This week’s Adobe Photoshop or Elements tip of the week is now available on video. This weeks tip is on Selecting and Changing All Text Layers at Once in Photoshop and PSE.
I’m working more and more on getting my kids involved in scrapbooking and I’m finding that hybrid projects are a great place to start. The kids still like the tactile part of scrapbooking and I have a ton of digital supplies - don’t we all?! - so why not combine the two?
I want my kids to help with my Project Life so I let them choose which digital products they like and we print them out on cardstock. Andrew liked this card from Ali Edwards’ Life Sentiment Cards Vol. 01 so we printed it out and trimmed it.
He added some other products that I had already printed and then journaled on his card.
The supplies he chose to add to Ali’s card are the Life is Good Labels Brushes and Stamps and a gray circle from Pinked Circles and he had a ball doing it!
And here’s his finished card! All digital supplies that we printed onto cardstock!
And I love the way he added “the story” to the gray circle - he’s seen some of the Designer Digitals’ products with that phrase and he added it on his own. Hybrid scrapbooking at its best!
The cool thing about a template with lots of spaces is how to fill those spaces. Do you fill them with pictures; do you fill them with paper; or do you fill them with a mixture of the two? When our Creative Team used Katie’s Creative Blocks Layered Template No. 01, each of us answered that question differently. Let’s take a look:
Julie (Julie DeGuia) used the spaces to showcase a collection of great instagram photos and placed her journaling in the larger rectangle. I love how her colorful photos pop on the white background paper, and she positioned her yellow pictures in a visual triangle to guide the eye through her page.
Credits: Creative Blocks Layered Template No. 01, Stitching Holes Borders Brushes and Stamps, Lars Solids Paper Pack, Staple Its
Lisa (Lisa Pate) chose to fill some of the spaces with paper and embellishments and some with cute photos of her son and his colorful Easter eggs. She placed his photo in the center, surrounded by accents that draw the viewer’s attention to him. Then she enclosed her design within a painted square border.
Credits: Creative Blocks Layered Template No. 01, Classic Cardstocks: Festive Brights Paper Pack, Egg Pebbles, Cut Ups: Springtime, Awarded Alphabet Brushes and Stamps, Just Linens Paper Pack No. 18, Finer Things No. 01 Slate Paper Pack, Finer Things No. 01 Buttercup Paper Pack, So Totally Happy Brushes and Stamps, Memory Circles Brushes and Stamps, Painted Borders and Grid Brushes and Stamps, 2011-2013 Date Stamps Value Pack, Bunny Paper Pack
I decided the fill the spaces with the gorgeous paper from the new Layla kit. The blues and greens were perfect for my daughter-in-law’s great shot of my grandchildren. I added brushwork and embellishments to create a diagonal line across my page.
Credits: Creative Blocks Layered Template No. 01, Graphic Pop Grunge Clusters Brushes and Stamps No. 02, With Words No. 01, Sweet St. Nicholas Element Pack, Blocked Out Photo Masks No. 07, Photo Corner Collection No. 03, Layla Kit, Siblings Brushes and Stamps, How’d They Do That? No. 13: Bending Shadows
My friends, you have a decision to make: is it going to be pictures, paper, or both? You can get the template for 30% off at the great template and paper pack sale until 6:00 AM Saturday. Post your page in the Template Challenge Gallery by 11:00 PM on Thursday, April 26 for a chance to win a $5 coupon code to the store. I can’t wait to see what you decide!
We are entering the final days of our Paper Pack and Template sale here at DesignerDigitals. Every Paper Pack and Template is on sale for 30% off except for last weeks new releases which are 20% off. That’s over 3,200 items marked down! These prices last like this until 6am EST on Saturday morning.
And we have a brand new item priced at just $ 99 cents! This new item will be priced like this until 6am EST on Saturday morning.
Today’s new item: Krafty Damask Paper Pack No. 01
I would like to take a moment and tell all of you ladies managing frenetic schedules of work, home, school, husbands, family and life in general: it’s ok if you’re behind on Project Life. Why can I say that? Because my family’s Project Life is not current. I’m about six weeks behind, but that’s about the limit I’ve set for myself. I think the idea of falling behind might scare some away from even taking on this project in the first place. But it doesn’t have to. It’s all about being organized, and that’s something anyone can do.
For our family, the journaling that narrates the photos, along with the quotes and other tidbits that we love rereading, are what make Project Life come alive. There are some great tools out there that can help anyone keep track of what’s happening as the stories unfold. That way, if you ever fall behind in the assembly of your project, you’ll find that all the information that you need to write your stories has been preserved. I take literally a couple minutes each day to jot down little facts of our days that I want to record in our album. A notebook isn’t very practical for me because I need my tool for recording with me at all times. That way, whether I’m at work, in the car, or at home, I can record the events as I think of them.
I started using the Day One app after reading about it on Cathy Zielske’s blog. It works beautifully for those with iPhones, iPads or a Mac. I can tap my note into my iPhone, and it will sync across all my devices. Here’s what the calendar view looks like:
Each date with an entry is blue. In the beginning, my journaling was spotty. Now I’m pretty consistent.
Another equally great app for those who use a Droid devices or Windows is Oh Life. This is a web based app that sends out reminder emails to journal. By responding to the email, your entry gets saved to their server. You can easily go to that entry, and add or edit later. It’s free, and it’s a beautiful thing!
I summarize each week with a journaling card. I’ve used a different style for each month. Here are some examples:
And one last thing to make life easy: organize your digital supplies. I use ACDSee, and have created a separate category for my Project Life supplies. I can quickly get to my journaling cards and word art, and anything else that I have tagged for Project Life. If you don’t use ACDSee, you could easily accomplish the same thing by organizing Project Life supplies in separate folders on your hard drive.
Keep it organized, work when you can, and keep it real.
Credits:
Cathy Zielske
Frame Journalers 1
Ali Edwards
Monogram 4x6 Journalers and Overlays
Andrea Victoria
Faux Bois: Woods Paper Pack
