A Baby Shower Inspired by a Digital Scrapbook Kit

I hosted another baby shower at my home in March. You guys know how much I love baby showers and how much I love incorporating digital scrapbooking into them.  My friends planned and cooked all the food and that left me with the invites and decorations. Yay! That's my favorite part.

We didn't have a specific theme for the party. We just knew that it was going to be a baby girl. So I went to my local digital scrapbook store, Scrap Orchard, for some inspiration. ;) I found this kit from Tracie Stroud and I loved the colors.....I especially love her designs for party inspiration. If you don't believe me, then check out this post.

Kit No Longer Available

So I grabbed this kit and started with my invitation. Here's my 5x7 invite (with edited text). I used a few different fonts that I had and I grabbed the colors from the kit and used some paper at the bottom of the invite.

Here's the printed invite. I used Persnickety Prints. I love that you can get envelopes with your prints.

I also made up these little 4x6 printables. I thought it would be fun to have some cards that guests could fill out with either a prayer or a word of encouragement for the mom and baby.

Not the best photo but you get the picture.

And then I made these baby prediction cards. I found this idea on Pinterest and just made one up to match the invite and blessing cards. I printed both the baby predictions and blessing cards out on my home printer.

 

Then I made these little 3x4 inch food tags. I made a whole bunch of tags, put them all on one 8.5x11 sheet in Photoshop and then printed that sheet out on my home printer. Then I cut them out and folded them in half, easy-peasy (my kind of hybrid). 

Here are a few more photos from the shower.

The little table with all the cards on them.
You can see the little banner I made below. I used my Mini Hybrid Banner Templates to make it.

Since it was spring I  got some fresh flowers that matched the invitations and put them in different sized jars all over the house.

Food!
Thanks to Nicole for coordinating all the food and for all the friends who helped prepare it. 

And a big thank you to my sister Amanda for making a beautiful cake.
If you are in the Western North Carolina area you should check her out.
Creative Confections by Amanda.

I'm sure you can find some inspiration for a party from one of your digital scrapbook kits!

-Liz

How Far I've Come

When I was in Vegas hanging out with my digital scrapbooking friends we got to talking about how far we've come as digital scrapbookers. Some of us even found some of our first pages. We talked about how we got started, where we bought stuff (or didn't), and what some of our biggest mistakes were.

I thought it might be fun to show you some of my very first pages and explain a little bit of how my digital scrapbooking has changed over the years.

This is the VERY first digital scrapbook page I EVER made! Made in the spring of 2008. I made it with freebies that I found online, no template and photoshop elements 5. Can you believe I didn't use a template? As you can see I liked double pages back then as much as I do now and I almost always added journaling to my pages. You can see my traditional scrapbook side come out in my digital pages.

I *think* these papers and elements might have been from Scrap Girls but I'm not sure.

I just slapped on the standard paper shadow that is included in Photoshop Elements.  As you can see all of my papers, photo and elements all have the same shadow. I think this is probably where I've come the farthest. Shadow work is key!

Oh and not to mention my hair. I've been growing it out for four years now and it doesn't look anything like that photo!

Okay, this page was made about a month after that first page above. This was my first time EVER using a template. A friend had told me about them so I thought I should give them a try. This was a freebie as well...actually everything you see in my first year's pages were freebies that I found online. You can see I even left on some of the element placement stamps from the template!  Ack! I enjoyed using the template because it made placing my photos and paper so much easier but the problem I had with using someone else's template was that I LOVED laying out the page. This is when I started making my own templates.

I *think* this template was from Andrea Gold....but again I'm not quite sure.

This page was scrapped at the end of 2008. You can see my progression in just 8 months. A little better with my shadows and photo treatments. I was still using freebies! I believe I made this template?

This is where I got this kit. Good to know she's still designing.

This page was scrapped at the end of 2009 with one of my first purchased kits! I also had made this template. I think my scrapping skills stayed about the same for a year.

Chillin' out Kit from Vera Lim, Mira Designs & Mag Designs from Shabby Pickle
Circle, Circle, Circle Temps

This is at the end of 2010. I had been selling my templates at Scrap Orchard for almost a year at this point and I believe my digital scrapbooking dramatically improved in that year. I think it was from using more high quality purchased kits BUT the big thing was participating in challenges and asking questions in the forum, seeing how other people scrapped, etc... Up until I joined Scrap Orchard I hadn't "joined" a scrapbooking forum or store. I think it's a good idea to get involved somewhere where people can help and encourage you.

Dear Diary By Tracie Stroud and Vera Lim
Zine Style Templates

And this is the last page I scrapped in 2011. I've grown to LOVE frames and buttons.

Background Starter Temps
Magical Christmas by Jady Day Studio and Flergs
Some frames from My Girl by Jady Day Studio

So you can see how I've come over the last four years.  I still scrap pretty simply, I still use a lot of photos on my pages, I still love double pagers and I still include journaling. The things I've changed over the years: shadowing, BUYING kits, & finding a store to fit into. I think all of these things have helped me become a better scrapper. Especially the store thing. I think being involved in a store and their forum and challenges will really help you become a better digital scrapbooker and I know the perfect store if you need one.   ;)

-Liz

Digiscrapapalooza Recap

It's been a week and a half since I've been back from Digiscrapapalooza and I'm finally getting around to looking through some pics. I thought it might be fun to share some photos with you.  Some of these are from others who took photos and some of them are my own. I ended up not taking a lot of photos because I was having too much fun with my friends and there were so many others taking photos that I knew there would be plenty to go around. 

It was in sunny Las Vegas again this year.

There were lots of wonderful sponsors.

There were team events on Thursday night to get things started. I was part of Team White and we rocked!
Here's a group hug.

I was privileged to help in Katrina Kennedy's photo class. She even told everyone she loves my templates.
Squeeee!

Cheryl (from Fiddle Dee Dee Designs) and I were traveling partners. We flew to Vegas together. She's a hoot!

Suzy Q, Cheryl and I being goofy.

A not so goofy pic of us three again.

Me, Rachel (from Captivated Visions), Suzy Q, Emily (from mle Card Designs), Cheryl (from Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs), Meredith (from Meredith Cardall Designs) and Lynsday (from Lyndsay Riches Designs).
There were so many other fabulous designers there! I couldn't believe I got to hang with them all.

Steph and I from the Daily Digi. :)

And here is a picture of the live taping of The Digi Show. I'm on the very end.

If you would like to listen just click on the image below and it will take you to The Digi Show Web page where you can listen. Disclaimer: I am not Liz Moss (bwahaha!) Inside joke.

And if you go to the Scrap Orchard forum you can see the video we made to kick of Digiscrapapalooza 2012. You'll see me in the first one...although I'm not sure I want to admit it.

I had so much fun meeting people in real life that I already felt like I knew. It was especially fun to meet the people on my team...Tracy, Kimberley, Jenn, and Judie (who I met last year)! It was really cool to hang out with people who understand this whole digital scrapbooking thing.

That's it for now. I'm hoping to scrap some of these photos soon.
-Liz