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Write. Click. Scrapbook: A 12 Month Project
Hello Friends! I am happy to be back this month and wanted to check in on our 12 fave photos project and then get started on a new one.
Are you joining me in creating a 12 photos for 12 months in 2012? If so, did you get your January page done? I did! Hooray! Here is mine!
I deviated from the templates a bit. (It was bound to happen!!) I am so excited to think that we might have a book ready and raring to go for Christmas presents. How fun would that be?
Do you need help with a book? Please, leave a comment and let’s work on it together.
Remember how the inspiration for this book came from this calendar? Well, I decided there was no time like the present to put those photos into a book as well. It took a bit longer than I had hoped as I had failed to save the photos their own folder, so I had to wade back through my monthly folders to find them! I hope you are smarter than I.
Once they were gathered, I just dove right in and started making pages. (That is very different from my usual strategy of creating a consistent template.) Once I finished, I did go back through and make a few changes here and there to help it feel more cohesive. Here are the pages. Or you can see it as a book on my blog.
Fun, don’t you think? All it took was a handful of papers, a font or two, and a bit of time to put it together. I am planning on printing it through Stampin’ Up! so that I can do a board book. Or maybe AdoramaPix. They are the only two I know that print without a gutter. (You know, the bound part in the middle which means you loose the center of the pictures. Oh, how I love flat pages.) I hope that you will work along with me in building a book for 2012. The 12 12 2012 is just too much to resist. C’mon! You can do it! Even if you start now. You are not one bit behind. Promise!
Onto our next project. This month, at write. click. scrapbook. our monthly theme was Music. In reading through the team comments, it became apparent that while music moves us in our lives, we don’t often think to scrapbook about it! I am guilty, too. How about you? So this month, my challenge to you is to think about the music that moves you and to create a page about it. Maybe a layout featuring your playlist? or one that discusses your preferences at a particular time in your life? This was a layout I put together remembering all the music of my early college years. I remember the depth of soul I felt like I was gaining as I lived away from home and took classes that taught me to think differently. While I may have dressed in black, it was neither a somber nor dark period for me. I have fond memories and am glad to have finally created a page to look back on.
Keep up the good work on all your projects! See you next month!
Chat live tonight with Tiffany Tillman!
Tiffany is live tonight to take your elements scrapping questions and talk about her newest class, It’s Elemental: Embellishing strategies for digital scrapbookers.
When: Thursday, Feb 16 at 10pm EST US
Where: ReneeTV
It’s Elemental is like a roadmap for embellishing. You will move past filling up space with neat little pieces and actually use elements with purpose. From building rich element clusters to producing scenic, embellishment-heavy layouts, this class will unleash the creative, scrapbooking diva within you.
See you tonight!
Win a seat in iShot That!
Want to win one of three seats in iShot That, the iPhone photo class by Molly & Jim Newman? Then you want to participate in our iShot That Twitter Contest. All you have to do is:
- Go to our contest page and answer the question, “What’s your #1 iPhone photo subject?”
- Follow @reneenews and tweet about our contest.
New from Tiffany Tillman: It’s Elemental
Embellishing strategies for digital scrapbookers
Elements are the single component that sets our scrapbooking albums apart from photo albums and journals. We fill-up our pages with neat little pieces, which highlight our unique personality and creativity.
It’s Elemental with Tiffany Tillman is the roadmap for successful embellishing on a digital scrapbook page. You’ll learn Tiffany’s secrets for building rich element clusters, producing scenic, embellishment-heavy layouts, and everything in between using goodies by popular digital designer, Creashens.
Tiffany will discuss her new class during a live video chat on ReneeTV at 10pm ET Thursday, Feb 16th. Pop in to learn more and ask questions you may have about the class. We’d love to see you there!
Friday’s Freebies: February Calendar Wallpapers
Smashing Magazine continues to nourish us with a monthly spoon of inspiration. Today I’m sharing some of the free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for February 2012. There are 27 in all and both versions, with a calendar and without a calendar, can be downloaded for free.
Bold (above)
Designed by Elisabetta Borseti from Italy.
Hot Drinks
Designed by Agathe Altwegg from France.
Colored Edge
Designed by Rahul.s from India.
Load Time
Designed by Fredrik Jensen from Norway.
Be Mine
Designed by Sandi | Pop Up Factory.com from Toronto, ON, Canada.
It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!
Wanna Learn How: Create A Pop Art Effect
Hey RP fans! Deena Wuest from Creating Keepsakes magazine back at the table with another Photoshop tutorial! It’s wonderful to hear from so many of you who are just starting out in Photoshop! Isn’t it exciting?!? The day I created my first digital layout I felt like a whole new world of creative possibilities was unleashed. The more I learned, the more I WANTED to learn. And it sounds like this is ringing true for so many of you out there as well. That’s awesome! So let’s do what we love and talk digi!
Last month, I got excited when I read this reader comment…
Yes! Thank you, Mary! Special photo effects like this is where the digi girl can shine and impress the socks off her traditional paper scrapping sister. There are many complex ways to achieve the Andy Warhol-inspired pop art look in Photoshop, but I’ve discovered a super simple way that takes just minutes and will transform a photo from…
Here’s how! (more…)
The Art of iPhone Photography Coming Soon!
Think you need a bulky, pricey DSLR to get great photos? Think again. Join instructors Jim & Molly Newman in iShot That!
The most popular “camera” released in the last few years is the Apple iPhone. Learn to take advantage of iPhone’s built-in photo functions, plus the very best free and low-cost apps available for editing, organizing, and sharing your work.
Create memorable portraits of family and friends. Capture your world with street photography. Transform everyday snapshots into eye-catching images. With iShot That!, iPhone’s photo power is at your fingertips.
Molly and Jim will be discussing this exciting class during a live video chat on ReneeTV at 9pm ET Thursday Feb 9th. If you’re curious or have questions about the class or would simply like to bounce a few questions about this class off of Molly and Jim, please stop by. We’re holding a seat for you.
Friday’s Freebies: Photoshop Actions at PanosFX.com
PanosFX.com has over 30 free actions and their commercial actions are very affordable. Here are three of my favorites.
The Stickers n Shapes set contains two Photoshop actions:
The Stickers action turns your image into a round sticker, which you can use with your crafting projects. The action has been optimized to work with images with sides at least 950 pixels.
The Clear Tape action turns your image into a Polaroid photo and adds sticky tapes on the top edge. You can even add sticky tapes on each photo corner. In addition the action creates trapped air bubbles under the tape!
The PanosFX Out of Bounds set contains two advanced Photoshop actions that simplify the steps needed to create this impressive and popular effect.
The actions are very flexible; at the beginning you define the border size & perspective; then you define the out-of-bounds areas and add the shadow effects. The actions make use of layer masks that allow you to fine tune the effect at a later stage.
The Paper Cube set lets you use up to 6 photos and then print and create a real paper photo cube.
The first Photoshop action creates a cube that has the same photo printed on each facet. The second action lets you use 6 different photos. The third and the fourth Photoshop actions produce a Christmas paper cube. Hang it from the Christmas tree, use it as a present box, or give it to your kids as a toy!
Tales of a Scrapbooking Groupie: The Great Adventure Part 2.1
It’s kind of odd to tell the story of this adventure in parts. However, in this case it feels better that way. As I mentioned in part 1 of my story of this great adventure, there was just too much that took place to tell the story in one post. For me traveling to Africa for the first time and visiting the continent from which the human race evolved was an amazing opportunity. Added to that was the powerful thought of setting foot on the continent from which so many of my ancestors were spirited away into slavery centuries ago. I knew that questions would be answered for me, but I wasn’t sure of what those questions were.
I must put the picture above at the beginning of this part of the story. Our very first tour in S. Africa was to Robben Island. During the tour we took a moment to speak one on one with the guide leading our group. His name was Thabo. His question to us was very simple … Is this your first trip to Africa? When we responded that it was, he looked at us, smiled, and simply said ‘Welcome Home.’ Whew!! Words cannot express my feelings at that moment. The cork was off of the champagne. Now for the rest of the story. (more…)
The Art of iPhone Photography Returns!
Think you need a bulky, pricey DSLR to get great photos? Think again. Join instructors Jim & Molly Newman in iShot That!
The most popular “camera” released in the last few years is the Apple iPhone. Learn to take advantage of iPhone’s built-in photo functions, plus the very best free and low-cost apps available for editing, organizing, and sharing your work.
Create memorable portraits of family and friends. Capture your world with street photography. Transform everyday snapshots into eye-catching images. With iShot That!, iPhone’s photo power is at your fingertips.
