Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Tag Maker

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday from Creative Memories....my new tag punch. I am so excited! Have you ever been at a loss for a card or tag for a gift?


The paper I used was a piece of heavy cardstock that I saved from the packaging of a toy the kids got. It is green on the backside and will make perfect gift tags....AND I'm reusing. Think what cool tags you could make with pretty double-sided scrapbook paper. 
LOVE IT!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Consultant Crop

Yesterday I went to a free Consultants Only Crop at my up-line, Eileen's, scrap studio. A crop is when a group of people get together to work on scrapbooking projects, eat  and socialize.  As Eileen says it's a great way for women (and an occasional man) to get together for some time away but actually accomplish something at the same time. It feels a bit like the quilting bees of years past. It was great and I look forward to getting away to do it again soon!

Eileen has been a CM consultant for 8+ years and has several consultants under her. Some have been CM consultants for 15 years. It was great to meet them, a really nice group of women. Several of them told me they were very impressed with my layouts and sample book, which made me feel great as a newbie and reassured me that what I'm doing maybe isn't so crazy after all. We also shared tips and information and learned from each other.

I got started on my 2009 Disney trip album and have downloaded the CM Disney Mickey, Princess, Cars and Pooh Digital Addition Kits which I think will make a great addition to the "Basic White" pages with some additions from the "Primary" palette.

I love this idea of women coming together to socialize yet make progress on their albums at the same time. I'm looking forward to setting up some crop events at my home with people who want to bring their laptops and scrap digitally. I am not setup to host crops with traditional (paper) scrapbookers at this time but Eileen is and I can put you in contact with her. If you live the Seattle/Bellevue area and are interested in attending a crop event please e-mail me at seesusanscrap@comcast.net .

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sample Album for Auction Event

I've been working feverishly, staying up extra late many nights this week, to create a sample book for the King Street Co-op Preschool Auction (we're alumni). I donated a copy of Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 and 2 hours of my time to help the winner get started. The event was last night and it felt great to have some professional looking display items for the table. The main piece was an 8x8" album that I made by printing pages onto 8 1/2 x 11" photo paper using my home printer. I then trimmed the pages with a paper cutter and slid them into a Creative Memories album with page protectors.

I was really happy with how it turned out because I think it gives a good idea of the variety of types of layouts that a person can easily create using just the free artwork that comes with the software.  I started with predesigned pages, which are complete page layouts already created. All you do is simply add photos and text/journaling and make modifications if you choose. I used some additional techniques and have labeled the samples below so you can see what changes were made. Of course, in addition to the content that comes with the software, Creative Memories also sells additional artwork that I'm really excited to start using. Next, I'm looking forward to creating my first full length album. It's a big project, tackling my 800+ Disneyland photos from our trip last year and ordering it as a Storybook printed by Creative Memories

Here are the two page layout samples I created. In the book they are viewed side by side. I'd love to know what you think of the pages. Please feel free to comment.



"Discover" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: additional square photo frame added and slight repositioning, "A Day to Remember" text embellishment added.

  
"Basic Black" theme 12x12" predesigned pages. Modifications: frames cut from "Delight" papers, "I can fly" text path, added cat shape filled with black, leaf created with paper shape cutter, added celebrate and good times embellishments, "Peter Pan, Wendy & Tinkerbelle" text using "Delight" alphaset.


"Discover" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: Added "enthusiasm" embellishment, circle frame added for teacher, thought bubble shape cut from "Discover" paper, " "Adrian's First Day of Kindergarten" text using "Adventure" font.


"Basic White" theme predesigned pages.  Modifications: photos changed to black and white, embellishment added, full page photo background, frames changed to style "Standout".


"Delight" theme predesigned pages. Modification: none. 


"Basic White" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: created scattered photos page by copying and repositioning frames, text box background  (used a white square behind the photos to block text from coming through).



"Delight" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: embellishments removed and added, font used Harlow Solid Italic.



"Basic Black" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: scatter page created by copying existing scatter page from another album and adding to it, full page text predesigned page used Harry P font (you can find the link in my Freebies section), Hogwarts crest used a .png file with opacity changed.


"Discover" theme predesigned pages. Modifications: Stitching covered with ribbon, added text embellishments, enlarged circle tag, added frame.

Note: The pages I used are just some of the many pages in each theme of the predesigned pages sets that come with the software. To see the full 30 page 12x12" sets of predesigned pages click on the links below.

The software also comes with 7x5", 11x8 1/2", and 8x8" (which are the same as the 12x12") sized predesigned pages in the same themes. To see those .pdf files click this link to the Creative Memories Help Zone.

The predesigned pages are just an easy starting point. You can even choose to have the software auto-populate your project with photos. All the elements of each page can be recolored, rearranged, moved, added to or removed according to your taste or need. If you want to design from scratch you can do that too. Truly there is no limit to what you can do, especially if you start purchasing additional digital scrapbooking content.  This is just the beginning.