February Pages & More

Today I'm going to start by showing you what I scrapped this month, and then I'm going to show you some pages I scrapped a while ago but I couldn't show you because the templates hadn't been released yet.

Here goes. 

Here's a page I scrapped of our last day in 2012.
Using Now Showing Templates and other Now Showing Products from the Scrap Orchard Designers.
Then the rest of my time scrapping I spent focusing on doing some more pages for Lydia. I'm trying really hard to get a lot of our pics from China scrapped.

From my February Blog Challenge and Moments Like This by Sugary Fancy Designs

Using More Double Templates, Great Escape by WMSquared and Leavin' on a Jet Plane by Jenn Barrette and Laura Banasiak.

Big Photo Fun Templates and Leavin' on a Jet Plane by Jenn Barrette and Laura Banasiak

Big Photo Fun Templates and Leavin' on a Jet Plane by Jenn Barrette and Laura Banasiak
Here are some pages I scrapped back in November and December (2012) when I was working really hard to finish up my 2011 album. I made a lot of these pages and then turned them into templates later on. I had such a hard time keeping my layouts to myself!

Using More Double Templates, Fall Splendor (the bundle) by WMSquared, Chrome Alpha by Dream Big Designs, Krafty Paper Bundle by Happy Scrap Girl, and Sticker Bits Alpha by Tracie Stroud Designs.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1 and Hip Holiday by Bella Gypsy Designs.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1, Hip Holiday by Bella Gypsy Designs, and My Favorite Things Alpha by Ziggle Designs.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1, Hip Holiday by Bella Gypsy Designs, and My Favorite Things Alpha by Ziggle Designs.
And this is probably one of my favorite layouts of all. I had several "leftover" pictures from 2011. They were pictures that I really wanted to scrap but I didn't necessarily want to scrap a whole page for each picture. So I came up with this!

Using More Double Templates, Carefree Bundle by Amanda Heimann Designs and then a few various elements from other kits found over at Scrap Orchard.


Hope that inspires you to just keep scrappin' along with those photos.
-Liz

Making Your Own Titles


I love digital scrapbook alphas but sometimes I want a quicker way to make a title on my page. On the page below I have two titles. Today I'm going to show you how I made the cloisonne title. I'll show you how I made the lunch title in a later blog post.

Just a note: I'm working in Photoshop CS3. I believe most of the things I'm doing here are achievable in photoshop elements.

2 in 1 Templates 
Chinese Takeout by mle Card
Krafty Papers by Happy Scrap Girl
Step 1: Type out your title and pick a font that you like. Preferably one that is a little thicker. I used Sail for my font.

Step 2: Put a digital paper on top of your text layer and clip it to your title. Ctrl+alt+G for Photoshop and Ctrl+G for Elements.

Step 3: Go to your your layer palette and double click on your text layer. Your layer style box should pop up. From there you can play with your shadow and inner shadow settings.

These are the settings I used for my title:

My Drop Shadow - Pretty much a normal shadow.

The Inner Shadow - Make sure you play with the blend mode. I chose Hard Mix for this particular title.
Adding an inner shadow is just one way to make a custom title.

There's another way I like to use as well and it's by adding a stroke. You can see how I did that on the title below.

This template will be releasing tomorrow!
Great Escape by WMSquared
Leavin' On a Jet Plane by  Laura Banasiak and Jenn Barrette

Use the same steps as above but instead of adding an inner shadow, play with the stroke style instead. On this page, I used Pacifico as my font.

Here are my stroke settings. 
Play around with all of the different settings until you get your desired look. Make sure you have that Preview Button checked so that you can see the changes to your title as you are playing with the settings. You can also change the color of the stroke by clicking on the color box.

These are some of my favorite ways to make my own custom titles. I also like to apply styles to my text but I'll save that tutorial for another day. Hope this helps adding a title to your page a little bit easier.

-Liz

Easy DIY Photo Frame


I'm here today to show you a fun, easy and fairly cheap way to make a unique photo frame. I was at Lowe's with the hubby and I saw this ceiling medallion and I immediately thought, photo frame. I snatched it up (I think it was about $20), and then I went to the spray paint section and picked out a light blue spray paint. I went home and it sat in my garage for a couple of weeks.

Finally, I had some time to spray paint it. While it dried I opened up photoshop and made a circle mask with the same dimensions of the circle in the medallion. I think it had a 4.5 inch diameter. I found my photo, edited it a bit and then clipped it to my mask. I printed it out from my home computer with some cardstock and then just cut the circle out. The quality of the print isn't the best but it works for now. I taped it to the medallion (after it was completely dry) and hung up my new frame.


What do you think? I love my new frame and I especially love the little pic that is in the center of it.


-Liz

Valentine's Card & Chalkboard

I'm here today with just a quick post. I told you I would show you my monthly chalkboard and my printed Valentine's Card and that's what I'm here to show you today.

Since this month is all about LOVE, my board had to be about LOVE...the one True LOVE and if you don't know Who that is I'm more than willing to tell you. I also had my girls make a little banner to go on my board. I'm learning that I like a little more than just the lettering on the chalkboard. For December I used a wreath, for January I used snowflakes and then for February I used the banner. I also tried a little bit of fancy scroll work in the corners. It's okay, I guess, and now that I'm looking at the picture my word 'first' is a little crooked. Oh well, I'll be changing it again in a few weeks. My problem is that I don't know what I'll do for March. Any ideas?


And here's the printed card from Persnickety Prints. I really like how they turned out...simple, but cute. I'm hoping all the grandparents enjoy them.


That's it for this week's DIY post. I'll be back again for something new next week.

-Liz

Valentine's Day FREEBIE!

Happy early Valentine's Day!

Here's a freebie you can use for a digital scrapbook page, a card, or maybe even a hybrid project. Click on the image to download!



-Liz

DIY Chalkboard, Lettering Using Photoshop & Digi Chalkboard Pages

As you can see from some of my previous Saturday DIY posts I've recently been updating some spots around my house. In December I decided it was time for a little upgrade in my dining room. You can see from this post what my dining room wall use to look like.  We've recently started doing more school work upstairs and I needed more shelving space for books and school supplies. The little bookshelf I had in the dining room just wasn't cutting it. I knew that if I bought new, bigger shelves that I would want something on the wall that would cover a little more space to balance things out. The current wall display just wasn't going to cut it...even though it was one of my favorite walls in the house. For those of you wondering if I got rid of those silhouettes, I didn't. I added them to a different gallery wall I have in my house. 

One day I was browsing a local antique store and I saw a schoolhouse chalkboard. Immediately I decided I wanted a chalkboard in my dining room. Since the one in the antique store was too expensive, I came home and started looking online for chalkboards. I couldn't find anything that I liked or that was in my budget. I decided to make my own and here's how:

1. Purchased a piece of cabinet grade plywood. It's a lot smoother and the finish turns out nicer than a regular piece of plywood. My dad and brother own a Building Surplus Store. Score!
2. Painted the plywood with chalkboard paint. I already had some from a previous project. So no money there.
3. Purchased thin trim and stained it a dark color.
4. Had my handy dandy husband cut and nail the frame directly onto the board.
5. Used drywall anchors to hang up the chalkboard. We put screw directly through the chalkboard and then painted over them with chalkboard paint.

My hubby tells me that this is staying with the house if we ever sell it.....whatever!



I really love it! The next step was decorating it. My plan, right now, is to decorate it each month with some new chalkboard lettering. I found this awesome tutorial over at in my own style. She also provides some links to free fonts that are perfect for Chalkboard Lettering. The only thing I did differently was that I sketched out my lettering in photoshop. In Photoshop I opened up a new document that was the same ratio as my chalkboard, used some different fonts to plan out my chalkboard art (I tried to use at least 3 fonts) and I played around with it until I liked it. Then I took my laptop over by the chalkboard and went to work using the directions from the tutorial over at in my own style.


So far I've decorated two boards. One in December and one in January. My 8 year old made some snowflakes and she thought they would look good on the board. I agreed. Then my hubby had to come in and inform us all that snowflakes have 6 sides and he had to show us how to do this. His is the big one in the middle...with 6 sides.


I'm going to try and share each month's chalkboard with you throughout the year.


And here's a little card I made for Valentine's Day to give to the grandparents and such. I ordered 4x6 cards from Persnickety Prints. I'll be showing you the printed card next week.
Using the February Scrap Orchard Mega, Chalked Frames by Chelle's Creations and Chalked Boards by Chelle's Creations.
Either way I hope this inspires some more creativity either in your home or your scrapbook pages.
-Liz
© Scrapping with Liz
Maira Gall