Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Grids

Many layouts that I'm drawn to use grids.  Maybe it's the organizer in me but I love the look of a place for everything and everything in its place.

This is a little busy for a grid layout but once I started, I just couldn't stop fiddling with it.  Maybe I overdid it a little.  Maybe.

At first, all I had was the white embossed circle grid with the photo on top and the journaling around the edges.  I reasoned that I didn't want to add too much because the quality of the photo wasn't great and there were lots of colors in the photo.  But I knew it wasn't quite right.

That's when I consulted my personal graphic designer (a.k.a. the husband).  Now just for the record, he didn't tell me I needed to throw up buttons and bling and glitter.  He just said, "it needs color".  I probably should have had him elaborate.  I didn't.  He didn't.

So if I went overboard, it's totally on me.  No reflection of him, okay? LOL.

My daughter does like it, and does like reliving the story.  With more practice, my grid layouts will look and feel more natural.  I have to master this. ;)  Because, again, I love grids.

Well, that's it.  My last project in the Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp.  My goal was to  complete and post every single drill.  And I did!  Card making is much easier for me than scrapbooking.  But I learned so much and can't wait to re-read and re-watch each drill to become a better designer, element maker, story teller and photo editor.  If you didn't sign up this time, make sure you do the next time it's offered.  Ella rocks!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Extracting Inspiration

This drill was a bit harder for me.  Sometimes it's hard for me to translate something I see to a layout.  Okay, it's pretty much ALWAYS hard for me to do that.  Unless I'm being literal with whatever text, embellishments or sketch I see.

I know I'm going to have to read Lisa Dickinson's Bootcamp PDF and watch the video several more times before it starts to click, but it was awesome!  She has some mad, mad skills, that girl.

I wish I could say that someday I'll be like her, but that would require continued education in graphic design, of which I have no ambition for right at the present.  Good thing I'm married to a graphic designer.

I heard Angie Lucas mention on a recent Paperclipping Roundtable that she consults her graphic designer husband when she feels stuck on a layout. DUH!  Why haven't I been taking advantage of that resource all this time!  Well, I for sure have corrected that mistake.  I consulted him (okay, not Angie's husband, but mine) for the very first time on a layout this week and he was very helpful.  Who knew?  I've converted him to gardening and now am wrapping my scrapbooking fingers around him. Bwahaha.

Okay that sure was a long, drawn out side trip.

For Lisa's drill of extracting inspiration, I wanted to incorporate elements from something I see everyday.  So when I logged into the computer a couple of days ago and saw these circle elements on our log in screen, I knew I wanted to use them.  But I had originally planned on being pretty literal and use the circles to house some flowers.

Inspiration: Log-in screen on my Mac.

But I just wasn't feelin' it.  Then I saw a layout by Linda Barber and knew I could use those circle elements as a starting point for a sketch.

I knew I liked the idea of the different patterns and colors in each section and I also liked how they were in a line.  So here's what my inspiration turned into.  A line of different colors and patterns:

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Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - The Eyes Have It!

Before

After

NOTE:  Two posts in one day (or maybe 3....or 4 since I'm THIS CLOSE to being done with my Bootcamp drills.....scroll down for today's birthday card!

Wow am I learning some fun new photo editing techniques from Maggie Holmes!  I didn't even KNOW you could brighten eyes.  You have to be careful with this one, though.  Too much brushing of the eyes and your subject looks like they should be sleeping in a coffin and steering clear of garlic!

I decided to use this photo because my daughter is convinced she has green eyes.  I wanted to show her just how wrong she is! LOL  Actually she does have a few greenish flecks that are more apparent when she wears green.  But for the most part, they are blue to grey-blue.  She has beautiful eyes.  This is a subtle change that can make a lot of difference.

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Guiding Principles

Who knew you could organize your guiding principles in just 10 minutes?  Well, that's just what I did thanks to some really great prompts from Angie Lucas.  These are values that really describe me and my family and what we believe in.  A couple are inside jokes to us, which makes it even more personal.  I want my kids to be able to internalize these guiding principles so instead of putting this layout away in an album, I've chosen to make it part of our home decor.  I'm going to frame it and put it up in a central part of our home.  So here's my question to you.  Should I do a black frame or a turquoise frame?  Cast your vote in the comments!

Thanks for joining me at the Table tonight!

Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Emboss Resist

Yes, Bootcamp is officially over but thankfully I still have a few more days to post my projects!

While emboss resist isn't a new thing to me, I've never incorporated it into a layout before.  I thought this technique would lend itself to a Halloween theme.  The white embossing powder didn't like the black ink...or maybe it liked it too much.  I had a hard time wiping the black ink off.  I might have to try a different brand of embossing powder next time to see if that makes a difference.

This was a fun layout to put together.  Thanks, Nichol, for another great lesson!

And thanks to you, Ella, for a fun, inspiring, educational week! 

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Connective Journaling

This was hard.  This is an uncomfortable story for me to tell.  But this is something I want my kids to know.  To not assume you know what you know.  To be loving and accepting.  Just like their Grandma.  As Angie Lucas talked about connecting one experience to another, I knew this was the story I wanted to tell in a layout.

Thanks for joining me at the Table today.

Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - 4 photo tricks

Before

After

I told you I had fallen behind on my Bootcamp drills so I'm taking advantage of a Saturday afternoon to play.  So, yes, this is my second post of the day and there might be one or two more posts before the day is over.  These photos are from Maggie Holmes' Four Photo Tricks drill.  She is so good!  This one was a little harder than the Urban one for me.  And this is actually the fourth photo I've tried to adjust.  The other photos still didn't look as good as hers after the tweaking.  Maybe I just need a new camera.  That probably would help.  But I really do like how the colors just pop in this after photo.  You don't realize how flat your photos look right out of the camera until you start adjusting them.  This has been so fun for me to step out of my Photoshop comfort zone!

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Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Before & After Urban

I'm so not a digital scrapbook girl.  Photoshop in any form scares me.  But, I'm REALLY loving Maggie Holmes' photo trick drills.

This one involves an Urban look.  I opened up my free Photoshop Elements 9 trial, followed her easy step-by-step tutorial and Voila! a quick urban-ized photo.  That was fun!  It might even make me want to purchase the full version and buy actions and tutorials and become a real digital girl....whoah there, Nellie.  One step at a time.

Before

After

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Ella Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Scrapbook Stamping

Good morning!

I feel like I'm falling WAY behind in my participation with Ella's Scrapbooking Bootcamp so I thought I'd combine a few different drills into one layout.  I'm determined to do every. single. drill.

All these drills are from the mega-talented Nichol Magouirk.  She makes it all look so easy and her layouts and cards are so flippin' amazing!

So you can see my heart background there.  After I stamped it in all those yummy colors, it looked way too bright to me so to tone it down a bit, I added some vellum over the top so that my photos wouldn't get lost.

I then stamped that text border at the bottom.  Nichol does that a lot on her layouts and I love the look.

She also is famous for incorporating stamping into her journaling.  I didn't want to use my own handwriting for this one but, alas, my big computer was being commandeered by sons playing RuneScape or Bio Shock or something like that, so I just pulled out my black pen and started writing.

The last part was to stamp accents, which would be those cute little "YOU", "ME", "US" tags.

So there you have it.  There's a lot going on in this little layout, but I'm pretty happy with it.  And it made my husband smile and get just a teensy bit teared up.  That's what counts. :)

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Ella's Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Patterned Paper Drill

NOTE:  Don't forget to scroll down to see today's Birthday card!

I know with a pesky thing like A JOB I won't be able to complete the drills in Bootcamp as quickly as I'd like , but I'm determined to complete every single one.  It's been so fun! This layout is for Lisa Dickinson's drill.  She taught us some really great principles of combining different patterned paper.  As I look at this photo, I can see that the blue patterned paper piece should have been a little longer, but I really like how this layout turned out.  And yes, this is a less than stellar photo of my layout and even more, a less than stellar photo of my mom-in-law.  Maybe I'll use it in Maggie Holmes photo drill.  My trial version of Photoshop Elements 9 is downloading as we speak I type!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!

Ella's Scrapbooking Bootcamp - Grammar Free Journaling

NOTE:  Two posts in one day?! Scroll down to see today's Birthday card :)

Yesterday was the first day of Ella's Scrapbooking Bootcamp 2011.  Should exercise be fun?  Of course! This exercise of grammar-free journaling was super fun and interesting.  I had been wanting to do a layout comparing the similarities and differences about my kids for quite a while now but wasn't sure how to go about it.  Angie Lucas gave some great suggestions and I chose to use the comparison chart.  It worked perfectly!

Thanks for joining me at the Table today!