Clean Look with a Verticle Stack

Same template, two different looks. The first is one of a two page layout. Choosing th papers was already done as I simply duplicated them.  I loved the three photos here as Nick was uncertain about this birthday cake thing and his expression changes from one to the next.

In this case, there is a single story but three very different pictures to help tell it. I love them both.
And how easy templates make digi scrapbooking.

Three Photos, One embellishment and beautiful papers

A story doesn't need to have a lot of photos. In one of the early Millar reunions, there were not too many. Still the story is told. One large photo of the group with several in the supporting cast, showcase a few of the weeks activities.

Single Photo Again

Even though this pic shows a nasty black eye,it tells the story of a perpetual motion machine at rest.

It is the same template as Pretty on Pink, changed up a bit by adding a vertical strip of contrasting paper. Digi Scrapping is the best because it is so fast and there is no mess.

A Single Photo Template: Pretty in Pink

I love this single photo template. Showcasing a special photo is what this is all about. With a few beautiful papers, it can look so elegant. I added the grey tag to balance the title and journaling.

Enter Caitlin Rose Millar

Nothing better than Brother Love. The boys went to Big Brother classes at the hospital. Nick is fascinated with all things Caitlin,including her tiny toes. You gotta love the smile of his. Drew, on the other hand, is more fascinated with the remote that makes the bed go up and down. Is this a sign of things to come? Precious memories!

Two Page Spreads

They are the best. You only need to pick one set of papers and embellies. The background paper is actually one piece with dots on the top and blending on the bottom. Love it! On the left side page I used a piee of word art from Tracy Ann Digital Designs. For the title on the right side., I selected the colors from the left word art and recolored a font. Easy Peasy! I love these images! Easter in 1990.

Fast Scrap

This is fast scrap at its best. Begin with a template, in this case I had two photos so chose a 2-photo template. Well DUH! Pull in the pics and clip them to the template. Choose a couple of papers, one for the background and one for the side bar. The striped paper mimics the boys shirts.The white card stock under the photos brings focus to the center. Then, of course, tell the story. That is what scrapping is about. I used  couple of brads that show the boys ages at this time. DONE!

Kitty-Kitty

It is not possible to keep everything that a child has loved along the way. Kitty-Kitty was with us for a very long time but then she wanted to move on. I chose to memorialize her by photographing her before she left. It is really fun to have these stories still.

Tractors, Boys and Blends

I love this technique. Photos with a nice central point but distracting backgrounds work well here. I did a million things to the photo of Drew and then placed him on a background that was just a tiny corner of another photo from this same day. It had the pumpkin patch but not all the weird things in it. I stretched it to make it larger and since it is a bit blurred, who would know. Love me some Photoshop and it's unlimited possibilities.

Quick Selection Tool

Our task was to use the Quick Selection brush to select the foreground image and separate it from the background. This was a new tool for me and boy o boy do I love it. With the foreground on it's own layer, the filter of choice could be applied to the layer beneath which is the background. I used a paint daubs filter to give the background a painterly effect. It is subtle but there nonetheless.

I separated the photo from the text block and chose this angled edge because I had some funky light bleed from the camera and now it is hidden.
Who knew? :)

Gotta love digi scrapbooking!!!!

A 4th Birthday

 This layout was done a few years ago in a class also by Jana Morton. I used my favorite picture for the focal point. The second layout tells the rest of the birthday story...the party and the tale of his very own Oreo cookies complements of his Aunt Rosemary.

Two page spreads are easy as the same products can be used in both.

The Seattle Space Needle

Here is a layout I did of the Seattle Space Needle. It looks like an ad. This filter technique is really cool!

Elaine vs Elena

I am also taking a blending class called Inspired Images by Jana Morton at Creative Passions Scrapbooking. Our first class assignment was to use Photoshop filters to grab the darker parts of an image and then eliminate the white portions. This effectively blends the image with the background selected. I did two different layouts. If anyone out there reads this blog, use the comments section below to let me know which you prefer.

OMG!

The Portland Trailblazers made it to the first round of the playoffs this year. This was totally awesome after a few years out. Houston had home court advantage because they had a better season record. However, the Blazers won the first two games in Houston. At home we split so we were up 3-1 but back to Houston where we lost the 5th game. In Portland with .9 (that's nine-tenths, folks)left on the clock we were down by 2. Batum was bringing the ball in to LA supposedly. LA was over covered and Lillard found a way to get free, received the ball, turned and let it rip. The clock ran out while the ball was in the air. SWOOSH the ball found its mark. Blazers win by 1. 99-98. Bye-bye to the Houston Rockets. Way to go, Damian and Rip City. This was the perfect kit to scrap this story. It's called OMG by Anna Aspnes.

Visiting Gramma

An autumn mini reunion in Chicago so Gramma could bond with her newest grandbaby. It looks like a lot of kid holding. Ashbrook holding Drew, Dad and Gramma holding Caite and kid Nick holding kid Caite. The weather was amazing and so was the visit.

Two page templates are really nice.

Brother Love

I made this right side page to go with "A New Kid in Town". I like the red inner border and decided that New Kid needed a slight change as well.

Here it is:
Same red border on the outer edge.
I like how it ties the two together.

The New Kid in Town

This photo was snapped right before we left the hospital to bring Caite home.

 Our task was to use tags down the side of the page.I found the tag that said "Fresh" and thought how appropriate for a new baby. I created the C tag by layering an alpha on top of a tag. 

I wanted to use pink as the background color for obvious reasons but chose a more salmon pink. Most of the tags were recolored by selecting from the photo and then moving away from the color ever so slightly.

I really like the "white space" in this layout.

Some-brellas

Caite and I are hamming it up with the sun umbrellas left at Sean and Michelle's wedding in South Africa.

My scrap task was to use ribbons. My supply of digi ribbons was dissected and these were chosen.

One of the things I love about digi scrapping is the ability to recolor objects as needed.It is so easy in Photoshop.

Hat Trick

The class I am taking is called Stashbusters. It was booked as a class for either paper or digital scrappers. The objective is too reduce our stash of supplies. Supply storage for digi scrappers is less evident than that of our paper scrapping friends.  I have been at digi scrapping since 2006 and have accumulated a vast amount of supplies. I am using this class to rediscover what I own and to eliminate the really old stuff.

Our project here was to take alpha stickers and use them as a mask for misting over with a thin paint to create a header. I looked for a digi paper that would be suitable. This one by Basic Gray does the trick for me, no pun intended.

I love this photo of the boys and remember these days as if they were yesterday.

Beaching

I have a lot of catching up to do to tell my family stories. One of the ways I do this is with templates. This one was designed by Anna Aspnes and can be found here.  I especially love her templates because they are artsy yet she has done all of the work. I load this template into Photoshop, rename it so I don't lose the original and then drag photos onto and clip them to the various spaces on the template. I can resize photos on the fly in PS. When all of the photos are in, I look for a digi paper that fits the theme and colors of the photo. In this case, I blended two of Anna's papers fro the Art Palette H2O kit. I added a slight hue adjustment which is as easy as sliding a bar. Next I dragged one of her scratch edges on to of the paper layer. Finally I add my story, date the event and BINGO, I am finished.

This is about a d ay spent with Nick at the several California beaches this past January. Love it!

Cousins and then some...

I remember this time like it was yesterday. My brother, SIL and niece Anne came for Caite's Baptism. Anne had not been around babies all that much and was fascinated. She followed me, well really the baby, around most of the time. I'm glad we snapped this photo as she looks so BIG holding this tiny baby. This is the 6th challenge for the Stashbusters class. The heart was to be filled with buttons. I chose a paper that resembled buttons and blended it with another for this deep pink color. I reduced the opacity to lighten the impact of the frame on the photo. The kit is Kristen Rice's Teen Spirit.

I love this memory.

Dandy Boys

I love a play on words, in this case with title and brush element in the layout. These are a couple of really cute photos I have of the boys and their dad and the boys with their cousins at the precious age of 3 and 4. I love their shyness and nothing better than 4 little boys all lined up in a row. Too sweet!

Crazy Mixed Up Get Up

This is the forth challenge in the Stashbusters class. We were to create a word tag border. The original template included a border of book plates but I find them unrealistic in digi work so I used some fun word art and a bunch of different frames instead.

Work

These are photos from When Nick was in a toddler pre-school program at Visitation Academy. It was a Montessori program and they learned real life skills such as cleaning windows. Too bad the skill and desire didn't last all the way through high school. LOL This is the third challenge in the Stashbusters class I am taking at Big Pictures. I adapted the template which was developed by our instructor Aly Dosall. I used paper from a digi kit by One Little Bird. I like the chevron and the beautiful bright colors of these papers.

At the Patch

I get a lot of scrapbooking done when I take a class. So sign me up. I am at Big Pictures taking a stash buster class but since my stash is mostly digital, I won't ever bust it but I am cleaning house and throwing things out. YEAH! These are some of my favorite pictures from this era.

Sun Glasses Required

This should be posted on Throwback Thursday but then again since I'm still scrapping 1989  they're all throwbacks. Glad I didn't throw them back. haha This was a Polaroid pic originally. A tad grainy but it is the memory. Gotta have it.

Snow Storm Hits Portland

It began at noon on Thursday and continued Friday and Saturday with gusty winds as well. I was home bound. Thank God for the Olympics, my fiber work and an occasional glass of wine. What's a girl to do?