I HAVE THE COOLEST PARENTS EVER!!

Check out my mom and dad gettin' down with their BAD GANGSTA SELVES! My mom was even sportin' a sweet little pout while she dropped a sign --- in front of the Salt Lake temple nontheless! Nobody can tell me my parents aren't with the times :)

How I Made This Page --- a step-by-step tutorial on digital scrapbooking

Some of you have expressed interest in learning how to do digital scrapbooking. Below I have compiled a "Step-By-Step" process for making a simple spread. I hope I explained myself in a way that will be understandable. Some of the terms I use are unique to "Microsoft Digital Image Pro" which is the software I use for my digital scrapbooking. I'm sure that similar terms are also available in other photo editing software (i.e. PhotoShop).

Step 1: I opened up Microsoft Digital Image Pro and clicked to open a new canvas. Using the "resize canvas" option in the "Format" dropdown menu, I resized the canvas to 12"x12".

Step 2: I browsed through my downloaded Digital Scrapbook pages and kits and found one with the right colors that I wanted for this spread. This one happens to be the "Spring Fling" kit from Digital Design Essentials.

Step 3: I chose three different papers to make the body of my page (a pink, a green, and a multi-colored stripe).

Step 4: Using the "Insert" dropdown menu in Digital Image Pro, I choose "Picture" and "From My Computer", then I navigated to my "Spring Fling" kit and double clicked on the Pink paper to add it. It covered my entire canvas. It became the bottom layer of my stack.

Step 5: I followed the steps in Step 4 and double clicked on the Multi-Colored Striped paper to add it. It covered up my entire canvas (covering the bottom pink paper), so I had to click and move it so that it was taking up the middle-to-bottom-right quadrant of the paper. The multi-colored striped paper then became the second layer in my stack. Next I used the "Format" drop-down menu in Digital Image Pro, I choose "Crop" and "Selected Image". This allowed me to crop the multi-colored striped paper so that it would not be going outside the boundary of my canvas. This is an extra step that I do because it makes it easier to see what my canvas really looks like. In reality, if I left it uncropped, it would be fine because when I printed it out, only the images within the boundary of my canvas will be printed.

Step 6: Next I repeated all of step 5, but this time choosing the Green paper and moving it to take up the skinny space in the middle-to- bottom left section of the paper. The green paper then became the third layer in my stack. I followed the "cropping selected image" instrcutions from Step 5 so that the green paper wasn't going outside the boundary of my canvas.

Step 7: Now I was ready to add my pictures. Using the "Insert" dropdown menu in Digital Image Pro, I choose "Picture" and "From My Computer", then I navigated to "My Pictures" and double clicked on the picture of my kids and the lemonade stand to add it. It covered my entire canvas, so I resized it just by clicking and dragging the corners of the picture until it was the right size. It became the fourth layer of my stack. I positioned it over the multi-colored-striped paper.

Step 8: To add the soft edges to the photo (which is sometimes what I do when I don't want to add a frame), I used the "Effects" drop-down menu in Digital Image Pro and chose "Edges" and "Soft". I adjusted the edge softness to "10" which seemed perfect.

Step 9: Next, I Used the "Insert" dropdown menu in Digital Image Pro and chose "Picture" and "From My Computer". Then I navigated to my "Spring Fling" kit and opened the "Alpha" folder to add the lettering. Here's a nifty hint: To add multiple papers or letters or embellishments to your canvas at ONE TIME, you single-click on the first one you want to add and then hold down the "CTRL" button while you single-click on the other papers or letters or embellishments. It should highlight all of the things you will be adding. Then you click "OK" and it will add all of them at once -- a real time saver! I added all the letters I needed to spell out "LEMONADE STAND". After resizing them to fit, I placed them on top of the pink paper at the top. The letters then became the next stacks on my canvas.

Step 10: Next, I used the "Insert" dropdown menu in Digital Image Pro and chose "Picture" and "From My Computer". Then I navigated to my "Spring Fling" kit and double clicked on the Blue Ric-Rac to add it. I copied and pasted a second stip of Blue Ric-Rac so that I could position the two to cover the transition spots between the three differing colors of paper.

Step 11: Lastly, I used the "Text" drop-down menu in Digital Image Pro and chose "Insert Text" to insert a text box. I resized the text box using the arrows in the corner to make it long and skinny to fit in the space where the Green paper was. Then I found a font that I liked and centered my journaling for the page.

THEN I WAS DONE!!! Woo-Hoo!!

Another tip is to save your project several times while you're working on it. There's nothing worse than spending 30 or 40 minutes on a page only to have a computer glitch or hiccup and lose everything you've worked on. GRRRRRRR!!! While I'm working on the pages, I save them in "Picture It! PNG" format. This allows all of the images in my stack to remain independent so I can manipulate and work with them. When I know I am 100% finished with the page, I go ahead and save it as a "JPEG" since this is the format the Costco and most photo printing places need in order to print your pages.

So, that's how I made my lemonade stand page :) I hope it made sense to you. You can print off my instructions and have them ready for reference the first time you try to make a page.

Here's a list of my favorite digital scrapbooking sites where I get all of my papers and kits. Remember, once you've bought the papers and kits, you can use and reuse them as many times as you like. It's not like hard-copy scrapbooking where once you use a paper, it's gone and you can never use it again. I constantly re-use papers from my kits for different spreads. I love it!

digitaldesignessentials.com - They are having a GREAT sale right now on their CD kits!! 2 CDs full of TONS of papers and kits and themes and embellishments for only $7.49 when the original price was $69.98!!! I would highly recommend these CDs for the beginning digi-scrapbooker who wants to get a great start on papers/alphas/and embellishments for a really great price!

jenwilsondesigns.com
peppermintcreative.com
scrapgirls.com
shabbyprincess.com
twopeasinabucket.com
designerdigitals.com
letteringdelights.com
kaboodle.com
oscraps.com

Scrapbooking!!

As most of you already know, I am somewhat of a digital scrapbooking geek. With my laptop as a tool, I love creating my 12"x12" spreads! Next to possibly taking a full-body bath in warm Dr. Pepper, I can't think of anything I'd rather do than go on a scrapbooking weekend :) My friend, Kari, and I try to take these trips about every 6 months. We book a local hotel, take our computers, climb into our respective beds, turn on the tv to a chick-flick station and we scrapbook into the wee hours of the morning. We sustain ourselves with ever-so-healthy snacks (almond M&Ms, doughnuts, etc.) and treat ourselves to dinner out each night.

We recently spent a weekend at the Timpanogos Inn in Lehi and were able to complete quite a few pages. Taking a cue from my sweet friend, Lindsay, I have decided to post some of my pages on my blog. Some of these I did on this recent trip and others are from other Kari/Rees scrapbook excursions. So, welcome to my dirty little secret ---- I'm an ADDICT.....a scrapbooking addict!!!