Who Loves Baby?

We have a huge family all over the place, so I thought I would make a book with baby boy and all our family members so he would learn to recognize him. The first book I made was chipboard and cute inked scrapbook papers that I was afraid to let him play with by himself because he could put it in his mouth and destroy it. So then I made him this 4"x4" acrylic album that I used twice as many interior pages so that the paper & photo were between them. It's hard to hide the adhesive with clear albums, so you can see it pretty clearly....but's that's okay! I'm still happy with it!

Almost each page has a photo of him with his

Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent or Cousin. :)

It's been awhile...

a long while since I've posted to this blog! Well, hopefully that has finally come to an end! During this long period of absense I was pregnant and miserable and had zero interest in anything crafty....seriously! Then in January 2009 I birth to a darling little boy. That made things wonderful but hard to craft. Well the little turkey is now almost 9 months and I'm finally getting back into the swing of things! So, I thought for my first "returning" project I would post a little book I made for him! Coming next post..... :)

Baby Announcements 101 (using Photoshop)

I was asked for directions on how I made my nephew's baby announcement with Photoshop. After 4 hours of writing & doing these instructions, I thought I'd post it here for everyone to use. If you do happen to make a card, announcement, etc, I hope that would would leave a comment to this post & share your creation with us!!

The original post of the announcement can be found here:
http://scrapbook-gal.blogspot.com/2007/10/photoshop-cs3.html

Baby Announcements 101

(using photoshop cs)

(Note: If you do not own photoshop, you can download a 30 day free trial from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/. Once your 30 day trial is over, you can simply uninstall the program, or purchase it to continue to use this awesome program!)

To first start, open you photoshop & create a new file, 4"x6" at 600 pixels/inch. Then use your rulers to make a 1/4" buffer around the edges.

Turn your rulers on if they aren’t already (Go to view & make sure Rulers has a check on the side). Take your mouse, click on the ruler and drag it towards your blank sheet. You will see a black hidden line, move that 1/4" on all 4 sides, when you have placed it where you want it’s a light blue color. You can keep them on, because they won’t print.


This is your working limits, you don't want to put any text or photos in here because they might be chopped off.

Next you need to pick the size of the photo you are going to use, the fonts you want, and the patterns. I like to use digital scrapbook sets, because I don't make my own backgrounds very good. There are tons of sites out there with scrapbook sets you can purchase, but there are some awesome freebies too. You just gotta search for them. My favorite site is: http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ They have beautiful stuff there!

If you want to design your own patterns, you can do that too, just depending on what you want, lines, or circles, or whatever, however I’ll show you how to do it with an existing pattern.

I have decided to use Shabbyprincess URBAN KIWI kit and match this style of announcement. This announcement was found as an example off the internet. (I can’t seem to find the link but will post it as soon as I can!)

The first paper I’m going to use is the one called ShabbyP_Kiwi_StripedPaper. Open it up in Photoshop, and drag in onto your blank announcement.

If you want to resize it, make sure that layer is current (it’s layer 1) and Ctrl-T. Use your Shift key when dragging at the corners if you want to keep it proportioned. If the stripes are too big, and you want them smaller use this command. Of course if it’s too small, you might have to do duplicate layers of the stripes to cover your announcement. I’m going to keep this simple and keep it at the size it is.

Next pick your photo. I’m going to use a photo my friend Katie took of my nephew. I love her work & she has her own business Intimate Reflections Photography.

Open you photo you are using in Photoshop and drag it onto your announcement and scale it using Ctrl-T. Make sure to use the Shift key when sizing it so it stays in proportion.

Make sure to keep saving your work.

Okay, next I’m going to use ShabbyP_Kiwi_BlackLinenPaper for the brown area. Open it up, drag it onto your announcement. You’ll have to use Ctrl-T to scale it down at the corners and sizes so it lines up with the photo.


If you want the white lines that are framing the photo make your foreground color the color you want.


I chose to use a green that matched the patterned paper, so click on the foreground color and then when the color swatch pops up click somewhere on the green patterned paper and it will pick it up.


There are a few ways to make the border. You can do a line, or a rectangle that is a little bit bigger than your photo and put it behind it (layering). We’ll stick with lines for this announcement.

First create a new layer that your lines will be on and make it your current layer by clicking on it.

Use your pencil tool and change the size to 9



Then draw your lines. To keep your line perfectly straight hold your Shift key down while drawing it. This might take a little practice, and you can always undo your last command.

Your announcement should look like this now:


If you don’t like the border, you can change the color, the thickness or style of the line and redo it.

Now the text. Pick on the text tool. We’re going to keep the color the light green since it’s on the black.


Now pick your font. You can use several fonts, or just one. Make sure you stay inside the blue lines.


And you’re done! Save it. Then save it as a .jpg file (quality at max – 12). Burn it to a CD and take it to your local photo print shop & print one to see if you like it. Then print as many as you need & mail out to your friends & family.

I think this is a great inexpensive way to create announcements. You can print them on 4"x6" photos (19 cents at piece @ Wal-Mart!) and they look professionally done (at least I think so) lol!

Hope that helps! Good luck!

jen :)

Embellished Idol ROUND 1

I’m ‘competing’ in this contest for the next 8 weeks called embellished idol, to make it to the next round I need votes.

You have to vote for your 5 favorite! (my name is stediagirl, hint, hint!).

The gallery of submissions are here:
http://www.embellished.com.au/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=964

To vote you go here:
http://embellished.typepad.com/idol_2008/

Bonus round:
Boy Birthday Card

Father's Day Cards

Carve

A busy layout, yes. But in real life, it's a really cute layout! There's nothing wrong with having layouts with more than one 4"x6" photo on it (as you can see I tend to do that a lot!)*wink*

Christmas Lighting

Fun ribbon techinique:
I used my ATG gun and rolled adhesive all around the photo, then placed my ribbon on it allowing little 'bubbles'. It gives it texture & an awesome photo frame!

Also, take those large patterned paper & cut it out. Overlap it on your photos, etc. It's a 'flat' embellishment, but can add so much more to your layout. :)

Paper Used: Basic Grey