Good morning everyone! misschifis here (aka Bev). This Sunday it is my turn to spotlight one of our talented members over at Scrapmatters and I’ve chosen Jeni (or j_hopewell as she goes by in the gallery).

There are so many fabulous layouts to cast your eyes on over at Scrapmatters, that it made my job in deciding who to pick a very difficult one. But, when I cast my eye on this next layout, I knew without a doubt that Jeni was going to be my choice. Being a mother of 4 myself, this first layout really spoke to me as I could wholeheartedly relate to what Jeni was saying.

They say that a picture paints 1000 words…… and, while that is true, it’s not always the right 1000 words if the stage isn’t set properly to begin with. That’s the reason, why for me, journaling is so very very important. It sets both the technical and emotional stage so that you can fully remember what was going on in the photo images… and you can feel the emotions of the event, year after year after year.

I hope you’ll agree, that in this layout, Jen’s journalling “says it all”

Below, I have added a couple more examples of Jeni’s great work….

And below is some personal information about her, to help you get to know her a little better.

What is your main job/career? I’m a SAHM and I also teach piano lessons after school.

Are you married/kids/pets? I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart for 11 years. We have three kids – Madison (DD) age 6 1/2, Ryley (DS) age 5, and Cash (DS) age 20 months. We don’t have any pets – I have too many other mess makers around here!

Where do you call home? We’re Texans, and we live in the Dallas area.

What are your three favorite foods? Chocolate, my mom’s homemade bread, and my granny’s green chile soft tacos. My favorite is pretty much anything that anyone else will make for me!

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Anything with lots of nuts.

Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks? Definitely sweet. Bring on the chocolate!

What is your favorite beverage? Sadly, Mountain Dew.

What is your least favorite food? Any kind of seafood. Yuck!

PC or Mac? PC

How long have you been digi-scrapping/How did you get into it? I have only been digiscrapping since December of 2007. I have been papercrafting/scrapping ever since I can remember. I tried to get into digital several times and just couldn’t understand it. I read every book and article I could find about it and still couldn’t wrap my brain around it! I finally found a video tutorial and 15 minutes later I was hooked! I love that I can scrap on my laptop anywhere and not be locking in a different room away from my kids. They love to sit on the couch by me and watch me play with pictures of them. I am so addicted!

What program do you use to digi-scrap with? I use Adobe PSE 5.0.

What are your hobbies besides digi-scrapping? I still love papercrafting and love to make cards and play with all my stamps. I also love to watch TV (a little too much, probably!) and I love to read. I also love playing the piano and singing with my kids. I’ve really gotten into photography lately and I’m learning to take better pictures.

What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you? The hardest thing for me is figuring out what to scrap. I have so many picture that it is totally overwhelming to look at all of them and find some to scrap. That’s why I love challenges. I really like having someone else tell me what to scrap or what to use. It’s SOOOO much easier!

What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking? I really need to learn how to cook some things that my kids will actually eat! I hate cooking but mostly because I’m so bad at it!

What are your favorite books/authors? Harlan Coben, David Baldacci, Sue Grafton, Stephenie Meyer. . . the list could go on and on! I really loved the Harry Potter series – so sad it’s over!

What are your favorite movies? This is really hard – I don’t watch that many movies. I guess I’d have to say “Signs” with Mel Gibson. That one still freaks me out!

What is your favorite quote? “Parents are not interested in justice. Parents are interested in peace and quiet.” – Bill Cosby

What is one of your goals for 2008? To cook more for my family so we don’t have to eat out as much.

What is your favourite thing to scrap about? My family – mostly my adorable, sweet, perfect little angels. (I can say that because they’re asleep right now!)

Why did do you decide on joining ScrapMatters? I really like so many of the designers’ kits and thought it seemed like a great community to get involved with. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone better and having lots of fun!

Well, that’s it for me folks, all that’s left for me to say is I hope you all enjoy a peaceful and relaxing Sunday.

Hi everyone–Andrea here. The week has just flown by–seems like it just Saturday yesterday! We’re still working on the CT–hopefully we’ll have something to announce soon.

Sorry this is so late today–have you ever had one of those days when everything that could go wrong does? Well that is how mine is going. I started the draft for this post two days ago, my new kit has been done for several days also and I thought I was so ahead of the game! I only had to change my LO into a quick page and write the tutorial. I could whip the rest of it up in an hour. Wrong! I didn’t count on computer problems, server issues, power failures in the middle of uploading, my computer bogging down. So far it has taken me 7 tries to get my new kit uploaded–cross your fingers. Everytime I would start either the power would go off, the cat would jump on my computer and stop the upload somehow, or the server would burp for about 1 minute. Enough of my belly-aching–now onto the real post!

When I paper scrapped a lot–I would take a fine point marker and edge all of my pictures, tags and such with a thin line–of either black or white, whatever fit my LO best. These little thin lines were a great unifying theme throughout my scrapbooks. Now that I do almost all digital scrapping, I realized that I missed those little lines. They weren’t necessarily doodles, just a finishing touch. So I decided to make a very basic kit that had little frames, journaling strips, papers and flowers with those little lines. They aren’t perfect–the strips and the lines, look remarkably like my old hand cut, hand drawn layouts used to. Here is a preview of my new kit Slightly Askew–

As you can see it is very basic, which I love, because I can use it to get all kinds of different looks with it. There were just too many elements/papers to put them all in the preview. There are 18 papers, three designs in 6 color combos. 12 frames–two designs in 6 color combos. Lots of journaling strips, blocks and circles. There multiple flowers, arrows, thought and speech bubbles too. The kit will be on sale for $4.00 for the next few days. Here is a LO that I made with it featuring DD#1.

I thought this layout would make a cute quick page and I have been going to write a tutorial on how to make a quick page for the longest time. So using the above layout I will show you how easy it is to make a quick page. I did the following tutorial in PSE6 but the concept should work in almost any image editing software.

Start with your layered, completed layout. Using your magic wand, select the first area to erase. I selected the inside of the small frame. Then using a large eraser start erasing the first layer. Do not deselect your frame.

Continue erasing each layer of your layout until you are left with a transparent opening. You will need to copy your background layer because you will not be able to erase it, since it is locked. Make sure you deselect your background layer.

When you get to this point all you need to do is decide which of your elements and what text portions that you want to keep intact on your quick page. Deselect the layers that you don’t want to show up in your completed quick page.

Eventually you will have your layered quick page how you want it to be for the exchange. I chose to leave the flowers and the blue circle on for the quick page I am giving to you today. Now you need to save it twice—once as a layered file (I usually save as tiff files) and as a flattened, transparent png file. The png is what you upload to the quick page exchange.

You can download the quickpage from 4shared here.

The kit should be in the store shortly. Can’t believe it has taken me literally all day to get this post finished.

Hope your Saturday was special and free from computer woes!

Hello everyone–Andrea here wishing you and your loved ones the happiest of Valentine’s Days.

If you’re like me, you might have one or two more Valentine Gifts still on your list. Lucky for you–I have several super easy, extra special solutions. A small packet of Valentine Goodies that should spark at least one or two ideas.

So I delved into my ephemera collection and found a little funky postcard–love that saying, “My heart is beating for you,” complete with the little SWAK in the heart, written by some unknown admirer 100 years ago. I also found a Valentine that I extracted the center out of to make a frame for you and your sweetie. You can take the included sheet of paper, resize it to 8×8,” print on white or cream heavy weight paper or cardstock, fold into quarters to make a card. Decorate with either the postcard or the little frame that you’ve slipped a photo behind and you have a meaningful, inexpensive card. Or you can take the roses, and form a little heart for the front of your card. Whatever you do, I would love to see the results.

Another fun and easy gift is to make candy bar wrappers. I made this wrapper out of my Comfy & Cozy, Forever & Always kits and had a lot of fun. They print one per sheet of paper and are sized to fit the large 5 oz (141 gm) candy bars. It is very easy to resize these to fit the larger 8oz. size bar too. Here’s a picture of mine flat–the picture is my husband & I on our 25th anniversary:

Shari made a bunch for her family–they turned out so cute. I love the little,”Made with love from Mom ,” on the back.

Well I know I promised the goodies had no calories–and the actual files don’t. Wish it was that easy to take the calories out of chocolate! You can download it here from 4shared–sorry link expired.

Hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day. Have fun.

It’s time for another Words for Wednesday and today I’d like to discuss JOURNALING.

I think the words in our scrapbooks are so important. It’s crucial to record our stories, write them down, have our memories right there on the page for our own benefit as well as the benefit those who will look through our scrapbooks in the future.

I’ve heard many scrappers say that they can’t journal. Poppycock! EVERYONE can journal. Not only CAN you journal, you SHOULD journal. Now, I’m not saying every page you create needs journaling. Far from that! But it is important to remember to journal those special memories.

There are many ways to journal. From a few short sentences giving the who’s who and what’s what in the pictures. to a long paragraph telling an entire story.

In this page, I wanted to make sure I recorded the story and memory of a favorite game that we play every year at our family Christmas party. It’s a fun tradition that we have and I wanted to have those feelings put into the page.

Journaling right onto the paper allows for plenty of space, and creates a simple clean look.

On this page, I used a journaling index card to journal about why we spent New Year’s Eve with Morgan and Josh and all the fun things we did that night. I know 20 years from now I wouldn’t have remembered the details (heck, NEXT YEAR I probably wouldn’t remember! haha!). So, I’m glad its all written down.

The talented Miss Danica is a GREAT journaler. She writes down all her daughter’s stories. Journaling is a big part of her pages. Her storytelling style is just for her girl. How fun will these stories be for Isabel to read some day. A story of her life, straight from her mama.

I love how Andrea recorded the fun story of these photos in a circle shaped journaling paper. Not only does it record special aspects of her husband’s character, it also records a fun story that her family can read and always remember.

Another circle journaling, Shari recorded her thoughts and feelings about this special heritage photo.

Journaling doesn’t even have to be long! Just a couple short sentences. Happy Scrap Girl captured a memory with just a short statement. But her feelings and the memory are now recorded on this adorable LO!

I know that when we look back on our pages, and when our families and friends look back through them too, that the journaling and stories they read will be every bit as special and important as the photos! We just have to remember to journal!!

If you really feel like journaling isn’t your thing, I suggest just trying to write a couple sentences and get your toes in the journaling water. The more you do it, the more you’ll grow comfortable with it!

Let’s all remember to journal!

xoxo,

Hey ladies (and gents, if there be any)! It’s time for our weekly challenge and I’m thrilled to be bringing it to you!

I don’t know about you (although I have my suspicions!), but I have a little memory drawer (ok, a rather LARGE drawer) filled with things that I’ve wanted to keep, but that I haven’t done anything with yet. I have cards, my kid’s school work, drawings and paintings from the kids, ticket stubs, wrist bands from concerts, and the list goes on and on and on! Well, you get the idea. This week I’d like to challenge you to dig through your stash and pull out two things to include on a page. Yes, it’s true, I want you to DO something with that stuff!

It’s always so much fun to look back and SEE the things we cherish, but if they’re stuck in a drawer, a folder, a box or under the bed, who’s going to see them? Let’s make an effort to pull them out and show them off! So here are the ground rules:

1. You must use at least 2 items, but they can all be similar, as shown below.
2. There must be at least 1 photograph on your page.

That’s it! Can you believe it? How simple! You can do this! Just put some thought and creativity behind your selection and I promise you’ll be THRILLED with the results!

Here are some layouts from our fabulous team to get the juices flowing:

First, we have a wonderful layout from Melanie. I love that she took photos of her extra items to include. This is perfect for those of you without scanners! Isn’t that drawing the cutest thing!?

Our next layout comes from Erica. I love her use of this kit!

The next two come from the FAB-U-LOUS woman, Brittney, of Britt-ish Designs. These layouts were created with her brand new kit “Dreams Do Come True” (which you can find in our shop!!).

Although this second LO is amazing (of course!), please keep in mind that in order to be submitted into the drawing (for a coolio prize) that your LO must contain at least 1 photo… Brittney just went the extra mile and submitted two layouts to help get some ideas flowing!

And this last layout was my take on the challenge:

To enter the challenge, post your layout in the Scrapmatters.com gallery and make sure to link it to the Tuesday Challenge under Forums. At the end of the week we’ll be selecting 2 winners of $5 gift certificates to the shop, one randomly selected and one specially chosen for outstanding effort in the creativity department. Who wouldn’t want some free cashola?! So go! Get started and don’t get sucked into the void that is that memorabilia drawer! Good luck all!

Today’s what Matter’s Monday is about a detail that matters! DATES!!  Do you date every page you scrap?  Do you forget sometimes?  Well I propose that you need to date EVERY page.  I’m not saying the date needs to be the focus, or even draw the eye at all.  But you CAN sneak it in there.  And 25 years from now you’ll be very glad you did!!

Even if you page is one of a series, or you think its pretty obvious what the date is like Christmas or something.  I think you should still date it.  It will make it so easy to remember what year it was or if you page gets out of sequence with the others you will still have the date on it.  Your digital photos should all be date stamped in the file information so figuring out the dates of your recent photos is a snap!

There are lots of fun and creative ways to date your pages!  Sometimes I sneak mine in on paper strips or onto a label.

Or just sneak them into the corner like Marci did here.

I do this a lot too!

There are creative date tags and stamps you can use.

Sneak it onto the design in a creative way!  I love how Happy Scrap Girl put the date in the curve of the circle.  So creative.  And now so easy to know exactly when this cute photo was taken, and when this memory was made.

If an actual date doesn’t seem appropriate for the look of your page, at least put the year.  This page by Heather rocks.  “Winter ’08” is a great way to date these pics.

Can you even see where Teresa sneaked in her date in the LO below?!   It’s pretty creative and TOTALLY sneaky!!

It’s on the ship’s wheel! See the little “’08”?

Bottom line, dating your pages can be fun and creative!  Or it can be as simple as slipping the date into a corner or onto a label or even into the journaling.

Dates are just little details that “MATTER”.  You’ll be really glad you “dated” looking back from down the road!  Just something to keep in mind as you scrap.

Have a great Monday!!

xoxo,

Hello everyone! SassyPixie here (aka Melanie). I am so excited to be hosting the Sunday Spotlight today! I chose HappyScrapGirl who is not only a CT Member but also a Designer for ScrapMatters. HappyScrapGirl is actually the one who introduced me to ScrapMatters. She was one of my first members on a Digital Scrapbooking Group that I started on Cafe Mom. She is a valued member of both communities because of her knowledge and inspiration.

I chose a few of my favorite layouts from HSG, but there are so many more that I love.

This is my favorite layout. Not only is the page awesome but the the photograph is priceless. I love candid photos.

I love this layout! Here girls are sooo darling and I love how she incorporated 3 of our Valentine kits into the layout. P.S I love You, Comfy Cozy and Forever and Always.

This layout is beautiful. I love the photo faded into the background. This is also my favorite kit from HSG called Inspire Me.

Here are a few tidbits about out fabulous Team member and Designer.

What is your main job/career?  I have been fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom since my first daughter was born.  Before that, I worked for a large payroll company – which was not nearly as exciting as playing tea party all day long!

Are you married/kids/pets?  I have been married to my sweetheart for almost nine years.  It’s been quite a roller-coaster ride – and I’m so glad we’ve had each other to count on.  I also have two sweet little girls – the other loves of my life.

Where do you call home? Well, I live in the US – is that specific enough?  DH is a part of a cyber initiatve that helps to educate parents about protecting their children from online preditors.  He gives trainings alongside organizations such as “Missing & Exploited Children”.  I have been well versed in these trainings, LOL, so I do my best to not give out specific personal information online.  This is a big part of the reason why I go by “Happy Scrap Girl”.  I never use my real name, my kids names, or where we live.

What are your three favorite foods? Chocloate, crab legs & chocolate… hmm, but not together

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Umm… ChocolateDo you prefer salty or sweet snacks?  Give me a chocolate covered pretzel, and I’m in heaven!

What is your favorite beverage?  I know it’s boring, but I really like water – and occasionally, a nice glass of wine. 

What is your least favorite food?  Red meat of any kind – no steaks for this girl!

PC or Mac?  PCHow long have you been digi-scrapping/How did you get into it?  I have been using my PC for quite a few years for hybrid type paper scrapping – I don’t like my handwriting, and I’m a horrible speller, so I used my PC to type up my journaling.  About 2 1/2 years ago, I made my first all digital LO – completely from scratch – I had no idea you could download stuff to make it.  Honestly – the page was awful – the pictures were stretched, the shadows were harsh, it was bad.  I gave up for a while after that because I didn’t know where to print them, and I didn’t want to invest in a large format printer.  I saw an ad in a magazine about 6 months after that and have been hooked ever since!  Now I spend a good amount of time trying to convert my paper scrapping friends!

What program do you use to digi-scrap with?  I use PSE5.0, and I’ve also started playing with PSP X2

What are your hobbies besides digi-scrapping? Are there other hobbies?  Just kidding.  I still paper crop at least once a month.  I love Suduko games, spending time with my family and DH & I are addicted to LOST – we are just thrilled it’s back on again!  A lot of my time right now is devoted to my kids, the girls are currently in soccer lessons, and we try to go to the museums & libraries regularly.

What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you?  Deciding that a page is finished.  I think I could work on a LO for weeks making it just right.  I’ve had to learn to tell myself that not every layout needs to be a work of art – it’s about preserving the memories.

What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking ? Hmm.. so many things.  I’d love to be a better cook, learn to knit, and remember how to use my sewing machine, but honestly, I’m pretty happy with my life right now, I just wish I could add a few extra hours to each day to get it all done. 

 What are your favorite books/authors? I love mysteries.  Most of the books I’ve read lately are parenting books – “How to Behave so Your Children Will too”, .  I’m looking forward to reading Oprah’s newest book club choice “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle.

What are your favorite movies? I think my favorite movie is “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”  – cracks me up everytime.  I love cheesy romance movies and goofy comedies.

What is your favorite quote?  “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle the other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein

What is one of your goals for 2008?  Well, I have lots of goals for this year.  One is to spend more time playing with my kids and to be a better mom.  On the scrapping side – I’d like to complete at least one digi layout a week, (right on track so far) and to continue to learn more about designing my own kits.I’ve actually got a new kit coming out this week.  It’s called “Butterfly Kisses”.  Here’s a sneek peek & some detail shots for ya:

I’m so excited for the new kit HSG! Thanks for playing along! 

Happy Saturday–Andrea here!

Lots of fun and exciting things have been happening at SM this week–lots of new kits in the store! Please take time to sneak a peak at all of the goodies in the store.

This weekend yellow is special at ScrapMatters. We’ve been seeing a lot of yellow in the gallery lately and really diggin’ it. So Heather of Dirty Feet Designs made some fun, free yellow alphas and I designed a new kit in yellow, black & gray! And all of these are free this weekend!

My new kit is called Way To Be(e)…I had so much fun making this kit–the hours just flew by! I wanted to share it with you the SM blog readers first. So for just this weekend, until 11:59 pm PST Feb 11th, this kit is FREE!

Heather’s yellow alphas are so fun too–here are the previews. Click on each one to take you to the store to grab it.

The first three LOs in the SM gallery featuring my kit, Way To Be(e)… will receive another one of my kits for free–your choice. The first two LOs in the SM gallery using one of Heather’s yellow alphas will receive another one of Heather’s terrific alphas. Make sure you let me know by posting in the Yellow thread of the challenges forum here. There will be a total of five prizes awarded. Please limit one LO per person per category. Have fun!

Hi everyone. Heather here with my 1st Photography Phriday. Being in business for myself as a photographer is extremely rewarding. I get to meet new people and do what I love. But it does have it’s challenges. I wanted to share what I believe are the 3 most important tips when photographing my subjects.

Tip 1 : Use your flash outdoors Just because you are outside, don’t be afraid to use your flash. I used to be one to snap my flash down because I didn’t think I would need it. The flash helps to lighten dark shadows under the eyes and nose, especially when the sun is overhead or behind the subject. On cloudy days, it helps to brighten up faces and make them stand out more.

Tip 2 : Get down to their level This is especially important when you are photographing young children. The best pose for a child between the ages of 1-5 is no pose at all. Seriously. Some of the best portraits are where the subjects look completely comfortable like their not looking at a camera. When people try to smile or make a certain kind of face for the camera it usually doesn’t seem very genuine. The trick is to capture the image when the subject isn’t necessarily focused on the camera.

Your main purpose is to capture the essence of the subject. Different people have different techniques for doing this, one of which is taking a picture while the subject is planning on smiling and then take another couple while they are recovering. Or another way would be to tell a funny joke where they can’t help but genuinely laugh and smile. When photographing older subjects like seniors, I usually have them bring a friend along to help make them smile. But probably the best way is just to catch them off guard by waiting for the right opportunity and snapping a picture right when they look at you not expecting a camera. My motto is ‘let the photo tell the story so you don’t have to.’

Tip 3 : Be Ready Always have your finger on the shutter button, and try to have the camera settings set correctly. Children are one of the most spontaneous and unpredictable subjects you can photograph, you NEVER know what they will do next. My tip is to look through the camera with one eye, and keep the other on the room as a whole, and try and predict when something will happen.

If you keep your finger lightly pressed on the shutter button, it will stay focusing on the subjects as they run around the room. If your camera has the AI FOCUS setting, put it on that to help get sharp pictures more consistently. If your camera has multi focus points, use just the center one.

These are the most helpful tips I received when I decided to start my business. It does take some time, practice and patience … but the results are so worth it. I hope that this was helpful for you! Now go take some pictures!

Heather

Britt here–it’s Theory Thursday folks, and I thought since last week we played with WHITE, this week we should play with BLACK.

Black is the absence of color. Black goes well with almost any color. Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie). Black is also the symbol of grief. In design, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colors stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with other powerful colors, black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

I really love using a black paper as a background!

For a spooky mood:

For a sporty strong mood:

For a striking/punchy mood:

And I tend to have black accents on my pages and in the kits I design a lot as well. I love how black punches up a lot. Gives it strength and contrast.

ANYWAY – try using black to make your other colors pop! We’d LOVE to start seeing lots of great LO’s using lots of black in our gallery!

Have a great Thursday!

xoxo,