also added the purple glitter style to the white stitched border from the kit Mane Event. One great feature of the two styles is that they work nicely with the Me and My Shadow styles. It doesn’t matter which style you apply first. Now take a close look at the silver metal flower in the bottom left cluster on the page. Kimberly used a doodled flower from Girlfriend and added the CU Metal Style to it to totally change the look and add another element of sparkle to her page.

That’s a lot of bling, right? I’m inspired to dress up my next page as I’m sure you are.

Square photos makes me think of Instagram, the wildly popular social media app based on sharing photos with vintage filters. Chelle is even getting into the Instagram swing, and if you want to follow her, she’ll be adding photos there in 2014. Because of the site’s popularity, many digital scrapbooking fans are using more square photos on their pages, and many are using photo effects similar to the ones in Instagram. Chelle’s Creative Team Members have some layouts to show you how they do it. Some have used Instagram to generate their images, but several have not. Let’s take a look.

First, Roxana has made a page about her son carving a pumpkin at Halloween, and she has used Chelle’s Carve it Up and Eeeek Word Art. Because the square photos are the same aspect ratio of the page, the maximum space can be used. Look closely how she has filled the left bottom spot and the one above it with one photo. She did this by merging the two layers together first before clipping the photo to them.

You don’t have to use lots of photos on a page when you use your Instagram pictures. Here’s a page from Helen who used an Instagram image, but it is the only photo on her page, and it is perfect. She used the Nashville filter in the phone app, and she has used Chelle’s Gingerbread kit to make her digital scrapbooking page. I love that frosting circle frame!

Mel has used her Instagram photos documenting her Elf on the Shelf mischief to make an adorable page. Looks like she is having a great time with this little guy. Appropriately, she used Naughty or Nice for her papers and elements.

Leah used Chelle’s newest Christmas kit, O Holy Night, with some family photographs to make a page that is not a Christmas theme. The colors in the kit complement the colors in her photographs perfectly, and she has balanced the weight of a few square images with one large image to the right.

Finally, Jennifer has used square photos on her page about a child’s birthday celebration. She used Chelle’s Play & Grow and One Year Older, and she has made a strong diagonal with the placement of the images. It suites the bold colors of the kit well, and the party looks like it was a lot of fun.

Are you making digital scrapbooking pages with your Instagram photos and Chelle’s kits? Share them with us in her gallery and be sure to use the hashtag #chelle when you do.

Have you noticed how great it looks when someone weaves a string around letters in her name in her forum signature? I think it really helps to hold the image together visually and keeps letters from hanging in space. Take a look at Tammy’s forum siggy here. She has the light string weaving in and out of the letters of her name – perfect for this month.

Weaving is easy to do, but making it look realistic can be a bit tricky with shadowing. Never fear! Chelle has a great video tutorial here on her YouTube channel that will walk you through the steps to create the most realistic look possible. It’s only a few minutes long, easy to watch on your next coffee break.

Our Creative Team has been making pages and using Chelle’s weaving techniques to give you some inspiration. First, Tammy made a page using Ho, Ho, Ho, Naughty or Nice, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and I think you will recognize some of the same items in her siggy above. Look how well she wrapped the string around the frame on her page.

Next, Christine has made a gorgeous page with Chelle’s Oh Snap kit. Notice how well the string is woven around the film strip and ribbons on the left of the page. But, look closely at the upper right corner, and you will notice she used the same technique on the string for the date tag.

Kayla used Norlandia and a bonus paper freebie with elements from Snowlandia, too, to make her page, and of course she also used Chelle’s Shadow Styles, Me and My Shadow. She explained in detail exactly how she made the weaving work, “I wove the string around the paper strips and under the photo op tag using a layer mask. I simplified the string and layer mask after I had the parts of the string removed and everything where I wanted it. Then I added a shadow to the string. Next, I went back in on a layer above the string and added the little shadows that would be above the parts of the string where it went under the middle paper and photo op tag with a soft brush to make it look more realistic.”

Finally, Karen made a page with the same kits as Kayla, and she wove her string around the title letters on her page. It turned out perfectly, don’t you think?

I hope you are inspired to weave some digital string! If not, maybe trying to untangle your Christmas lights this week will motivate you to get back to the digital weaving. It’s much simpler!