Another thing I quickly learned about the digital world was that getting feedback was easy and, like blog comments, strangely addicting! Most of these encouraging people were perfect strangers who also loved the digital offshoot of the hobby, and left "love" for whatever I was brave enough to post in a gallery....(a gallery is often found in a store, though some digi sites are purely for sharing your completed pages....).
One word of advice....just as in life, you have to give love to get love in return....or at least you should.
This is how I found Log Your Memory, a site dedicated to sharing layouts and inspiring others to use this hobby to preserve memories of everyday life. You have a pile of laundry to the ceiling…take a picture of it and write about why spending time with your family is the tradeoff you make for daily chores, or write about your family’s laundry routines. The idea being, one day, you may want to remember what it was like to live every regular day, not only the birthdays, holidays, and other big events of your life.
When it comes down to it, the everyday routines are what make up a life, and the big events are just frosting on the cake. If you are already a fan of or familiar with Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Stacy Julian, you know that this focus of the hobby has a great following. I always think of it this way, I’d love to know how my Grandma, who’s no longer with us, felt about my mom’s first day of kindergarten, or how she felt when she was learning to drive and crashed into the garage and never drove again, or what it was like for her growing up. She didn’t keep a journal, so I’ll never know these things, so I’m trying to leave some of these memories of my own for my kids, their kids and their grandchildren. Scrapping about everyday life is not only the good stuff, but also the bad, though I tend to keep those pages to myself right now.
Log Your Memory is run by Kristen Rutten, who I’m sure has figured out how to get 30 hours of stuff into a 24 hour day. Maybe even 31 hours. Her store offers a Logbook to keep track of those everyday happenings and weekly challenges and prompts to help you tell your story.
(I’m not compensated in any way by Kristen to advertise, but her site propelled my excitement with this hobby, and I think she’s done a great job of inspiring others as well).
The challenge early this year, Sweet Talk Challenge, gave us 13 different ways to tell our stories. The challenge may be over, but the methods are still a great way to start journaling. There are loads of other inspirations all over the site – hopefully, you’ll be inspired by something there like I was.
Other places you might want to share you work, and stores I frequent (though there are many, many others)
Scrapbookgraphics – my current favorite haunt
The Digi Chick – this is the store the designer I CT (creative team) for sells – she’s Laura Banasiak and she’s cool and fun, and can also cram 30 hours a day into 24
Sweet Shoppe Designs
DigiShopTalk
After 5 Designs
Gotta Pixel
The Lily Pad
Do you already have a favorite site? Share it here!!!
Family updates, photos, random thoughts and inspirations
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Where to Learn Digital Scrapbooking or "I did it my way"
Despite my misgivings, I made an honest attempt to learn digital scrapbooking in January, after finding this year-long free class being offered by Erica Hernandez at Two Peas in a Bucket: Digi 101. I watched the first tutorial video and played along with making the layout.
There were three things I discovered in this first class that got me hooked:
1) designers of digital scrapbooking papers and elements (this is what embellishments are called in the digi world) are wonderfully generous individuals who often give freebies of their design kits for people to try before they purchase a full kit - a search for digital scrapbook freebies in Google will find you lots of freebies from digital stores and these wonderfully generous designers,
2) if I didn't like the way something looked on my page, I could move it, resize it, duplicate it, recolor it, not to mention I could REUSE it!,
and 3) cleanup for this hobby is a breeze! (Though it does take some space on the computer).
I won’t be sharing the how to put a page together here; those tutorials have been done by many others who are way better at that than I am.
Here are just a few other places to get started with the nuts and bolts:
The Daily Digi and lots of tutorials to get you started there – on the right side of the page, you’ll see tons of links on how to get started, how to learn the programs you’re using, how to do certain techniques. Bookmark it!
Ali Edwards did a series of tutorials on digi, too.
Cathy Zielske walks you through creating a 12x12 page here.
And don’t forget Erica Hernandez’s class I mentioned earlier, Digi 101. There are other tutorials on the Two Peas in a Bucket Site, as well.
Other gurus: Jessica Sprague, Renee Pearson (though I think these cost $)
If you know of any others you’ve come across, please share here.
***Note: I’m not compensated in any way from these designers or sites. I’ve been asked often, how I learned and these are the places where I started learning.
Next Up: How to Share Your Work and Real Life Scrapbooking, Digi-Style
There were three things I discovered in this first class that got me hooked:
1) designers of digital scrapbooking papers and elements (this is what embellishments are called in the digi world) are wonderfully generous individuals who often give freebies of their design kits for people to try before they purchase a full kit - a search for digital scrapbook freebies in Google will find you lots of freebies from digital stores and these wonderfully generous designers,
2) if I didn't like the way something looked on my page, I could move it, resize it, duplicate it, recolor it, not to mention I could REUSE it!,
and 3) cleanup for this hobby is a breeze! (Though it does take some space on the computer).
I won’t be sharing the how to put a page together here; those tutorials have been done by many others who are way better at that than I am.
Here are just a few other places to get started with the nuts and bolts:
The Daily Digi and lots of tutorials to get you started there – on the right side of the page, you’ll see tons of links on how to get started, how to learn the programs you’re using, how to do certain techniques. Bookmark it!
Ali Edwards did a series of tutorials on digi, too.
Cathy Zielske walks you through creating a 12x12 page here.
And don’t forget Erica Hernandez’s class I mentioned earlier, Digi 101. There are other tutorials on the Two Peas in a Bucket Site, as well.
Other gurus: Jessica Sprague, Renee Pearson (though I think these cost $)
If you know of any others you’ve come across, please share here.
***Note: I’m not compensated in any way from these designers or sites. I’ve been asked often, how I learned and these are the places where I started learning.
Next Up: How to Share Your Work and Real Life Scrapbooking, Digi-Style
Monday, October 11, 2010
Digital Scrapbooking....So, Here's Where to Start.....
In case you haven't noticed, or you are new to my blog, I really enjoy digital scrapbooking.
Before I started really trying to learn in January this year (after some failed attempts), I thought of it is "cheating" in some way. I had been a paper scrapper for 15 years. I liked to buy stickers and paper and adhesive. I liked to print photos and arrange embellishments onto a layout and create a finished page that I could put into an album to share with others. I still like to do that, especially with my creatively, inspiring friends in the Scrapbook Cellar. Nothing beats real live friends getting together to create, inspire, and support each other. But, day to day, I don't have all the time to haul out my supplies, ponder an arrangement, complete a page, and then clean it all up (I have a dedicated creative space, but it's in the front room of my house...the first thing you see when you come in, so I like it tidy, and I share it with my creative daughter, who usually has her projects drying on the table. So, I'd really need to add another step to getting creative on a daily basis, as I'd be the one most likely to clear off her work in progress before I could even have room to start mine.) This is where using the computer came in handy for me, and the start of my digital obsession.
For this hobby, I use Photoshop Elements. I'm using version 7, but I think they've just released, or are about to release version 9. I've had PE, as it's referred to, since version 3, but back then, I only used it to store and sort my photos. I had no clue of the full capabilities of this program until I started digital scrapbooking, and even then, there is so much more I need to learn to get it's full usefulness. There are other programs you can use, the full Photoshop (which is expensive, so I don't have) and Paint Shop Pro (which I've never used). Likely there are more out there, I'm just not familiar with them.
So, to start, you'll need a program to work in, some digital papers and elements (which I'll talk about in the next post), and a little time and patience to learn.
Tomorrow, I'll share where I started learning about how to do digital scrapbooking. I'll also be posting my journey into digital all this week, and how I went from this:
To this:
Here's the plan:
Before I started really trying to learn in January this year (after some failed attempts), I thought of it is "cheating" in some way. I had been a paper scrapper for 15 years. I liked to buy stickers and paper and adhesive. I liked to print photos and arrange embellishments onto a layout and create a finished page that I could put into an album to share with others. I still like to do that, especially with my creatively, inspiring friends in the Scrapbook Cellar. Nothing beats real live friends getting together to create, inspire, and support each other. But, day to day, I don't have all the time to haul out my supplies, ponder an arrangement, complete a page, and then clean it all up (I have a dedicated creative space, but it's in the front room of my house...the first thing you see when you come in, so I like it tidy, and I share it with my creative daughter, who usually has her projects drying on the table. So, I'd really need to add another step to getting creative on a daily basis, as I'd be the one most likely to clear off her work in progress before I could even have room to start mine.) This is where using the computer came in handy for me, and the start of my digital obsession.
For this hobby, I use Photoshop Elements. I'm using version 7, but I think they've just released, or are about to release version 9. I've had PE, as it's referred to, since version 3, but back then, I only used it to store and sort my photos. I had no clue of the full capabilities of this program until I started digital scrapbooking, and even then, there is so much more I need to learn to get it's full usefulness. There are other programs you can use, the full Photoshop (which is expensive, so I don't have) and Paint Shop Pro (which I've never used). Likely there are more out there, I'm just not familiar with them.
So, to start, you'll need a program to work in, some digital papers and elements (which I'll talk about in the next post), and a little time and patience to learn.
Tomorrow, I'll share where I started learning about how to do digital scrapbooking. I'll also be posting my journey into digital all this week, and how I went from this:
To this:
Here's the plan:
Tuesday: Digi 101, tutorials
Wednesday: Feedback, Real life Scrapbooking, Telling Your Story, and Log Your Memory
Thursday: A valuable lesson in resizing your layouts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
It's 10-10-10.....Here's what I won't be doing!
And sweetheart, if you're reading this.....I love you!
If you have been following my blog, you know that I've being doing a lot of digital layouts this year. Many have asked me how to start, how to learn, and what goes into a digital scrapbooking layout. Every day this week, I'll be posting my journey into digital. Please come join me!
Also, if you are on Facebook, my blog now has it's own space in the grand scheme of FB....come join me on So, That's Why here!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
What sets your creativity on fire?
Here's what sets mine a blaze:
Now, how about you?
I'd love to know!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
When you are a 9 year old boy, you'll understand....
4. That running for hours makes for a great birthday party (not the mama's idea of a great birthday...give me spa, give me coffee shop, give me casino, even....but running? Not this mama).
5. That when you introduce your friend and say, "I've known him since 3rd grade"....it's not as impressive when you are only in 4th grade, but you'll quickly get over that.
6. That your birthday can't come FAST ENOUGH!!!
7. That Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos is also a food group.
8. That's is cool to have an older boy cousin who knows how to play Halo Reach. (Even if he wins the tournament and gets the Cheeto Trophy!)
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