Week 40: Sparklers, Tea Time & Food

Daily Life Templates 10 by Scrapping with Liz
#soselfie by mle Card Designs
#soselfie by Kristin Aagard
#soselfie by Meredith Cardall
#soselfie Papers by Meredith Cardall

Are we really already through Week 40 of 2014? That means we only have about 12 weeks to go! How are you doing on your scrapping challenges? I think maybe I've gotten over the hump and now I can finish strong. Don't worry if you are behind, just keep going. That's my motto.

Take a closer look at my Week 40 page (if you want to), and be sure to grab the free journal card template below.

Journaling: We found a stash of sparklers. Matthew wasn’t too sure about them, but we convinced him that it was safe....and then he loved it!

   Ashlyn and Emmie signed up to cook dinner for Wednesday night church. They picked the meal (chili) and cooked it all by themselves. It was a big hit. 

   I walked by Lydia and Emmie’s room one night and saw this happening. A tea party with all the kids. Definitely photo worthy. I don’t ever want to forget moments like this.

Journaling: The picture on the couch was taken one day right after we went to the library. The kids love to browse through all of their ‘new’ books when we get home. I just love this picture of Matthew and Lydia ‘reading’. 

   We eat around the dinner table every night (except Wednesdays at church). It’s one of my favorite times of the day. We get to sit down together, go over our day....and usually we have a lot of good laughs.

   I snapped this picture of Kyla climbing the ropes at NVG. Our co-op held a gym day for all the homeschoolers.

And here's your freebie:

*download expired*

-Liz

Mini Multi Overlay Tutorial

Tiff here! Liz's Mini Multi Templates is one of my favorite sets of templates. I've used this set several times to scrap holidays and school trips with lots of pictures.

 

Recently I was inspired to use one of these template with just a single photo, and I used the multiple grey photo spots as an overlay instead. The kits in this layout are Punkin Papers and Punkin Elements by creashens.

Today I'll show you how I made the overlay effect. I was working with Template #3 from Multi Mini Templates which has 12 photo clipping layers.

Step 1: Merge the 12 photo clipping layers into a single layer.  I selected all twelve of the photo layers in my Layers Palette and right-clicked to Merge the layers. You can also merge layers from the Layer Menu, or using the shortcut Ctrl-E (Photoshop CS4). Photoshop automatically named the combined layer as "Photo 12," which was the name of the top most photo spot.

Step 2: Duplicate the layer. The original copy serves as a clipping mask for my photo, while the duplicate (called "Photo 12 copy") serves as the overlay.

The following screen shot shows my layout with a view of the Layers Palette to the side. You can see the two copies of the merged photo spots. Layer "Photo 12" has my photo clipped to it. "Photo 12 copy" is turned off at the moment, so you just see my photo.

Now, if I turn on the visibility of "Photo 12 copy", it looks like this. My photo is hidden by the overlay.

Step 3: Change the blending mode of the overlay layer to Hard Light:

The overlay becomes transparent, and the various shades of gray result in different opacities. I thought of leaving the photo like this. It sort of veiled the picture, which was appropriate because the costume in the photo is still a work in progress. But the green in the picture clashed a bit with the colors of the kit, so I thought to add some color to the overlay.

Steps 4 & 5: Add a solid fill layer above the overlay and clip it to the overlay. Set the blending mode of the fill layer to Screen. I used the Layer drop-down menu to accomplish this (Layer --- New Fill Layer --- Solid Color) I chose an orange hue from the kit and then played around with darker or lighter shades. A dark shade gave me the look I wanted.

And there you have it.

To achieve the overlapping colors on the edges of the page, I placed solid papers on the edges (sort of "hanging off" the edges) and angled them. Then I changed their blending modes to Multiply or Linear Burn (I experimented with different blending modes to get the look I liked). If any of the overlap between two papers created too dark of a color, I simply erased parts of the paper.

-Tiff

Our Journey to Matthew: A Short Video

It's not a scrapbook, but it's how I've documented our journey to Matthew...at least for now. I've had so little time to scrapbook our trip to China. I've actually only scrapped 2 pages *insert sad face* from our trip, but I did make time to put together this little video of our journey to Matthew. I thought I would share it all with you since you guys were a big help in bringing him home. He's been home for 11 weeks and he's doing fantastic. We really couldn't have asked for a sweeter little boy. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

-Liz

Daily Life Week 39: Page and Freebie

Daily Life Templates 10 by Scrapping with Liz
Que Sera by Juno Designs

I picked up my camera more this week and had a lot of pictures to choose from. It was tough choosing which ones to use on my page, but I picked the ones that I felt captured our week the best. I didn't even use any phone pictures, aren't you proud of me?

Without further ado, I'll let you take a closer look. Oh, and yes, that would be my daughter wearing the same shirt in almost every photo and those pictures were taken on different days. She got some 'new' hand-me-downs and apparently she especially loves that shirt. I'm pretty sure it got washed in between....but maybe not.

Oh, and don't forget to grab the free Journal Card Template below.

Journaling: This week we spent a lot of time outside. The weather is beautiful right now. On Sunday we had a picnic with some friends. We walked around Black Rock Lake and fed the geese. At home the kids spent a lot of time “sledding” down piles of leaves. I guess they are ready for winter. The three older girls took a knitting class. Emmie and Ashlyn learned to knit a couple of years ago, but this really sparked their interest again and they’ve  been practicing full blast. They even taught Matthew how to knit! 

Journaling: Ashlyn served the winning point in this week’s Volleyball Game. Afterwards we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to celebrate and have pizza and roast marshmallows. On Saturday we went to a local RC Airshow. All of the kids got to try the FPV goggles and see what it looked like inside the mini airplanes.    And just a little park time at a new boating dock down by our house. I love all the silliness.

And here's your journal card. Just click the image to download. *download expired*

-Liz

A Few of My Other Pages

Besides my Daily Life Pages, I haven't scrapped a whole lot. But I have scrapped a few pages here and there that I don't think I've shared here with you on my blog.

So here goes....

I recently made a new Calendar Starter Template and Perpetual Calendar Template. I just had to try both of them out. I rarely scrap because of a template. I usually start with pictures that inspire me and I go from there to pick out the template I want to use....but with these I just needed to try them!

With the Calendar Starter Template I decided to use it as a 'Month in Review' type page. I used it to showcase pictures of our first month with our son....on our way to brig him home, in China and then home with him. I just love it! It's a good recap. 

Calendar Starter Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Life - July|Bundle by Juno Designs

Then with my Perpetual Calendar I wanted to make a list of Birthdays throughout the year. I thought it might look good printed and hung up somewhere in my house to remind me of upcoming Birthdays. What do you think?  *I did edit this template or posting on-line.

Perpetual Calendar Template by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Life - July|Bundle by Juno Designs

I'm slowly trying to catch up on my 2013 album. The next two double pages layouts are for that album. It's slow going, but I know I'll eventually finish the album.

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Pool Rules Bundle by Dream Big Designs

 Close up of the left and right page:

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Pool Rules Bundle by Dream Big Designs

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Pool Rules Bundle by Dream Big Designs

Finally into February 2013.

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Stargazer by Forever Joy Designs

 Another close-up:

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Stargazer by Forever Joy Designs

Bold Double Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Stargazer by Forever Joy Designs

 Here's to hoping there's more time for scrapping next month!
-Liz