Printing & Keeping Track

I was showing my digital scrapbooking pages and books to a friend awhile ago and she was, first of all, amazed at how real digital scrapbooking pages can look and then she saw all my books and wondered how I organized and printed all my pages.

So I thought I would share with you how I print and keep track of all my printed and unprinted pages. The first thing I make sure I do is put a date on all of my pages, somewhere in the layout, even if it is subtle, I make sure there is a date and if it's not a specific date then just the month and year. Then when the page is finished I put it in my "to be printed" folder. Once that folder has a decent amount of pages in it (at least 25 or so) then I'll print them all from my favorite print shop, Persnickety Prints. I usually print 2x a year. Once I receive my pages then I'll take those "to be printed" pages and put them on my EHD (external hard drive) just in case I need to print them again later. I usually put these in yearly folders on my EHD to keep them somewhat organized. But the "to be printed" folder is empty now and ready to be filled up again.

Then I'll take my printed pages and organize them by date and put them in the appropriate book. I have one book for each year. So sometimes I have to adjust some of my older books to add in the appropriate page but I mostly work with the current year so I just have to put the pages in that book. I don't scrap every single pic I take or even every single activity or event but I try to take my favorite events from each month and scrapbook a page or 2 about that event and then I try to do a re-cap page for each month. That way at the end of the year I have a pretty good re-cap of our whole year.

Now you may ask, what do you do with those random pages? Maybe a page you did for a challenge or maybe a page like this (all pages are linked with full credits):

Where would I fit this into my books? It's a page about my grandparents that have both passed away and it has photos from a long time ago. What I do with pages like these, is I just fit them into my most current scrapbook. Since I figure they show what I might have been thinking or feeling at that current time in my life.

Take this one for example:

I just scrapped this a few months ago for a challenge. It's a picture of my and my hubby on our wedding day, almost 12 years ago. Obviously this is not going to fit into my traditional wedding album. There is no date because I knew our wedding date, obviously. I guess I could have put the date I scrapped it. Which is something maybe I should start doing with pages like these. But what I'm going to do is add it to my current 2011 album because I feel like it shows my current feelings and thoughts towards my hubby at the time PLUS it shows my scrapping style. We all know our scrapping style changes over the years and it's nice, or maybe not so nice, to look back at our older scrapping styles.

Here's a few pages that will give you an idea of what I try to do in my digital scrapbooking albums. These are all pics/pages from 2011. I usually do a double spread review page and then a few individual pages of my favorite pics or events. So I usually end up with about 4-5 pages for each month.

Here's my April Review page. With my monthly review pages you get a good idea of what happened during that month. I usually try to include some journaling about our activities.

Here's a page that highlights some of my favorite pics of my girls from April. I was looking for a date on this layout and realized I didn't put one on it. Oops! Even after I told you I put dates on all my pages.....well, I guess I should correct that. I put dates on all my pages, except when I forget! LOL.

Here's a page of just me and my hubby enjoying our time at the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas.

And of course I had to make a page of Digiscrapapalooza that happened in April.

So you would see all of these pages in my 2011 album. In between my March and May pages. As you can see I don't coordinate colors or anything, except for the monthly review page.

What I also do at the end of the year is I'll go through my album and my photos and see if I need to fill in any important missing spots. Sometimes I'll end up skipping a whole month or two and then go back and scrap those photos at the end of the year.

Another thing that I thought I would tell you is that I have never printed a digital scrapbook book. I always print out individual pages and slide them into a traditional scrapbook. I personally like doing it this way because I can add pages later if I want to. But I asked some of my CT what they do because I know they get full books printed. Tiff has a GREAT blog post here on her blog about her Blurb book. It seriously looks AMAZING. After reading her post I almost think I might try this for my 2012 pages. Then Jenn said she does Shutterfly books and really loves them. With the way that Jenn does them you do have to adjust your pages for bleed. She did a post here on my blog awhile ago on using guides. This will help you get your pages print ready for your digital scrapbook books. Since I print individual pages at Persnickety Prints (where they have full bleed prints) I don't have to worry about this. I just print my pages as they are.

I think it all depends on how many pages you want to print. My yearly books usually have about 50 pages. So those will fit easily into a traditional scrapbook album but if you do a lot more then that I'm thinking a printed book might be the way to go.

I hope I didn't ramble on too much for you. :)

Sneak Peek Monday & Giveaway

Happy Memorial Day! We are having a cookout with friends today! I just love these summer time holidays.

Well, it's time for Monday's Sneak Peek and Giveaway. I have three, fun, new products coming out this week and I have something extra special going on. 1 of these products will be released on Wednesday at a store I'm guesting at for June! So keep an eye on my facebook page where I'll be announcing it on Wednesday morning and you'll be able to grab one of these a day early at 20% off. Oh and I'm going to have an awesome FWP at Scrap Orchard! So you'll definitely want to come back on Thursday to check out these goodies. Now for the giveaway. You have to tell me what you like better. Do you like templates or do you like masks that you can play with on your own layout design? I was making one of these sets of templates and I decided that one of the layers would be really fun to just play with as a mask. So that's what I did....there will be a whole set of paper masks that you can play with on your own layouts. So it got me to thinking and wondering if you all liked the full fledged template or if you like more of just a beginning point to work with. So let me know by midnight on Wednesday 6/1 and we'll announce a winner on Thursday's blog post.

I also have to tell you about some fun stuff going on at Scrap Orchard. I just don't want you to miss out on all the fun stuff and not to mention, PRIZES!

Make it Snappy is a fun challenge that goes on in the forum. They give you step by step instructions to follow and then in 60 minutes you have a finished digital scrapbooking page. There are always prizes given away too!

Then here's another chance to win some prizes from Lyndsay Riches and plus you get to have a fun chat with the Appletinis. I even show up occasionally!

Did you all know that we are planning another DigiscrapApalooza for 2012? It is going to be awesome. So if you missed out last year you won't want to miss out again and here's your chance to save $100! Grab this coupon now to save $100 on your ticket prices. There's only 1 more day to grab this coupon so you need to get it now if you are going to go!

I'm really hoping to see some of you all there next March but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. I have some personal things that will be going on the beginning of next year that might prevent me from coming (you'll be hearing about this soon :) but I can't make plans for sure yet. BUT I am going to be part of the planning, prizes and more, even if I can't come. So either way, you won't want to miss it. It was a lot of fun this past spring and it's going to be even better next year.

That's it for now. See you on Thursday to announce the winner and show you the new stuff.

4x6 Postcards and Invites

Tiffany here, and I want to share with you some simple cards and invites for mailing.  I recently discovered that a 4x6 inch print is just within the size limits to be mailed by the USPS without an envelope, with a postcard stamp.  This is so convenient for me - I don't have to keep small envelopes on hand for mailing small cards, and it also reduces waste.

I have my prints made at Costco - I upload online, and they are usually ready to pick up at my local warehouse in about an hour.  They do have a little bit of text on the back of the print, but the placement of it nicely divides the back of the card into a message area and an address area - just like a traditional travel postcard.

Here is an invite I recently made.

A Little Variety Card Templates by Scrapping with Liz; Swoon by Laurie Ann;
Sweet & Simple Kits by Gina Marie Huff; Cardstock by SuzyQ Scraps
This Little Piggy by Kristin Aagard; SO Lil Dreamer font by Irene Aleexeva

And here is the back.  Right in the middle you can see two faint lines of text (running vertically in this picture) - that's what Costco prints on the back.  Since all the invitation info was on the front of the card, my sister did not need to add a message on the back - she just wrote in the delivery address on the right.

I've also sent a postcard thank you note in the mail without envelope.

A Little Variety Card Templates by Scrapping with Liz; Sweet & Simple Kits #
4 and 5 by Gina Marie Huff; Spring Fever by Jazzmin Designs

And here is the back, with the message area filled in with my note of thanks.

In both of the examples above, my sister and I used first class stamps, although that wasn't necessary.  They really only require a post card stamp.

Most of Liz's card templates are sized at 5x7, which is a different aspect ratio than 4x6, although they are close.  When you order a 4x6 print from a 5x7 image, Costco's software will automatically crop the image to 4x6 for you (although you can also crop it yourself on their site).  The automatic cropping trims a small amount along the long edges of the card.  The pic below shows how much - the shaded areas at top and bottom are cropped to create the 4x6 ratio.  And the whole image is sized down to 4x6 inches.

For most cards, this auto cropping of the 5x7 into a 4x6 will probably be ok, but if you have any text really close to the edges, you may want to crop it yourself before uploading your jpg. On my niece's birthday invitation, I wanted a uniform border all the way around, so I oversized my canvas a little, and when I was done with my card, I cropped it at 4x6 myself.  For the thank you note, I let Costco auto-crop it.

Here are some of Liz's card templates available in the Scrap Orchard Market

A Little Variety Card Templates	Spring Card Temps
Fun Card Temps	4x6 and 5x7 Card Templates

Small 4x6 cards are a great size for birthday and other party invites, and I could even see them used as an informal save-the-date type announcement. Plus, Liz just makes amazing card templates.  I personally prefer cards without a photo, and I can always find one of her templates to match what I have in mind. If you have a party coming up, I hope you will find this post useful, and don't forget that just a couple weeks ago, Liz placed several hybrid party projects in her shop.  Happy party planning!

Double Page Album Templates

If you love 2-page layouts you're going to love these new releases.  Not one, but two sets of double-page (12x24 inch) templates. Not only do these have lots of photo spots, but they feature substantial journaling areas as well.  They are great for event and holiday scrapping or for those everyday times when you just couldn't stop taking pics of the cute ones in your life.  Both sets are licensed for CU/PU/S4H and are 20% off through May 1.

And Tuesday's Giveaway winner is Denise! Congrats Denise. You should be hearing from Liz soon! Be sure to read Liz's sneak peek post early in the week to have a chance to win her new stuff. She does a giveaway every week.

Here's the new stuff!

Double Album Templates I

Double Album Templates II

The CT really had fun with these.  Aren't these great?  The ladies have used kits that can be found for sale at Scrap Orchard. You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

By Dagi

By Carrie

By Carrie

By Liz

By Jenn

By Knautie

By Tami

By Heather

The 12x24 templates can also be cropped into two 12x12 templates. (Liz had a video tutorial on Tuesday with a quick cropping technique). Here's an example:

By Judie

Thanks for stopping by!

Double Page Video Tutorial with a Sneak Peek & Giveaway!

So Monday's Sneak Peek didn't happen yesterday but it didn't happen for a reason. Yes, I had it all planned out. I didn't run out of time. I didn't procrastinate. It was all part of the plan! Okay, okay, maybe not, BUT, it is working out nicely for you guys anyway because you get to have a sneak peek in today's video tutorial!

These video tutorial are going to show you a little bit on how to edit a 24x12 finished page and template. Hmmm....24x12 you say, why would I need that? Well, just wait until you see Thursday's releases. Then you'll understand. In fact the template you see in this video tutorial will be one of the templates in Thursday's releases.

So without further ado here is the 1st video. It will show you how to take a finished 24x12 jpg image and crop it into 2-12x12 pages so that you can send them off to your favorite print shop and print them. The beautiful kit I used for my page is from Tracie Stroud and Jennifer Barrette called Walking on Sunshine.

This second one shows you how to take the 24x12 layered psd template and crop it into 2-12x12 layered psd templates. That way you can use each side of the page individually if you want to.

I just love 2 pagers, great for lots of photos and recap pages. Okay, now for the giveaway. Just tell me if you like to do double page spreads or if you think you would be more likely to use 24x12 templates individually. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings if you would use them individually.....it's why I wrote the tutorials. :) Then I'll pick a winner and announce it on Thursday's blog post. You'll win my 2 new template sets that will be coming out this week! You won't wanna miss them.

Baby Shower & Hybrid

You know how I said I made those new hybrid temps just for me? Well, I REALLY did and I'm going to show you what I made with most them (besides the chore temps, which I'll show you in another post). I threw a baby shower for a dear friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and I made the Hybrid Party Tag Temps,  The Bingo Temps and the Mini Hybrid Banner Temps all so that I could make stuff for the shower. What better way to customize a baby shower and make it unique then to use some of those cute baby kits you can find all around digi-land? So that is what I wanted to do. The first thing I did was plan a theme. I decided to go with 2 Peas in a Pod (she's having twin girls!). So the first place I went was to Scrap Orchard to see if I could find a cute kit to go with my theme. I found this one from Lyndsay Riches and Laura Banasiak (aren't those peas just adorable?):

But I wanted a lot of pink because my friend has 5 boys and 1 girl....so I thought with her having twin girls she needed a LOT of pink. So I found this kit by SuzyQ which has a LOT of pink....a perfect combo with the peas.

Then I made invitations. I didn't use or make a template because I wanted it to be pretty simple.

It's edited for privacy.

Then I commissioned my sister to make a cake for me because she's awesome and can do almost anything you want! Plus they always taste super yummy! I know we are in a small town in Western North Carolina but if you want to "like" her on facebook you can see all of her wonderful creations and get some inspiration....or if you live close by I'm sure she would love to do a cake for you! She's Creative Confections by Amanda. Anyway, look at this cake she made! Isn't it adorable?

And here's the top. All edible in fondant!

Once I had that all figured out I needed some games to play and that's where the Bingo Templates came in. I researched baby shower games and Baby Bingo came up. So I thought I could make up a template and just make my own game. I made the template and then decorated it with cute little digi-elements and pink and green paper (notice the 2 little peas in the middle for the free spot?). For each bingo card I just switched the elements around saved the JPG and then printed them out. At first I thought it was going to be a lot of work but once I got the initial bingo card done it was super easy just switching around the elements and saving the JPG'S. Plus it's a super unique game that you can make for any party. For this particular game I had everyone take a card and then when the guest of honor opened her gifts everyone would mark off the item that she opened. I really wanted to have green m&m's or jellybeans to be the markers for the cards but I forgot that minor detail when I went shopping to get stuff....and I ran out of time to go shopping again. Either way it was a fun game (although nobody really wanted to mark on the pretty bingo sheet!).

Then it was time to plan a few decorations and that's where the mini-hybrid templates came in. Now I do have a full-size set of banner templates in my store but I wanted something smaller and something that I could print on one sheet of paper from my home printer. The party was originally going to be in my home so I didn't really want to overdo it with a big banner. So I thought a cute little banner would be fun. So of course I made a template for it and then clipped some of those pretty pink papers to it, printed it out and the used hot glue to glue the green ribbon to it.

You can see them here in the background. Aren't they cute? And look at all that yummy food. Oh and I must add that I had some great friends help me out with the food. I didn't have to do a single thing with food!

 

Then I made those Hybrid Party Tag Templates to use on one of the tables. You could also use them for food labels or water bottle labels....well for anything really. I didn't go too crazy. I just made two little signs that I framed. Here's one of them. You see that cute little scrapbook on the right with the 2 peas on the window? I found the pink book at Hobby Lobby. Oh and I must say that I first discovered hobby lobby when I was shopping for this baby shower! My life will never be the same. LOL. It is over 1.5 hours away so I won't be going there too often.....my hubby is thankful for that. Anyway, back to the pink book. I took and printed a pic of the 2 peas and put it in the front of the book and then I had everyone write an encouraging note to our friend and then later I added pics from the baby shower to it.  Now back to the tags (man am I getting sidetracked). I digi-decorated one of the tags (with the kits above), printed it up, put it in the frame and set it next to the book. I also decorated another one to put next to the party favors I had for everyone.

Now that's it with the digi-stuff I used but I thought I would show you some of the other things I did. I made these cute vases with little green candies. I thought they looked like little peas. Everyone who won a game got to take home a vase. You can see the bingo games in the background.

Then I made a banner out of baby clothes. It was cute and useful.

Sorry for the ultra long blog post. Hope you enjoyed reading it and got some party tips....my #1 tip...get people to make the food so that you can do the fun part!

Sneak Peek Monday and Giveaway

Happy Monday! I don't know about you but I actually really like Mondays. It's one of the least busy days of the week for me. I do school with my girls (along with some laundry). Then they have gymnastics for 1.5 hours while I sit with my laptop (maybe this is why I like it so much). Then it's time to come home for dinner together (usually something I've thrown in the crock pot - tonight it is chili) and enjoy the evening with my family.

So that is my day today....don't know why I just told you that....you probably don't really care....you probably just want me to get on with the sneak peek.

Oh and before I get to the sneak peek. I want to say that Thursday's blog post totally got messed up when blogger went down. I haven't had time to go back and fix it and PLUS when blogger was down it erased some of the comments from last Monday's post. So the winning comments was erased. So I'm announcing again, here, who the winner was. It was kramer_buffy...so kramer...if you are out there please comment here where I can e-mail you the coupon codes!

Well, here goes with the sneak peek. I have 3 new products coming out this week and I'm  really excited about them. My CT actually suggested them and I was like, duh! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Jenn (Jenn's a guest this month in case I haven't told you yet and she's doing fabulous work!) and Christine. So here's the sneak peek and if you want a chance to win them then just leave a comment here telling me a little bit about your Monday. Tiff will be announcing the winner on Thursday's blog post.

Oh and before I leave you to get back my lovely Monday I thought I would make sure you guys know about some fun stuff going on at Scrap Orchard...there are lots of great prizes.

My Mother's Day

Before I begin today's post I'm going to announce winner #2 of my $25 giveaway to my store. Everyone who purchased more then $5 from my store during the sale was entered into the drawing and the winner is Adriana (order #158319) Congrats! Thank you all for supporting me and I hope you enjoyed shopping and grabbing the freebies I had for you. There is still one on facebook right now and I'll also leave my template from my challenge up for a few more days in case you missed it. Oh and don't forget about my sneak peek & giveaway from yesterday....Tiff will be announcing that winner on Thursday.

Now, on to my Mother's Day......

My Mother's Day began on Saturday morning, celebrating iNSD alone, at home, by myself! Thanks to my wonderful hubby, I spent most of the morning shopping, designing and scrapping (although I only got one page done!) and then I even got to do a little bit more on Saturday afternoon while the kids played outside. I did get some templates designed....well, actually A LOT (and you'll be seeing them over the next month). It's amazing how much I can get done when I just have a few hours to focus.

Here's the page I scrapbooked on Saturday. Oh and I used the exclusive template I have on my facebook page right now. I posted it for iNSD and it will be there until I have another one for you! I used DeCrow Designs Amiable Kit.

Then on Sunday I told my hubby that I really wanted to go hiking. So he found a new spot that we had never hiked and we went hiking after going to church together. It really was the perfect Mother's Day. When I got home, after the girls were in bed, I scrapped a few pages about it. I chose a template from my Miscellaneous set I that had spots for big photos. Then I wanted to make a double pager, so I used the same template and rotated the layers. I kept the pages pretty simple. Since I had so many big photos on the pages, I didn't need a lot of elements (although it is hard not to use all those beautiful elements). I used the kit Seek Adventure from Tracie Stroud and DeCrow Designs and the word bits are from Tracie Stroud's kit Beauty in the World. I also used a screw from Julie Bullock's Stainless Alpha.

Here's the journaling if you are interested in how our hike went.

 For Mother’s Day I really wanted to go on a hike with my family and so that is what we did. Our destination was Glen Falls (about a 1 mile hike) but it was under construction when we got to the trail. There was another trail leading to the left called Chiquapin Mountain Trail. It did say that it was 3.6 miles round trip and “more difficult” and we debated on whether or not we could do it with the girls. We started it and figured we could turn around if we couldn’t do it. We ended up hiking the whole trail with a stop to play in the creek. The girls did awesome and we only heard, “I’m tired” a few times. I did end up carrying Kyla almost the whole way, with a few breaks to carry Emmie and yes, even Ashlyn! Oh and not to mention the 1 mile I ran with Kyla on my back because of a potty emergency (this is the part I will probably remember the most from our trip!). It was a beautiful trail with lots of fun things for the girls to see and then when we got to the top we got to see an amazing view. Even the girls agreed that it was worth the hike. It was a BEAUTIFUL Mother’s Day! Thank you God for giving me these precious children and for the beautiful world you’ve given us.

That was my Mother's Day. I hope you all had a wonderful day too.