One Little Bird | Books & Coffee

I can’t remember the last time I did a hybrid page that wasn’t a pocket page.  When Peppermint told me that she was designing a digital kit about books & coffee, I was all in!  I felt like I could scrap many pages with this kit and topic!

I do hybrid pages most of the time in 8.5x11, so that I could print on the background cardstock with my printer at home.  In this case, I used Bazzill orange peel cardstock in white.

Digital supplies:  High Street Stories digital scrapbook kit & journal cards by One Little Bird.  Make sure you pick it up on sale this weekend!

I printed my journaling and some of the digital stamps I used onto my cardstock before putting the layout together.

I used the font Lobster 1.3 and cut out the title with my Silhouette Cameo using EK Success wood sheets.  These wood sheets are stickers with adhesive backing, so once you’ve cut them, you just peel them up and stick them. Very cool!

I wanted to show you my hybrid process so that the word “hybrid” isn’t so mysterious.  I basically did my layout digitally in Photoshop first.

Once I had my digital layout done and I have my size and placement of the papers and elements, I create a few other Photoshop canvases and start dragging each piece of digital item onto each separate canvas.  Each canvas has a purpose.  I had one document for printing just the photo onto photo paper.

I had one document for printing onto vellum.

I had one document for printing out the elements onto matte photo paper.  If I had a lot to print & cut, I would use a 8.5x11 sheet and use my Silhouette for the print & cut.  But I didn’t have a lot to print, so I used a 4x6 sheet and just cut it out by hand.

After hiding all the elements that I’m printing separately, I am left with the background that I want to print onto my Bazzill cardstock.

I printed everything and here they were!

Then I assembled my hybrid page together. 

Here’s a comparison of my digital versus hybrid layout. The left is digital and the right is hybrid.

It’s awesome what you can do with some cardstock, digital kit, a printer, scissors, and adhesive! 

Evalicious | Photo Love

Hi Everyone!  I’m on the Evalicious blog today with a layout I made using some simple watercoloring and Evalicious goodies! I’m actually not a seasoned mix-media person, but I found it really fun to play with some watercolors and a stencil. I created the top and bottom of my layout using watercolors first.  Then I let it dry for a bit before I created the rest of my layout.

I used the Photo Shoot Clear Stamp Set to create a stamped background behind my photo.  I used colors that coordinated with my watercolored background and just stamped one design at a time around the background of my page. I used the Ledger Alphas Puffy Stickers to create my title.  I used a journal card from Photo Shoot Large Tags to back up from photo, cutting a slit underneath the “Snapshot of us” graphic to slide my photo in.

I colored this wood veneer from Photo Shoot Wood Veneer with a Sharpie glitter paint pen in blue.  I really like coloring wood veneers with glitter paint pens!

I topped the photo with another wood veneer and stamped “LOVE” on the bottom of my photo. It gave it just the finishing touch that I was looking for!

Thanks for stopping by!  ♥

 

Evalicious Products Used:

photo shoot large tags	photo shoot wood veneer	ledger alphas puffy stickers
photo shoot clear stamp set

Paper Issues | Winter Fur

Hi Everyone!  I’m up on the Paper Issues blog today with a layout I created for the current issue “Say It Ain’t Snow Cold Outside”. 

My cat Noodle gets “puffier” every winter when he gets his winter fur. Even though it doesn’t get super-cold where we live, I guess the temperature difference still triggers his thick coat growth. I love snuggling with him under a blanket in the winter!

I used some goodies from the Merry Memories Limited Edition Swag Bag, as well as Crate Paper Kiss Kiss Valentine paper.  The whole Crate Paper Kiss Kiss line is super-cute and totally love-appropriate for the upcoming Valentine’s season! 

Foam glitter Thickers are one of my favorite things!

I also LOVE these kitty clips from Maya Road! So cute!

You can use my code LISTGIRL for 20% off your entire purchase at the Paper Issues store. Hope you pick up some winter scrapping goodies!

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

Make A Card | Loads Of Love Tag

This will be the last of my new wood-mounted cat stamps from Catslife Press.  They were just so cute that I had to use them on my last three cards.

I made this tag in probably 15 minutes.  I could adhere it to a red cardstock as a Valentine’s card.  Or just as a general “I love you” card.

Size: 5.25” x 2.75” vertical

Techniques:  stamping, manual die-cutting

Project Supplies:

• Papertrey Ink – Vintage Cream Cardstock
• Catslife Press -  cat stamp 1167E
• Simon Says Stamp – Just A Love Note stamp set
• Papertrey Ink – Instant Photo Pullout Die Collection
• Pebbles - We Go Together Collection – XOXO paper
• Elle’s Studio – Love You More Lil Snippets Labels
• Memento ink – Tuxedo Black ink pad
• Papertrey Ink – Pure Poppy ink pad
• Studio Calico – Blush Crush ink pad
• The Twinery – Moraschino twine
• BIC Mark-It Ultra Fine Permanent Marker

Other Supplies:

• Fiskars Procision Trimmer
• Tombow Mono Permanent adhesive

Make A Card | From The Desk Of My Cat

As I said last week, this year I’m going to make more cards and give them to people.  I love that I can just sit down for 20-30 minutes and make something, without having to find photos and print them.  I’m really digging this cardmaking thing on a regular basis!  I’m naming this series on my blog “MAC” for “Make A Card”.  Which, I suppose, makes it sort of a series on my blog.  :-)

This simple Thanks card looked easy enough, but it took longer than I thought to make it.  Probably because the alpha stamps I used doesn’t have corresponding dies, so I had to fussy-cut the letters out by hand after coloring them in.

Size: 4.25” x 5.5” vertical

Techniques:  stamping, coloring, fussy-cutting

Project Supplies:

• Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White cardstock
• Catslife Press cat stamp 1067E
• Studio Calico Kit Alpha Stamp Set
• Memento ink – Tuxedo Black
• BIC Mark-It Ultra Fine Permanent Marker

Other Supplies:

• Fiskars Procision Trimmer
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board
• Papertrey Ink Double-Sided Foam Adhesive Sheets
• EK Success Cutter Bee Scissors 

Tutorial: Creating Photo Collages Using Lightroom

One of the questions I get asked most often when people see my printed photos or my Project Life pages is:  How do you make your collages?  The answer is I use Adobe Lightroom’s Print Module to create and print collages.  It is super-easy and magical after you’ve set up your templates!  And setting up the templates doesn’t take too long either.  It’s so easy and time-saving that I think it may be the best kept secret in scrapbooking!

I’ve created several videos below, showing you how to create different types of collages within Lightroom.  Please watch them in sequence because they build upon the previous ones.  Keep in mind that I’m just trying to give the information in a succinct way.  I didn’t do any voiceovers after the fact.  All the audio of me talking is recorded through the microphone as I was doing the video screencast tutorials.  So just be prepared for a few “ums” and “ahs”.  ;-)

The first video shows you how to set up your printer to print the right size and the right settings from Lightroom.  Please keep in mind that this set up is specific to my printer. (I have the Canon Pixma MG5320.  It is discontinued, but a very similar one is the MG6620.)  Your printer may be different, but the dialog boxes and choices hopefully will be very similar to mine.

Video:  Setting Up Your Printer To Print From Lightroom

You can see it in higher resolution at Youtube.

 

The second video shows you how to create a 4x6 collage with two photos.  It also shows you how to save your collage as a template so that you can use it over and over again with different photos!

Without an outside border.

With an outside border.

And in a square format.

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 1: 4x6 with 2 Photos

See it in higher resolution at YouTube.

 

The 3rd video shows you how to create 4x6 sheet of 4-photo and 6-photo collages. 

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 2: 4x6 with 4 Photos & 6 Photos

Watch it in high resolution at YouTube.

 

The 4th video shows you how to create a 8.5x11 collage with 12 square photos.  You can adapt it to create other collages for printing on the 8.5x11 sheet.

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 3:  8.5x11 with 12 Square Photos

Watch it in high resolution on YouTube.

If you’ve made it through all of the above, then I’ve got a free template for you to download!  This Lightroom template is for a sheet of 8.5x11 collage with 12 square photos, like above.

Download the Lightroom template here.

Save it to a folder of your choosing on your computer.  Not sure how to import the template and use it in Lightroom?  I’ve got a video tutorial for THAT!

Video:  How To Import and Use a Collage Print Template in Lightroom

Watch it in high resolution on YouTube.

And those are my tutorials on making collages in Lightroom!  Hope you learned something that makes scrapbooking and Project Life’ing faster and easier.  Let me know in the comments if you have questions.

Thanks for stopping by!  ♥

Anatomy of a Blog Banner

As you know, I recently totally revamped my blog.  As part of the revamp I created a new blog banner for the top of my blog.  I knew which photos I wanted to include, but making them have the look and feel that I was looking for was pretty trial and error.

First I used the photos as is.  This was too bright and jarring.

Then I lowered the opacity of the photos to make them less jarring.  It still didn’t look right.

Then I made the photos black & white.  But I didn’t like how some of the photos looked a little dingy and not bright.

So I tried brightening up the photo on the left a bit.  I thought this banner looked pretty good, but I was not wow’ed.

Then I opened up Rad Lab and used the Pool Party filter layered with the Flirt filter.  This was the exact feel & look that I was looking for!

So that’s the story of the different iterations of the new blog banner.  :)

2015 Goal Tracking

In 2015 I have some goals that I want to keep track of. Mainly so that I develop a habit of doing these things that I want to do MORE of. I saw these goal-tracking sheets from Elise Cripe and I bought the digital PDFs so that I could print out as many as I needed to keep track of all my goals.

Let’s take a look at what I’m tracking!

COOKING DINNERS @ HOME.  Now, my blog readers know that Todd is the main chef of the family, so most of these meals will be Todd-cooked.  But I wanted to see how many dinners we cook at home this year.  There’s a funny story about this.  Someone posted my blog in Ali Edward's forum (I didn't have access so a friend told me) as a reference for doing PL when you don't have children. The person who suggested my blog to others said, "and I discovered www.listgirl.com, who PL's just a couple too, albeit a very active, eat out all the time and document every meal out couple."

It's funny that people think we eat out all the time. I would be MUCH fatter if we ate out every meal. In fact, we (Todd) cooks 4-5 dinners per week and we have leftovers for lunch the next day. But I don't post every meal we cook on my blog. Eating out is special so I post and scrapbook those more. People make assumptions that are wrong. What you see on my blog are the HIGHLIGHTS of my life, not the mundane day to day.

So far in 2015 we’ve cooked 14 dinners at home and eaten out 3 dinners.  We’ve also eaten out at lunch on the weekends. This will be fun to keep track of for a whole year!

 

*I* COOK DINNER!  Yep, I’m going to make an attempt at improving my skills at cooking. With Todd as my mentor, I have no doubt that I can achieve this!  I’m doing it once per week.  So far I’ve made two new dishes and have a third picked out and ready to go tomorrow.  I’ll be blogging once a month about the dishes I’m cooking.  In the meantime, if you want to follow along with which dishes I’m making, you can follow my new Pinterest board. 

 

WORKING OUT.  I’ve been exercising pretty regularly since 1997.  But there’s always room for improvement.  I’ve signed up for two running races in the first half of 2015.  At the end of 2014 I finished the first round of P90X3 workouts.  I enjoy being fit and looking and feeling my best. So in 2015 I will be tracking how many days I workout.  I’m aiming for 5 days per week.

 

READING BOOKS. I want to get back to reading books regularly. I love reading.  Last year I got “too busy” to read more.  This year I’m making it a priority to read on most days.  Right now I’m reading “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”.

 

MAKING CARDS. You already know that I want to make more cards in 2015. I’ll be making and blogging about the cards I make. I think as my creative endeavors evolve, there will be more cardmaking in my life. 

These are the goals I’m keeping track of in 2015.  What are your goals for 2015 and how are you tracking your progress?